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Sept. 27, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's soccer team was unable to come away victorious against the Temple University Owls in a mid-week non-conference match Tuesday, Sept. 27 at Jeffrey Field. The Nittany Lions (4-4-1) fell 1-0 when a goal from the Owls (6-3-0) happened in the final six minutes of play.
Senior Connor Maloney (Harrisburg, Pa.) led the Blue and White offensively with four shots, two of which landed on goal, while Dayonn Harris (Ontartio, Canada), Riley Grant (Copley, Ohio) and Aymar Sigue (St. Albert, Alberta) all had two shots on net for the Nittany Lions. Redshirt-junior Evan Finney (San Francisco, Calif.) suffered the loss in goal, making five saves on the night and giving up one goal.
Jorge Sanchez Gomez tallied his 10th goal of the 2016 season in the 84th-minute, earning Temple the 1-0 shutout over Penn State. Sanchez Gomez took a team-high six shots with two on net and both Joonas Jokinen and Matt Mahoney each had three shots on the evening. Redshirt-junior Alex Cagle picked up his sixth win of the season in net, making nine saves on the night.
The first half had a slow start for both teams with Penn State taking six shots and landing four on goal and Temple tallying four shots with two on goal. C. Maloney led the Blue and White with three shots in the opening 45 minutes of play and Jokinen took three for the Owls.
Maloney found an opening 18-yards out and took a one-timer that went right into the hands of Cagle in the 62nd-minute of the match before Temple responded with its best opportunity on a shot wide right in the 65th-minute.
In the 77th-minute of action Harris had room to move on the left side of the net and ripped a shot at Cagle, but the redshirt-junior just tipped the ball wide of the right post to keep the match scoreless.
With the defense playing back in the box, Sanchez Gomez took a shot from 21-yards out on the right side of the pitch that would find the back of the net for the Owls in the 84th-minute of action to give them the 1-0 lead over Penn State.
The Blue and White were unable to come back with time ticking away, falling 1-0 in the mid-week non-conference match.
The Nittany Lions will hit the pitch on Sunday, Oct. 2 when it travels to Ann Arbor, Mich. for a big Ten Conference match against the University of Michigan Wolverines. Game time is slated for noon on the Big Ten Network.