After frustrating 2011, youthful Panthers seek improved results

Despite suffering through one of the worst seasons in the program’s history, the 2011 Pitt…Despite suffering through one of the worst seasons in the program’s history, the 2011 Pitt men’s soccer team was better than what statistics suggested.

At least, that’s how its members feel.

Last year, the Panthers managed only four wins out of 18 games, finishing with a disappointing record of 4-13-1 (2-7 Big East). But even after losing five seniors at graduation, head coach Joe Luxbacher is confident that this year’s team will be much improved.

“We’ll be more talented than we have been,” said Luxbacher, who has been the head coach at Pitt since 1984.

Sophomore forward Chu Chu Onyeukwu doesn’t think the team was as bad last season as it looked on paper.

“I don’t think we were really that far behind,” he said. “Last year, we were just missing an ‘it’ factor or something. We kept on losing games by one goal. [Our improvement] will probably seem like a lot more on the score sheet because we’ll be scoring more.”

Junior defender Alex Harrison said not performing as the team knew it could time and again was infuriating.

“We lost to a few teams last year, and after the game we would go into the locker room kicking ourselves trying to work out how we’d just lost to a side that wasn’t on the same level as us,” Harrison said in an email.

In addition to having trouble scoring goals in 2011, the team also struggled to prevent opponents from finding the net and ended the year with a 1.79 goals-against average — second worst in the Big East.

But the first-year performance of now-sophomore goalkeeper Lee Johnston was impressive, under the circumstances (11 starts, two shutouts and a 1.32 goals-against average), and Luxbacher said he has the inside track to a position as a starter.

When the season begins, Johnston will have competition in the net from incoming freshman Dan Lynd and senior Mark Hast.

Such competition exists for the rest of the positions as well.

According to Luxbacher, no player is guaranteed any spot on the team or in the starting lineup. The preseason roster names 30 players, but only 25 will remain at the start of the regular season.

Making substantial progress is the goal for the 2012 Pitt men’s soccer team, but as a member of one of the top college soccer conferences in the country, climbing the standings can be difficult.

Seven of the 16 Big East teams made it to the 2011 Division I NCAA Tournament, the largest contingent of any conference by far. Luxbacher admitted that playing in such an unforgiving league is a difficult task for his squad.

“It’s like Big East basketball. If you’re not on all cylinders, things can get bad really quickly,” he said.

One of the major hurdles to consistent play last year that the team had to overcome was its youth: 17 members of the 25-man roster were underclassmen.

The spring season provided an opportunity to gain more experience and increase cohesion within the team — an opportunity the team didn’t let go to waste.

“After spring ball, I saw massive steps in the right direction in the way we play,” Harrison said. “It was inspiring to see how hungry everyone was to work hard. Every session was 100 percent and this transitioned onto the field.”

With eight more incoming players this season, the need to have a quick learning curve won’t go away. So the burden is on all returning players to help the newcomers adapt.

“It’s critical. You need guys who walk the walk, who show you how it’s done and don’t just talk about how it’s done,” Luxbacher said. “You need leadership. It doesn’t have to come from seniors.”

The players appear ready for the added responsibility.

Harrison, a captain, says he’ll do all he can to help the newcomers adjust and sees leadership qualities in many of his teammates.

Onyeukwu, for one, knows he has a role to play.

“When the freshmen come, they’ll get up to speed. As long as you lead them in the right direction, I’m sure they’ll follow,” Onyeukwu said.

Toward the end of last season, the Panthers strung together a few impressive defensive performances in their recurrent defeats, including one-goal games against NCAA tournament teams Providence and then-No. 1 Connecticut.

“The lack of experience was the factor for us not earning a tie or even a win, which we deserved in a lot of these games,” Harrison said.

In total, Pitt lost seven contests by a single goal last fall. The ability to take points (three for a victory and one for a draw) this season from such games will prove crucial to the team’s success.

“[We want to be] good enough to get a result [tie or win]. That’s the goal,” Luxbacher said.

J.R. Eskilson, a writer for Topdrawersoccer.com, says the nature of the college game makes predicting Pitt’s progress this year nearly impossible.

“There’s always a possibility to exceed expectations,” Eskilson said of Pitt. “But [this season] is just about showing improvement. You want to see more goals scored and less goals conceded.”

Onyeukwu attributed last season’s scoring struggles to the team’s youth.

“I think part of not scoring has a lot to do with the youth in our team and our inexperience,” he said. “When you’re coming in as a young player, you’re trying to make a difference automatically because you want to keep playing, and what that leads to is impatience on the field. You make a lot of mistakes.”

He doesn’t think those issues will return now that they have the benefit of one year’s experience.

“Everyone, together, we’ve got the [right] level of confidence. We know we can score,” the sophomore forward said. “Just keep the ball, take our time and we’ll score more goals.“

Whatever issues plagued the team last year, ultimately the only thing that will remedy them will be victories in 2012.

“There’s no cookbook formula [for winning],” Luxbacher said. “There are no easy games. We have to battle. We have to find a way to get it done.”