Temple win by familiar scoreline; Villanova fall on the road

Temple won 1-0 on a Jorge Gomez Sanchez goal for the third time in their last four games on the road against SMU on Saturday night.

This time it was senior defender Matt Mahoney who set up Gomez Sanchez for his 12th of the season in the 13th minute that held up as his sixth game-winner of the year.

The goal was the 25th of his career and moved him into seventh in program history despite only getting two years of eligibility when joining the program from Spain last year.

It was Temple’s first-ever win over SMU in four tries and their first conference win of the season. Their American Athletic record improved to 1-1-1 and their overall mark to 8-3-1 with this critical road victory.

Goalkeeper Alex Cagle turned away seven shots – the Owls were outshot by the hosts 17-16 overall – to register his fourth straight clean sheet and seventh of the season.

Villanova fall on the road

The road wasn’t as friendly to Villanova as they fell 3-1 to Providence on Saturday.

Julian Gressel scored in each half to lead the Friars and added an assist on Alex DaCosta’s 54th minute strike.

Padraic McCullaugh cut the lead in half with a goal in the 77th minute off an assist from Kian Zapata but Gressel iced the game with a penalty kick after a foul was called against the Wildcats inside the 18 in the 85th minute.

The loss was the second in a row for the Wildcats, which fell to 6-5-1 overall and 2-2-0 in Big East play.