UConn freshman forward Abdou Mbacke Thiam dribbles the ball during the Huskies’ game against Dartmouth on Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Thiam scored a pair of second-half goals to lift UConn to a 2-0 victory on the road Wednesday against Temple. (Amar Batra/The Daily Campus)
Abdou Mbacke Thiam was just named the American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week.
Spoiler alert: he has a great chance to win it again next week after his performance on Wednesday afternoon.
Thiam notched two goals in the second half to lift UConn to a 2-0 victory on the road against Temple.
With the win, UConn improves to 5-5-4 on the year. The Huskies improve to 3-0-1 all-time against the Owls (9-5-2) and also jump to 4-1-1 when scoring before their opponents in 2015. The squad also sports an unblemished 4-0-0 when tallying at least two goals.
The Huskies, however, have not scored over three goals this season.
Thiam’s first goal came at the 67:36 mark when he nailed a shot past Temple’s goalie Alex Cagle into the bottom left corner of the net. The goal was assisted by freshman defender Mamadou Moustapha Samb.
Once again, the Huskies got a strong performance from their defense. Goalkeeper Scott Levene recorded his fifth clean sheet of the year. He finished with two saves.
Thiam put the game away with 3:51 left to play. Junior captain Kwame Awuah played a long pass that found Thiam in on a one-on-one breakaway with Cagle.
The victory, UConn’s second in a row, is a nice boost as the regular season approaches an end. Coach Ray Reid stressed the importance of playing tough on the road, and the Huskies responded. Temple entered Wednesday a perfect 6-0-0 at Ambler Sports Complex.
UConn closes their road portion of the schedule on Saturday, Oct. 24 to take on Tulsa. Kickoff at Hurricane Stadium is set for 7 p.m.
Elan-Paolo DeCarlo is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at elan-paolo.decarlo@uconn.edu. He tweets @ElanDeCarlo.