AMBLER, PA -- Temple honored its men's soccer seniors prior to Sunday's kick-off with Dayton. The five young men who have helped turn around the Owl program then went on to hand the high-scoring Flyers their first shutout of the Atlantic 10 Conference season, 1-0. The win, however, was not enough to earn the Cherry and White a berth to the conference tournament as Temple was the odd-team out in a three-way tie for fifth place and ended the 2005 campaign with a 6-10-2 mark and 4-3-2 in A-10 play.
Senior Tony Donatelli ended his fine career by tallying the winning goal in the 32nd minute. The Owl midfielder possessed the ball from 20 yards out and struck the ball into the top left-hand corner of the net for his team-high sixth goal. That would account for all the scoring on the day.
The Owl defense, spearheaded by seniors Joe Brocker and Timmy Greer, settled in after that, helping the team post its third shutout of the season, all coming in A-10 action. Sophomore Tony Practico made three saves in recording his third shutout. He also lowered his goals against average to a miniscule 0.98 for the year.
Dayton controlled the offensive play throughout the second half, out-shooting Temple 9-0 in the period and 12-6 for the contest. The Flyers, 10-5-3, 5-2-2, who entered play needing a win to secure a first round bye in the conference tournament, were unable to finish.
Charlotte (6-7-4, 3-2-4) and Massachusetts (8-9-2, 4-3-2) tied Temple for fifth. Since neither of the teams played each other the next tie-breaker was records against common conference opponents. Charlotte had the best record of the three teams, placing fifth. UMass ended up with a slightly better record than Temple in common A-10 foes and earned the sixth and final playoff slot.
Temple ends its season unbeaten in its last five matches (3-0-2). Besides Brocker, Donatelli and Greer, Ben Evans and Kevin Gallagher also played, and started, in their final collegiate match.
