Men’s soccer finishes regular season

The Pitt men’s soccer team’s road woes continued on Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 loss to… The Pitt men’s soccer team’s road woes continued on Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 loss to Seton Hall in East Orange, NJ.

Seton Hall (9-7-1, 7-4 Big East) had some extra incentive for the game, which drew 685 fans for the Pirates’ Senior Day.

After a relatively uneventful beginning, Seton Hall opened the scoring in the 39th minute of the game.

Sophomore Eliseo Giusfredi crossed the ball on a corner kick in front of the net to Teddy Niziolek, who headed it right to the feet of senior David Roman for the one-timer. The goal was Roman’s third of the season.

Pitt countered with a couple close calls of its own.

In the 62nd minute, senior Tyler Bastianelli sent a rocket from 25 yards out past a diving goaltender, but the shot ricocheted off the right post to preserve the Seton Hall lead. In the 87th minute, team points leader Matt Baker attempted a header directly in front of the Pirates’ goal, but the shot fell right into the hands of Seton Hall goalie Ian Joyce.

The Pirates finally put the game out of reach with less than a minute left. Giusfredi fired a shot from the corner of the box to the upper right corner of the goal to seal the victory. The goal tied Giusfredi for first place on the team with nine for the season.

With an assist and a goal in the game, Giusfredi finished in second place on the Pirates for a total of 22 points during the season.

Pitt managed to accumulate a meager eight shots compared to 21 for Seton Hall. Inspired play from the Pirates’ senior defenders, Gordon Kljestan, Christos Zisimatos, Matt Gilbert and Glenn Costa, kept the Panthers from getting many open looks at the net.

The Panthers also amassed a total of 18 fouls during the game, while Seton Hall made only 12.

Goaltending was one of the few bright spots for the Panthers. Despite allowing two goals, senior goalie Andy Jorgensen did have eight saves for the match. He now has 64 saves for the season, with a .810 save percentage.

On the other side of the ball, senior goalkeepers Peter Eckendorf and Joyce combined for Seton Hall’s first shutout since its Sept. 17 meeting with Villanova. Incredibly, the team needed only two saves to blank the Panthers.

The loss dropped the Panthers to 5-10-2 on the season (4-5-1 Big East). Only one of the Pitt victories came on the road.

Despite the loss, however, the Panthers had already qualified for the Big East playoffs. With the cancellation of yesterday’s match against West Virginia, Pitt locked up the sixth seed of the Blue Division.

The Panthers will face third-ranked St. John’s University of the Red Division in Queens, N.Y., in the opening round of Big East tournament play tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.

The Pirates, meanwhile, clinched fifth place in the Big East Blue Division with the victory. They, too, will hit the road to face South Florida (8-5-4, 4-3-4 Big East) in the first round of the conference championship tournament Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.