Owls top Lafayette in bounce-back victory

Temple didn’t need its usual late-game heroics to beat Lafayette College on Saturday. The Owls won, 17-7, thanks in large part to a 10-0 goal run that extended from the first to the second half.

Junior midfielder Nicole Tiernan, who notched her second consecutive hat trick against the Leopards, opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game. Lafayette responded with a 4-1 run that put it up by two goals with just under 11 minutes left in the half.

It was all Owls from there on out. Junior midfielder Megan Tiernan’s first goal of the game at 10:40 started a streak of 10 goals that blew the game open. Within that stretch, eight different players scored, including two from junior Megan Tiernan, two from junior attacker Avery Longstaff and one from freshman attacker Nicole Barretta.

The streak ended when Lafayette sophomore attacker Ashley Tedesco scored with 18:52 left in regulation. After surrendering its first goal in almost 22 minutes, Temple ended the game on a 5-2 run, clinching the 17-7 win and its fourth win on the season.

The Owls’ dominance of possession marked a critical factor in the game, as they secured 19 draw controls after struggling in that department in its blowout loss to Cornell last weekend.

Temple (4-1) will travel to New York next week to play Wagner College in Staten Island on Wednesday and Iona College in New Rochelle on Friday.

-Matt Cockayne