PHILADELPHIA -- Junior Tony Donatelli led a Temple offensive explosion, tallying a goal and assisting on two others as the Owls closed out the regular season with a 6-1 win over host Saint Joseph's Saturday evening. With the win, Temple improves to 10-7-2, 7-2-2 in A-10 play. The Owls secured the third seed in the A-10 Tournament and will play La Salle, the sixth seed, in a first round game Thursday morning (11 a.m.), November 11 at George Washington.
Donatelli opened the scoring for Temple on a penalty kick in the 10th minute. Senior Nate Webb then tallied his third goal of the season, blasting one past SJU keeper Chris DiStefano (6 saves) from 20 yards out in the 23rd minute. Sophomore Matt Maher then made it 3-0 Temple, finishing a pass from Donatelli in the box in the 38th minute. That ended the scoring for the first half.
Josh Simon put Saint Joseph's on the board at 54:13, scoring off a rebound. Maher and Donatelli hooked up again, this time in the 61st minute with the Temple sophomore tallying his third goal of the season. It was Donatelli's team-high eighth assist. The junior midfielder also took over team scoring honors, and now has 14 points on the year (3 goals, 8 assists).
Junior Nick Ebersole connected on his third goal of the season two minutes later to lift Temple to a 5-1 lead. That opened the door for massive substitutions on each side. Freshman Tony Prattico (2 saves) relieved senior Patrick Hannigan (4 saves) in goal for the Owls while Rob Lavorerio (2 saves) relieved DiStefano.
Junior Kevin Gallagher tallied the final goal for Temple, his first of the season, off an assist from sophomore Isaiah Ramsey. It was Ramsey's first collegiate point.
Temple, which doubled its previous season-high in goals, out-shot SJU, 24-8, in the match.
SJU finished the year, 3-14-1, 2-8-1 in A-10 play.
