Turnovers topple Temple; Owls fall to Drexel 19-11 for first loss

By: Sean McMenamin

Photo: Christian Angelini

Temple women’s lacrosse fell to Drexel 19-11 in a city matchup to lose their first game of the season and drop their first-ever game against Drexel.

“I think Drexel really played a really nice game and we knew that they were going to be a tough opponent,” said head coach Bonnie Rosen. “They did exactly what they needed to do to control the game.”

Prior to this matchup, Temple had scored 17 goals in each of their first two games but failed to reach that mark in this one as they were outscored in both halves.

The Owls edged the Dragons winning 17 draws. Temple led the turnover category with 23 turnovers, and only posted 23 shots to Drexel’s 31.

“Turnovers, unforced turnovers are really painful,” coach Rosen said. “I think that is on the top of the list of things we need to be able to do better, decision making with the ball. And just a lot of those turnovers were offensive and unforced in nature.”

Drexel’s Corinne Bednarik, Colleen Grady, and Jamie Schneidereith each scored four goals in the game and led the way for the Dragons in their fourth win of the season to remain unbeaten.

“They got to goal, I think each of their kids played their roles really well and I think we were prepared for what they were going to do,” coach Rosen said. “But we just hadn’t seen it and we have some inexperience we’re trying to get up to speed on the defensive end a little bit.”

Drexel took the lead in this one just 17 seconds into the game thanks to a goal from Courtney Dietzel. The Owls then scored two unanswered goals from Belle Mastropietro and Jen Rodzewich to take the 2-1 lead. Both of those goals were assisted by Meghan Hoffman.

The Dragons quickly fired back with four goals of their own including two from Collen Grady to take a commanding 5-2 lead. Drexel would not relinquish this lead for the remainder of the game.

“I think this was the first game we had where we were playing from behind a little bit,” coach Rosen said. “I think they just came out sharper, they did a fantastic job on the draws early on and those adjustments were hard for us. We kind of got hit on all ends of the field initially just being a step behind everything.”

Hoffman and Rodzewich struck back with two goals to make it a one point game however, Drexel netted three consecutive goals to extend their lead to four.

Mastropietro and Gabrielle Kirsch notched goals prior to a Drexel goal that would give them the 9-6 lead heading into halftime at Howarth Field.

The second half rolled around and Rodzewich recorded a goal to cut it to a two goal game. Following this goal, the Dragons went on a 7-1 run to earn a 16-8 lead with 12:01 remaining.

After Drexel’s 11th goal, goalkeeper Shana Hecht was taken out for Eryn Beal in hopes of saving more shots on goal and spurring a comeback.

“It’s always a tough decision to make changes in the goalkeeping world,” coach Rosen said. “The balls were going in and we needed some saves, and we figured we would change it up. And I thought while Eryn didn’t make all the saves, she came in and she started to make some saves for us and that’s all we can ask.”

Mastropietro and Mackenzie Roth injected some life into Temple with their goals to cut it to 16-10, but Drexel bagged three of the next four goals to clinch the 19-11 victory and improve to 4-0 on the season.

Mastropietro scored four goals in the contest to record her third hat trick in the team’s three games this season. Rodzewich also notched a hat trick as she scored her first three goals of the 2021 season.

Temple will look to bounce back against Towson University on Wednesday, March 10th at 3:00 p.m. at Howarth Field.

“We just have to go back to the fundamentals,” coach Rosen said. “Our offense needs to move the ball a little bit better. We have to be able to feed the cutters and not just look for our one v one opportunities. Defensively, we just need to continue to get more sound in our one v one defense and our slide packages.”