Oct. 30, 2009
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle men's soccer team put Temple's Atlantic 10 playoff hopes in jeopardy and denied the Owls a Soccer Six title as Austin Johnson (Avalon, NJ/Middle Twp.) punched in the winning score in the second overtime in a 1-0 win. The Explorers improved to 5-9-3 (1-4-2 Atlantic 10), while the Owls fall to 8-6-1 (3-3-0 Atlantic 10).
Johnson converted a headed pass from Ryan Sepe (West Islip, NY/West Islip) with 2:31 remaining in the second overtime to give the Explorers the hard-fought win. This marked the third goal of Johnson's rookie campaign. It was a few shots coming, as he led the team with four shots, two of which were on goal, in his 56 minutes of play.
The overtime win also marked the first win for the Explorers in nine extra period tries. The last time La Salle won an overtime game was on Oct. 21, 2007, a 2-1 win over Xavier in one extra period. The Explorers went 0-1-3 in overtime games in 2008, and were 0-1-3 in overtime games coming into tonight's contest.
Kyle Quigley (Millersville, MD/Severna Park) had another standout game in goal on Friday night. He registered 10 saves, including several diving stops to keep Temple off the board and Explorer hopes alive. One of those diving stops was on a Tyler Witmer shot in the 98th minute as the Owls attempted to end the game. Seven of Quigley's 10 stops were in a second half that saw Temple pepper nine shots on the Explorer defense.
The evenly matched game was back and forth all night. The Explorers held possession of the ball for a large portion of the first half, while the Owls controlled much of the second half.
The Explorers held a slim 15-14 advantage on shots, but the Owls held a 10-7 lead on shots on goal. Temple picked up seven corner kicks to La Salle's five, but the Explorers held a four-foul advantage. In addition to Johnson's four shots, Ryan Richter (Southampton, PA/William Tennent) and Jeff Pio (Warminster, PA/William Tennent) added three apiece. Witmer led all players with five attempted shots.
The Explorers host Saint Joseph's on Sunday at 1:00 PM for the final home game of 2009, looking to avenge last year's 1-0 loss on a penalty kick goal. The program's seven seniors will be honored prior to the game.
