Men’s Soccer: Pitt opens regular season play with draw against Oakland

Pitt men’s soccer opened its regular season with a 2-2 draw against Oakland, in front of a record 1,388 in attendance at Ambrose Urbanic Field Friday night.

“They were really good tonight,” sophomore goaltender Dan Lynd said. “They did a nice job of stretching us out our defensive midfielders and our backline.”

The crazy game saw the Panthers take a pair of one goal leads, only to see Oakland come back twice.

“The game tonight was certainly wide open, and more wide open then we would have liked,” head coach Joe Luxbacher said.  

In the 28th minute Ryan Myers put the Panthers on the board off a free kick. Myers strike just barely snuck by Oakland goalie Sean Lewis.

Following the Panthers’ goal, Lynd came up large for the Panthers a bunch of times. The most notable one was a kick save off a line-drive shot from Miche’le Lipari in the 37th minute.

Behind Lynd and the Myers strike, Pitt was able to take a slim 1-0 lead into halftime.

“Our keeper saved us in the first half for sure,” Luxbacher said.

Coming out of the half, Oakland turned up the heat on the young Panthers. Initially, Pitt was able to hold the Grizzles off the scoreboard. But in the 67th minute that all changed.

Senior midfielder Miche’le Lipari found a streaking Sean Magee inside the box. Magee was able to elude the Pitt defense and a sprawling Dan Lynd on the left post.

And while the goal tied the game at one, the game did not remain tied for long, as junior Chu Chu Onyeukwu gave the Panthers the 2-1 advantage off a corner. The goal marked the third straight game that Onyeukwu has scored in.

“Chu is a very dynamic player. He’s very strong and very fast,’ Luxbacher said. “If he can keep it simple, and get the ball in front, he can be a very dangerous player.”

The goal looked like it was going to stand, until Oakland made a late dash in the 85th minute, behind its junior striker Joey Tinnion.

Tinnion took a perfect feed from Derek Nowak and redirected it into the back of the net. The goal marked the second time that the Panthers got caught “ball watching”- or watching the ball instead of the opposing player according to goalie Dan Lynd.

Neither team could score for the remainder of the second half, and two teams headed to “golden goal” overtime.

During the beginning portion of the overtime, Oakland dominated play. The Golden Grizzles had two quality chances within the first four minutes of overtime.

But Lynd was able to come up big for the Panthers once again. The two battled evenly through the rest of the first overtime, with no real notable chances.

So as the two teams took the field for the second overtime, only 10 minutes separated the two teams from a draw.

Early in the second overtime, Pitt had a golden opportunity to end the game. Sophomore midfielder Nick Wysong sent a ball that just barely eluded a sliding Ryan Myers, and ended up being cleared out near midfield by Oakland goalie Sean Lewis.

Just a few moments later, senior transfer Chris Davis had an opportunity to end the game. On the play Davis had only the goalie to beat, but the senior sent a driving shot over the crossbar.

And while the opportunities by Myers and Davis were good, Pitt had the best opportunity of the night fall through their hands in the 118th minute, when Ryan McKenzie sent a shot toward the net.

McKenzie, who entered the game for an injured Nico Wrobel, corralled a loose ball and rifled a shot on net. The shot was just a little too hard, as the shot rang off the post and deflected out to midfield. This opportunity was the last one of the night, as the teams played out the final two minutes without a goal.  

“We had a couple of excellent chances tonight. One time their keeper came up big for them, and we hit the crossbar, and [Davis] missed a breakaway. So it was a wild game both ways” Luxbacher said.  

While Pitt missed opportunities, the chance to play against quality competition should be beneficial in the Panthers’ next game against Longwood Sunday. Following Longwood, Pitt begins ACC play in Raleigh, N.C., against North Carolina State.

“Oakland is a really solid team. They should have been in the tournament last season and they’re certainly ACC level,” Lynd said. “So it’s definitely positive that we didn’t play our best, but we still stuck with them”