Box Score PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Temple netted the first two goals of the contest and held off a Villanova rally to post a 3-2 win over the Wildcats in a Philly Soccer Six match here Sunday evening.

Temple (1-0-1 overall) earned the first three corner kick attempts of the evening and took advantage of the third one. The Owls' Xavier Rimpel fed a ball into the 18-yard box that Aaron Markowitz re-directed with his head to give TU the early lead in the eighth minute.

Senior Vincent Petrera nearly picked up the equalizer a short while later for the Wildcats (0-1-1 overall) after some nifty work along the touch line by Jorge Garcia. But Temple's Andrew Kempe got a hand on the ball to deflect Petrera's shot over the crossbar and out of harm's way.

Temple moved on top 2-0 in the 21^st minute as Charlie Votel converted a Rimpel feed.

"What we saw in those early minutes kind of reaffirms what we thought before this game," stated Villanova head coach Mark Fetrow. "We're going to have to be really good at executing the little things. We talked a lot about being better on set piece goals and we gave up a set piece goal early. We have focused on better marking in the box and we weren't able to do that on the second goal we gave up.

"Those two things burned us early in the game. That's two games in a row we have been hurt in those areas."

Freshman Alex Yagudayev later came up with an outstanding save midway through the half on a blast off the foot of Temple's Elias Betancourt.

The Wildcats applied some late pressure in the period on the Owls with bids from Balthi Saunders and Michael teDuits but were unable to break through.

At halftime, Temple led 2-0.

Villanova pushed forward in the second half as it looked to cut into the Temple advantage. A corner kick from the right side went to Balthi Saunders who nudged it over to forward Colby Raymond who finished the play with a goal at 60:59 to narrow the deficit to 2-1.

But Temple was awarded a penalty kick in the 63^rd minute after a surge forward on a counterattack. Rimpel fired a shot inside the left post to convert past Sebastian Cutler DeJesus and push the Temple lead to 3-1.

Late in the match each team was assessed a red card after a battle for a loose ball near midfield in the 78^th minute. The sides played the final 11:37 with ten players apiece.

Garcia shaved the deficit to 3-2 in the 82^nd minute when he collected a deflection and sent it into the back of the net on the left side. It was the graduate student's second goal of 2024.

Freshman Karson Vazquez sent a shot just wide to the right of the Temple goal a short while later, nearly collecting the equalizer.

"I'm really happy with the drive the group showed in the second half," Fetrow stated. "We battled back, never gave up, kept our belief. We got two and had a couple of chances to get the third. But the bottom line is that when you give up two or three goals, it's really hard to win games."

Villanova travels to Michigan for its next match, a Friday matinee in East Lansing, Mich.