Men’s soccer loses to Providence in overtime

Over the weekend, the men’s soccer team went on the road to take on the Providence Friars at… Over the weekend, the men’s soccer team went on the road to take on the Providence Friars at Glay Field in what ended up being an extremely hard-fought contest between two evenly matched teams.

It was only fitting, therefore, that regulation ended with the score tied. For Pitt, however, overtime play resulted in a 2-1 loss. Head coach Joe Luxbacher did not hide his emotions when describing the defeat.

“This was a very tough loss for our guys. We played a good team away from home and I thought our guys played them very tough,” he said. “We had a few good opportunities to win the game as did they, we just didn’t make a play when we needed to…they did.”

The loss dropped the Panthers to 4-7-2 on the season and 3-3-1 in the Big East, while the Friars improved to 9-3 and 5-3 in the conference.

Things were looking good for Pitt early in the match when sophomore forward E.J. McCormick notched his second goal of the season 9:34 into the first half.

Teammates Matt Baker and Matt Langton deftly passed the ball back and forth while moving the ball down field, before finding McCormick in front of the Friar net. McCormick initially failed to convert the prime scoring opportunity when his shot bounced off the right goal post and back onto the field of play.

However, he quickly redeemed himself by recovering the rebound on the errant shot and launching the ball into an open net, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

The spotlight then fell upon Pitt goalkeeper Andy Jorgensen and the Panther defense that held strong until the 64th minute of play, when Friar freshman forward Jonathan Medcalf scored, tying the game at 1-1. Teammate Hadrien Toure assisted the play and beautifully set up the chip-shot, five-yard kick. The goal added to Medcalf’s team-leading sixth goal of the season.

With less than a minute left in regulation, Pitt’s E.J. McCormick received a long pass and buried the ball into the back of the Friar goal, for what appeared to be a dramatic buzzer-beating goal. The referee, however, waived the goal off in a disputed offside call.

“E.J. scored a goal with 25 seconds to go that would have won the game, but the referee called him offside,” said Luxbacher. “It was a close call, to say the least. The game then went into overtime, and they scored a good goal to beat us.”

The goal coach Luxbacher eluded to transpired in the 95th minute of play, when Providence midfielder Alex Bury nailed a shot from 20 yards out on an unassisted volley, giving the Friars the 2-1 win.

“It is a difficult loss to take, but again, they are a very good team,” Luxbacher said. “We need to regroup quickly, because it doesn’t get any easier from here, especially with a top 15 team in Connecticut coming up this coming weekend. “

Before that highly anticipated match-up against UConn, Pitt will first return to Founders Field on Wednesday, Oct. 11 to compete against Bowling Green in the first match of a three-game home stand.

The Huskies are then due to visit on Saturday, Oct. 14, while Pitt’s final home game of the season will be against the Georgetown Hoyas on Wednesday, Oct. 18.