Pirates Open American Play at Temple on Thursday

Game Seven: East Carolina (3-0-3) at Temple (1-6-0)
Date	Thursday, September 12
Time	7 p.m. (ET)
Location	Philadelphia, Pa. (Temple Sports Complex)
Coverage	Live Stats: Live Stats \| Video: ESPN+
Game Notes	East Carolina
Fact Book	2024 ECU Soccer Fact Book
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUsoc \| Instagram: @ECUSoc \| Facebook: ECU Soccer

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina soccer team will open conference play on Thursday evening as they travel to Philadelphia for a date with the Temple Owls. The game will be the conference opener for both sides after being tabbed third and 11th in the American Athletic Conference preseason standings.

Last Time Out
The Pirates stayed unbeaten with another scoreless draw at home, this time against the reigning SoCon champion Western Carolina Catamounts. Maeve English made four saves in goal, including two highlight-reel worthy stops in the second half to keep her 25th career clean sheet. Both teams had several great chances on goal, the best for the Pirates coming on a Caitlen-Star Dolan Boodram header which caromed off of the crossbar in the 58th minute which Abby Sowa followed up with her own header only to have her shot saved.

Scouting Temple
The Owls have had a tough run of things this season with their 1-6-0 record, including four losses by four-or-more goals, including a 5-1 beating by La Salle last time out. The team got their first win of the year against Le Moyne a week ago Thursday with a 4-0 result. So far for the season, the Owls have scored just five goals to their opponents' 22 and have fired 21 fewer total shots (52) than they have allowed shots on goal (73). In goal, Tamsin Bynoe has gotten most of the run with 41 saves made and a 0.695 save percentage. Offensively, Shari Atkins is the only player with multiple goals with her two, to go with one assist.

Series History
The Pirates and Owls have met 10 times over the years with a 6-2-2 edge for ECU, including wins in the last three. The Pirates took a beating to Temple last season with a 4-0 win in Johnson Stadium. Four different players scored in the game with Sydney Schnell, Annabelle Abbott, Jazmin Ferguson and Lucy Fazackerley all finding the net. Notably, the game also featured Maeve English's lone career save.

Weekly Recognition
Maeve English earned an Honor Roll nod for her 25th career clean sheet with four saves against Western Carolina.

Another Honorable Mention for @maevenglish who secured her 25th Career Clean Sheet after 2 phenomenal saves this past Sunday vs. Western Carolina!🔥🏴‍☠️#GoPirates pic.twitter.com/owJhKflTIu
— East Carolina Soccer (@ECUSoc) September 9, 2024

Iron Woman
Abby Sowa plays a lot of minutes. In fact, she pretty much plays all of them. As it turns out, the senior hasn't come out of a game since Oct. 17, 2021. That's two full seasons, 47 full games played and 1,059 days since she entered that '21 match in overtime at Tulsa. As of writing, Sowa has racked up 4,260 consecutive minutes played.

Perception and Reality
Though the Pirates have not put a ton of goals on the board with just six tallies in six games, that doesn't mean the offense isn't much improved. In fact, the Pirates have outshot their opponent in the first six games of the season, this is the first time the team has done so since at least 2010. Scoring goals in soccer is still hard, anyhow.

Defense Wins
... or at least keeps you unbeaten through six games for the first time ever. Through those six games, the Pirates rank fourth in the NCAA with just 0.167 goals allowed per game, allowing only one single goal against UNC Greensboro through 540 minutes of game play and shutting out their last four opponents.

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Players Mentioned

Annabelle Abbott

Caitlen-Star Dolan Boodram

Maeve English

Lucy Fazackerley

Jazmin Ferguson

Sydney Schnell

Abby Sowa

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