Men's Soccer Earns 1-1 Draw, Game Cut Short by Lightning

Wednesday, September 26

Temple Sports Complex

7:00 P.M.

Temple University

3-4-2

Villanova

5-3-1

Villanova

Temple

Men's Soccer Earns 1-1 Draw, Game Cut Short by Lightning

9.26.18 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Temple men's soccer squad (3-4-2) earned their second draw of the season against the Villanova Wildcats (5-3-1) after only 70:05 of game action. The Philadelphia local match-up was cut short due to a severe weather delay, leaving both squads with one goal on the board. For the third game in a row, the Cherry and White goal came off the boot of the reigning AAC Offensive Player of the Week, junior Lukas Fernandes.

How it Happened
> The first opportunity for the Owls came in the ninth minute of action off a corner kick from freshman Andres Charles Barrera. Barerra rocketed a ball into a threatening zone for the Owls, but the Villanova keeper leaped up to make the save.
> In the 18th minute of action, sophomore Justin Hahn carried the ball up the middle of the field, looking to find the feet of Fernandes. For the third match in a row, Fernandes made a brilliant run through the Wildcat defenders to speed past their back line, received a through ball from Hahn and buried it in the back of the net to put the Owls up, 1-0.
> Temple dominated possession for the first 45 minutes of play, producing multiple scoring opportunities and controlling the match. At the end of regulation, Temple outshot Villanova 14-10, took the edge on corners 6-2 and saved five shots to their four.
> Villanova found the equalizer in the 54th minute of action, when Zach Zandi sent a corner kick to the top of the six yard box, finding Yusuf Cueceoglu who put the ball away to even the score.

Game Notes
> Temple extends their unbeaten streak to three after Wednesday night's tie against Villanova. The last loss for the Owls came on Sept. 12, when they fell 2-1 in the first overtime period against the Princeton Tigers.
> Fernandes now leads the team with three goals for six points on the season. Hahn's assist marks his third point on the season, after also scoring Temple's lone goal against Princeton.
> Reigning American Athletic Conference Goalkeeper of the Week Simon Lefebvre made critical saves tonight to keep the Owls in the game. He now posts a goals against average of 0.86, saving 27 shots in his 630 minutes of game action.

Quotable
> "It's disappointing that we did not get more of the game in, but I felt we started out the match on a very high note," said head coach Brian Rowland. "It was a tough game against a challenging local opponent, and I was happy with how the guys fought back after the goal. There are still things for us to improve upon, and we will learn from this game, we'll get better and will we be ready to go for Saturday."

Up Next
The Owls return to their conference slate on Saturday, September 29th as they head to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats. Kickoff is set for 4:00 p.m. for Temple's second conference match-up of the season.