BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh set a school record with its eighth shut out of the season on Sunday evening, downing Temple 2-0 at the Ulrich Sports Complex.
Sophomore
Melissa Montalvo scored the game-winning goal, while freshman goal keeper
Julie Kafka stopped four Owl shots on the evening, earning the seventh shut out of her young career.
The shut out was the Mountain Hawks second straight, running their scoreless streak to 264 minutes, and improves the Brown and White’s record to 8-1-1 on the year.
Temple now sits at 1-7 for the season.
Head coach Manny Oudin commented on the school record eight shut outs following the match. “It’s not something that we think about coming into the game. Certainly to give yourself a chance to win, you have to be solid defensively. When we are able to play well defensively, we make it tough on other teams to score, I think overall it’s just a commitment from everyone to buy in on our defensive philosophy.”
The Mountain Hawks wasted little time in getting their lone score, as Montalvo took a feed from classmate Shannon Lockwood and blasted it from 30-yards out into the back of the net, beating Temple keeper Tiffany Kasunich for the eventual game-winner at the 19:12 mark. Lehigh dominated the remainder of the half, with nine shots, including one that hit the cross bar from junior Gina Lewandowski, while the Owls had just one, but the score remained 1-0 heading into halftime. The Mountain Hawks were awarded two corners in the opening 45 minutes, and Temple had none.
In the second half, both teams seemed to step it up on the offensive end, continually pressuring the opposing defense. Lehigh had a few chances in front of the net, including a Montalvo shot that Temple’s Darlene Beamon kicked away from an open net, while the Owls had a several shots from point blank, but Kafka was more than up to the challenge in goal for Lehigh, stopping every shot she faced. With just over two minutes remaining, Lehigh was awarded a free kick, which sophomore Michaela Pawlewicz took from around midfield and booted into the back of the net for her first score of the season, giving Lehigh some breathing room for the remainder of the contest.
For the game, Lehigh finished with 25 shots, led by Lewandowski with her six. Temple was only able to get off six shots of its own, with no Owl able to get off more than one. Kasunich finished with four saves in goal for Temple, and for the game, Temple did not have any corner kicks, while Lehigh was awarded five.
Oudin saw some things he liked on Sunday night and discussed that afterwards. “I think we played well at times, we did some positive things within the flow of the game. It comes down to creating opportunities and not finishing. We had plenty of chances tonight, we just had some trouble finishing plays.” Oudin continued, “It’s certainly well to finish the non-league portion of our schedule with two straight wins at home and now we have to get ready for Lafayette this weekend.”
Lehigh will now have five days off to prepare for its league opener, on Saturday, October 1 versus archrival Lafayette. That game, which will be played at the Ulrich Sports Complex, is scheduled to begin at 7:00 and all of the action will be broadcast live on lehighsports.com with streaming audio and video provided by Yahoo! Sports.
