| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AMBLER, Pa. - The No.25 Penn State men's soccer team suffered its first loss of the 2015 season, falling to Temple University, 2-0, in the first road match of the year Friday, Sept. 4.
Temple controlled the pace for much of the match taking 16 shots, seven of which landed on goal, while Penn State mustered up just five shots in the contest. Freshman Mac Curran (York, Pa.) led the Nittany Lion offense with two shots on goal. Redshirt-senior goalkeeper Matt Bersano (Tempe, Ariz.) made five saves on the afternoon and Temple keeper Alex Cagle secured the second shut out of his career, making three saves.
With the loss, Penn State falls to 1-1-1 overall on the season, while Temple improves to 2-0-1 overall.
The Nittany Lions were the first to threaten when Riley Grant (Copley, Ohio) found himself an open shot at the six-minute mark, but Temple responded quickly with a strike of its own when it moved down the field.
For the first time this season, Penn State saw itself trailing early in the match. The Owl offense tested the Nittany Lion defense when Carlos Moros Gracia fired a shot on net. Bersano was unable to hold onto the ball as the rebound trickled out and Justin Stoddart found the top right corner of the goal, which allowed Temple to take the 1-0 lead at the 10-minute mark of the match.
Penn State looked to knot the score in the remaining five minutes of the half when Connor Maloney (Harrisburg, Pa.) rushed down the field, but was quickly pushed to the outside before he could get a shot off.
Temple dominated the first half offensively, taking eight shots, three of which landed on goal. Grant took Penn State's lone shot of the half, while Bersano made two saves for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State was the first to threaten in the second half when back-to-back corner kicks allowed the Nittany Lions to take a shot. Curran gave Penn State their second opportunity in the half when he headed the ball after a free kick, but Cagle was there to make the save.
Again, Temple capitalized on its first shot attempt of the half when the Owls offense caught the Nittany Lions defense off-guard. Bersano came out of the box in attempt to kick the ball out of the backfield, but misplayed the ball as a shot from Jorge Gomez Sanchez found the back of the net to give Temple a 2-0 lead in the 55th-minute.
The Nittany Lions threatened in the 73rd-minute of the match when Curran saw Cagle out of place and took a hard shot at the net. Cagle quickly found his ground and was able to make the diving save to keep his shutout alive.
Despite allowing two goals, Bersano remained strong in net, making two big saves for Penn State before Mason Klerks blocked a hard-shot just outside the 18-yard box in the 77th-minute of the match.
The Nittany Lions made their way down the field before the ball was passed up to Christian Kashak (York, Pa.), who took his first shot of the season outside of the 18-yard box. The ball sailed over the net as Temple continued to lead 2-0 in the closing 12 minutes of the match.
Penn State saw a second opportunity following Kashak's shot when Sam Bollinger (State College, Pa.) entered the match and belted a shot from the top of the box. The shot barely missed the right post, going wide in the 80th-minute.
The Nittany Lions were unable to produce any further offense as time wound down, suffering a 2-0 loss to the Owls.
Penn State will return to Happy Valley Tuesday, Sept. 8 when it takes on James Madison at Jeffrey Field. Match time is for 6 p.m.