Men’s soccer: Pitt struggles in City of Pittsburgh Invitational

The Pitt men’s soccer team dropped its second game this weekend with a 2-0 loss yesterday… The Pitt men’s soccer team dropped its second game this weekend with a 2-0 loss yesterday afternoon against the LaSalle Explorers. It was the finale of the City of Pittsburgh Invitational, which took place at Founders Field.

In the Panthers’ other game of the invitational, they lost a 1-0 game to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The loss marks the Panthers’ fourth in a row and lowers their record to 1-4 this season as the team heads into Big East play this week.

Against LaSalle, Pitt had numerous chances to score but was unable to capitalize.

In the first half, senior forward Matt Baker shook off a few defenders to create space and got off a strong shot, but LaSalle goalkeeper Kyle Quigley made an exceptional save to keep the game scoreless.

“We created opportunities but failed to capitalize,” sophomore forward Adam Monteverde said. “We need to be better at finishing our chances moving forward to Big East play.”

The team travels to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats on Friday.

The Explorers’ first goal came during the first half as they worked the ball up the field and chipped the ball off the post, giving Ryan Richter the opportunity to bury the rebound past Pitt goalkeeper Keegan Gunderson to take an early lead.

The Panthers had a chance to rebound late in the first half.

Sophomore midfielder Ryan Brode crossed the ball into junior defender Andy Kalas, who delivered a solid shot but just barely missed the cage to the left.

Brode also nearly had a goal himself when he sent a shot off the crossbar early in the first half.

Pitt had more chances than its opponents, out-shooting LaSalle 17-11 in the game.

“We had the better of the play for most of the game,” Kalas said. “They were able to get an early goal, which kind of deflated us, and we fought back but just couldn’t tie it up.”

On LaSalle’s second goal, its goalkeeper booted the ball close to 80 yards, and the ball skipped past a Pitt defender. The deflection allowed Glenroy Chapman to corral the loose ball and put it past Gunderson to put the game out of reach and raise the Explorers’ record to 2-1-1.