Men’s soccer limits sloppiness, still loses

The Pitt men’s soccer team erased the problem of starting slow and sloppy against… The Pitt men’s soccer team erased the problem of starting slow and sloppy against Georgetown.

It just didn’t result in a point.

The Panthers lost their seventh straight Big East match to the Hoyas Saturday, falling by a score of 2-0.

Pitt’s record dropped to 2-13-2 and 0-9-1 in the Big East. Georgetown improved to 6-10-0 and 4-5-0. More offensive problems plagued Pitt throughout the match. The Panthers failed to record even one shot on goal and were outshot 17-8 by the Hoyas.

Improved goalkeeping and defense couldn’t propel the Panthers to victory. Coach Joe Luxbacher agreed.

“We played one of our better games against Georgetown,” Luxbacher said, “other than the fact that we can’t score any goals.

“You’ve got to put it in to get the win.”

One particular instance Luxbacher referenced occurred in the 86th minute, with Pitt inching toward tying the score. E. J. McCormick had an opportunity from five yards out, but his shot soared wide.

Two minutes later, Georgetown scored to put the game away.

The Panthers played much better at the onset of the match, seemingly solving their early match issues from the past few weeks. In their previous affair against Notre Dame, all three Fighting Irish goals were scored in the first 14 minutes.

Pitt came out fighting, holding the Hoyas scoreless in the first half, even while being outshot 8-2 in that time. Goalkeeper Jordan Marks stopped five shots in the half.

Pitt couldn’t hold off Georgetown’s pressure forever, though.

In the 78th minute, Hoya substitute Sean Bellomy headed a serve from Ibukun Otegbeye past Marks for the first goal of the game. Bellomy wasn’t finished.

After the McCormick miss, Pitt pushed all of its players forward in an attempt to tie the match.

But Georgetown’s Chandler Diggs controlled the ball and pushed it forward to Bellomy.

No one was left between Bellomy and Marks and the breakaway resulted in a goal and a 2-0 final.

Georgetown goalkeeper Matthew Brutto did not record a save, but that was primarily because of his lack of work. Even though Pitt had no shots on goal, Luxbacher disputed the statistics, saying that there were some attempts that could have been called shots.

Marks had his second consecutive impressive performance after a few down games. He tallied eight saves against the Hoyas.

“Overall, [Marks] played solid yesterday,” Luxbacher said.

“In our conference, you need excellent goalkeeping, and we’ve been too inconsistent.”

Pitt’s final match of the Big East and the regular season takes place at Marquette on Saturday Nov. 3. The Panthers will look to tally their first triumph of the Big East season.

“We’re going to try to win,” Luxbacher said. “We have created some pretty good chances, and we just can’t finish them.”