The men’s soccer team took its first lead in Big East play this year — and then saw it… The men’s soccer team took its first lead in Big East play this year — and then saw it evaporate.

The Panthers scored on their first two shots, but Marquette’s offense and an untimely red card helped the Golden Eagles battle back to a 2-2 tie Saturday afternoon at Founders Field.

“It was a hard-fought game from the get-go. I thought in the first half we played very well,” Pitt head coach Joe Luxbacher said.

“All of a sudden, we were down to 10 men, and then we really scrambled. They’re a pretty good team, and we were trying to survive.”

Pitt led 2-1 in the 63rd minute when an official issued defender Connor Malone a red card after a hard tackle on Marquette’s Calum Mallace. Six minutes later and with Pitt a man down, Bryan Ciesiulka took a pass from Mallace and struck a shot off the post and into the goal to knot the game.

Luxbacher said he wasn’t happy with the red card.

“It was a foul,” he said. “Malone went after the ball near midfield on one of their guys, and [they] collided and both went down. I couldn’t believe the official red-carded him immediately. At worst, that would be a yellow card warning.”

Sides evened out in the 87th minute when Marquette’s Eric Pothast earned his second yellow card of the night in the foul-filled affair, but by then Pitt’s early lead had disappeared. The Panthers had finally built a two-goal lead by burying their chances.

“It was nice to score some goals,” Luxbacher said. Pitt had been shut out in five of its previous six games.

In the 15th minute, Pitt scored on its first shot of the afternoon when freshman Alex Grayson buried a loose ball in the box for his first career goal. Luxbacher said that the program recruited Grayson hoping for goals, but he had struggled to do so up to that point.

“He’s a guy who has the ability to score goals,” he said. “He just hasn’t done it this year. Today he broke out a bit.”

One shot and eight minutes later, Grayson generated another scoring chance when he found Sam Luffy at the back post. Luffy headed it in for his third goal of the year and put Pitt up, 2-0, at the half.

“In the tough games we’ve played this year, we’ve been down in the first half, so it was nice to get up early and go into halftime up two goals,” Luffy said.

Luffy tied fellow senior Alex Betancourt’s team-leading seven points with the goal.

Despite the halftime score, Marquette outshot and out-cornered Pitt in the opening half, and the Golden Eagles finally got one by Pitt goalkeeper Hami Kara in the 56th minute. Kara had made three saves on the night before TeeJay East beat him with a low, hard shot.

“I don’t know if he was screened or if he didn’t expect the guy to shoot,” Luxbacher said. “He looked like he didn’t see it right away.”

Luxbacher, though, said that Kara had no chance on the second goal, and that he played well after freshman Matt Aberegg started in his place Wednesday at Cleveland State.

Meanwhile, defenders Alex Harrison and senior captain Andy Kalas played all 110 minutes against Marquette.

Harrison, despite not being fully healthy, had a chance at the golden goal in the 107th minute, but his header went high.

“We didn’t know if he could play or not until before the game,” Luxbacher said. “He battled, and he was a key man in there for us. He definitely was not healthy, but he played.”

Pitt outshot Marquette, 4-1, in the two overtime periods. Golden Eagle goalkeeper David Check had to make two saves in the game’s final 10 minutes to hold off the Panthers.

The Panthers move to 0-1-2 in Big East play and 5-4-2 overall, whereas Marquette shifts to 1-1-1 in the conference and 4-3-4 overall. Pitt resumes play Wednesday night in Morgantown when it takes on West Virginia at 7 p.m.

The Panthers haven’t played the Mountaineers yet this year, but they were able to watch them when they both participated in the Big East Partners Weekend in Morgantown last month. Luxbacher said West Virginia’s speed is its top asset.

“We know what they have,” Luxbacher said. “We have to try and figure out a way to play against them. We always played well down there the last couple times, and we’re looking forward to going down there and putting on a good show.”

Luffy said the Panthers are looking forward to the rivalry matchup.

“It’s always a fun game,” Luffy said. “They’re going to have a couple thousand fans at the game, so it’ll be a lot of fun, and I know our team is looking forward to playing down there.”