Pitt men end losing streak at home

Pitt 1, Marquette 0

Even though the Pitt men’s soccer team hasn’t been allowing many goals recently, they haven’t been winning games, either. 

Heading into Sunday’s game against Big East rival Marquette at Founders Field, Pitt had lost three consecutive games by the score of 1-0. Sunday’s contest also resulted in a 1-0 score, but the Panthers won this time.

The only goal of the game was scored in the 54th minute on a header by sophomore defender Andy Kalas, with the assist going to senior forward E.J. McCormick. 

Following three disappointing losses, Pitt coach Joe Luxbacher said the win on Sunday was huge for Pitt, helping to keep their playoff hopes alive.  

“It was a really hard-fought game,” said Luxbacher.  “[Marquette] came off a big weekend beating Cincinnati. They’re a very good defensive team.”

Pitt has been superb on the defensive side of the ball throughout the 2008 campaign, ranking 21st in the NCAA with a 0.57 goals against average.  Even more impressive has been the play of the Panther goalkeepers. Pitt’s goalkeepers are currently ranked 11th in the nation with a .891 save percentage.

“The few good chances they got, Jordan [Marks] made some big saves,” said Luxbacher.

While the defense has been great, the area of concern for Luxbacher and his staff has been the offense.

In past weeks, Luxbacher has commended the level of effort his players show in practice and games, but stressed the point that his team just wasn’t creating enough chances to score goals.

“We committed more guys to attack today. We took more risks, and it ended up with a really good goal,” said Luxbacher. 

With better offense and continual solid defense, the Panthers pulled out an impressive victory on Sunday.

“I think we deserved to win this game,” said Luxbacher.

The win moves Pitt to 6-4-1 overall and improves its conference record to 2-3-0.

While the Panthers may have found a recipe for success, the team will endure another test as they continue play in the extremely competitive Big East conference.

Pitt will face off against archrival West Virginia in Morgantown tomorrow night. The Mountaineers are coming off a huge upset over No. 7-ranked Connecticut on Friday.

The team then travels to South Bend, Ind., to face No. 3-ranked Notre Dame Saturday.

Comments

1 comments

UK

Sun Oct 12 2008 22:15

Nice Work!

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