The Temple Wildcats got their first taste of defeat in a young season, falling behind early and rarely finding their footing in a 7-0 loss to a fast Round Rock McNeil team Friday morning in the second game of the Temple Wildcat Kickoff Classic.
A pair of early goals from McNeil’s Victor Martinez set the tone for the match as his ability to find openings in the Wildcats defense proved troublesome for the tournament hosts. Temple (0-1-1) opened the match with three defenders at the back of the formation, but the pace upfront for the Mavericks (2-0-0) forced it to adapt.
“They were very aggressive up front,†Temple head coach Matt Corley said. “We were playing with three defenders at the beginning and they just took it to us and kind of forced us to change the way we played, and I don’t think we ever recovered from that point.â€
Martinez notched the first goal less than 5 minutes after the opening whistle. Rohan Chintakindi rolled the ball across the face of the net to the wide-open forward, who had plenty of time to collect the pass, pick his spot and blast the ball into the top-left corner.
It took less than 2 minutes for Martinez to double the Mavericks’ advantage. He received the ball near the midfield line and faced little resistance on his way to the 18-yard box. With two defenders in his way, he created just enough space to release a curling shot that beat Wildcats goalie Jonathan Lopez Sotelo to the right post.
Harun Syed made it 3-0 with a point-blank shot, and Marcel Zouzouambe got into the scoring act with 5 minutes left in the first half by converting a penalty kick for the Mavericks’ 4-0 lead at intermission.
Sotelo’s net faced a bombardment in the opening 40 minutes as the keeper made five saves, including stuffing a Zouzouambe breakaway attempt.
McNeil’s pace caused problems for the Wildcats across the field as Temple struggled to connect on long passes and, when the passes did find their target, the Mavericks quickly swarmed to the threat.
Arik Diaz had Temple’s first shot on goal more than 20 minutes into the match. Alejandro Soto Quinones, who scored both goals during Temple’s 2-all draw against Hutto in the season opener Thursday, was responsible for the only other first-half shot on net in the closing minute.
Santiago Perez Pereira netted the opening goal of the second half for McNeil when he got his head on a free kick and redirected it past Sotelo, and Jackson Edwards scored with 8 minutes remaining on a shot from the edge of the box.
Cesar Baza Manzano capped the scoring by converting a penalty kick that rolled across the line as time expired despite Lucius Devlin, who replaced Sotelo in net after the sixth goal, stopping the initial shot.
Prior to Pereira’s goal, the Wildcats seemed to have settled in following the break. The offense found a rhythm in the second half while the defense kept pressure off of the net. Temple mustered seven second-half shots on net while getting into the opposition’s box with regularity but still couldn’t find a way past McNeil keeper Michael Sieber, who earned his second shutout in two outings this season.
“The first 17 minutes of the second half, I thought we were the aggressors and then the momentum changed a little bit and they took it back from us,†Corley said.
Temple will wrap up the three-day event at 3 p.m. today with a match against Jarrell.
