Men’s Soccer Loses to Memphis in 2-1 Double Overtime Heartbreaker

Tuesday, February 23

Philadelphia, Pa.

12:00 PM

Temple University

1-2-0, 1-2-0

Memphis

1-1-0, 1-1-0

Memphis

Temple

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Men’s Soccer Loses to Memphis in 2-1 Double Overtime Heartbreaker

2.23.21 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Temple men's soccer team (1-2-0, 1-2-0 AAC) lost a double-overtime thriller to the Memphis Tigers (1-1-0, 1-1-0 AAC) 2-1 on Tuesday afternoon. The game was tied at one apiece until just 1:07 remained in the second overtime, when the Tigers scored the game-winning goal.

How it Happened
> Memphis scored on the first shot of the game. Gurman Sangha of the Tigers was able to settle the ball off an assist from Maliek Howell and fired it into the top right corner for the score.
> Goalkeeper Nikolas Hartmann continued his strong play this season, saving a couple of shots from Alexandros Ierides midway through the first half. The first was a volley from outside the box that he was able to deflect away. The second was a diving stop, preventing a possible rebound from a Memphis player streaking towards the ball.
> Temple got their first batch of chances in the 34^th minute with a shot from defender Mickael Borger. A few minutes later Esteban Suarez sent a header high.
> In the 38^th minute, Hartmann made what might have been the best play of the day. A ball was threaded through the Temple defense leaving Ierides uncovered for a point-blank shot. Hartmann reacted with lightning-quick reflexes to make his fourth save of the match and keep the score within one.
>After a pair of off-target shots, Temple finally broke through in the 70^th minute to tie the game up. Sean Karani fired a volley across the face of the goal to Mike Eijgendaal who headed it in for his first NCAA goal.
> In the final seconds of regulation the Owls had a golden chance to win the game thanks to a run-out by Karani. The Preseason All-Conference forward outran the Memphis defender and managed to fire off an on-target shot with 16 seconds left. The attempt was saved by the Memphis keeper to send the match into overtime.
> Karani had two more shots in the first overtime period, the first was saved by the keeper and the second was off target to the left.
> With 1:04 left in the second overtime, Caden Wells of Memphis found Luke Kelly behind the defense off an errant bounce who put the golden goal past a diving Hartmann to give the Tigers the win.

Game Notes
> This marks the third straight Memphis-Temple match where the game has gone into double overtime.
> Despite letting in two goals, Hartmann continued a brilliant season in net with six saves to add to his AAC leading seven.
>Both Suarez and defender Brandon Johnson received yellow cards during the match. They will carry those cards into next week.

From the Coach
> "When we look at the video, there's going to moments are teachable and moments that are cringeworthy." "There's going to be a lot of positives, or close to positives, of how we were able to dominate that game apart from the scoreboard. I think we are going to have to recognize there are areas to improve, but we certainly understand that on another day that game could've been different." -- head coach Brian Rowland.

Up Next
> The Owls will host the USF Bulls on Saturday, Feb. 27. The match will be Temple's second in just five days and will be streamed on ESPN+.