The men’s soccer team will face an unfamiliar Atlantic 10 Conference opponent Friday afternoon.

After leaving the Horizon League at the end of the 2011 season, Butler will face Temple for the first time as conference rivals.

Although the Bulldogs will bring a 3-6-4 overall record and a 1-3 conference record into Ambler, coach Dave MacWilliams believes Butler is a much better team than the standings indicate.

“We know they’re a very tough team,” MacWilliams said. “We have scouts on them and we see it in game film. They’ve played a very hard schedule. I’ve been telling my players all week that we shouldn’t look at their wins and losses because they’ve played a much harder schedule.”

MacWilliams seems to be right on point with that. In fact, the teams that Temple has beaten this year (Manhattan, St. Peter’s, Howard, Rider, St. Bonaventure, Duquesne, and UMass) are a combined 20-66-5. Although they’ve certainly succeeded in beating inferior teams, they’re inability to beat more formidable opponents remains troubling.

“We’ve talked about it,” MacWilliams said. “We have to beat teams that have a higher winning record. I presented that challenged to the guy’s this weekend because we’re facing two of the top teams in the A-10.”

With Friday’s game against Butler and Sunday’s match-up against No. 23 St. Louis, MacWilliams believes an upcoming weekend of tough soccer will give a good indication of where the Owls are as a team.

“We’ll know at the end of the weekend where we stand,” MacWilliams said. “It’s going to be a measuring stick for all of us.”

Temple is currently in sole possession of first place in the A-10 with an overall record of 7-4-1 and a conference record of 3-0.

The game against Butler will get started at 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Ambler Sports Complex.

-Tyler Sablich