Men’s soccer wins first in OT

It was hard to tell what was louder after the Pitt men’s soccer team earned its first win… It was hard to tell what was louder after the Pitt men’s soccer team earned its first win — the ensuing celebration, or head coach Joe Luxbacher’s sigh of relief.

“It’s about time we finished out a game,” Luxbacher said after his team closed out Big East foe Cincinnati in the second of two overtimes on Sunday. “It’s a great win for the guys. We needed this.”

The Panthers (1-4-1, 1-1 Big East) faced two conference opponents in three days over the weekend, and played both to overtime. While Pitt was on the losing end in one overtime period against Louisville on Friday, it flipped the tables two days later and defeated the Bearcats in two on Sunday.

“We have to start nipping goals in,” Luxbacher said on Sunday. “Friday was a deflating loss, but our guys battled and came back and got a great win today.”

The win was timely as well, coming two games into the start of conference play. The Panthers next travel to DePaul on Sept. 15, and then to South Florida before returning home on Sept. 20 to take on non-conference opponent Xavier.

Louisville 2, Pitt 1 (OT)

The Panthers were the first to celebrate under the lights on Friday.

In the 18th minute, senior Brendon Smith headed a precisely placed corner kick from teammate Matt Langton into the bottom left corner of the net to put the Panthers up early and in place to earn their first win of the season.

The Cardinals responded later in the first half with a strong offensive attack, but goalie Jordan Marks, with a little help from the goalpost, subdued Louisville long enough to make it to the half.

“This is a good team,” Luxbacher said of the Cardinals after the game. “They just lost 1-0 to Maryland and Maryland’s the number one team in the country, so I thought we played well enough to win.”

The Panthers were in the position to win until the Cardinals’ David Guzman went down with the ball inside the box and was awarded with a penalty kick. Guzman capitalized, and tied the game with eight minutes remaining.

“I think the penalty kick to tie the game was definitely a questionable call,” Luxbacher said. “The ball’s rolling out of bounds, and we give up that goal with eight or 10 minutes left and that’s the game.”

It wasn’t the end of the game, though. That came with 8:30 left in the first of two 20-minute overtime periods, when Louisville’s Othanial Yanez headed a corner kick to give the Cardinals the victory.

“We played a good team tonight,” Luxbacher said. “Our guys battled. That’s our M.O. here — we can’t seem to get over the hump.”

Luxbacher still believed that had it not been for the penalty late in regulation, his team could have won.

“It’s so tough to score goals at this level and we were playing good defense and [the penalty kick goal] turns the game. “The fact of the matter is, I thought we could have closed out the last eight minutes and got a big win.”

Pitt 2, Cincinnati 1 (2 OT)

The Panthers scored first in this game as well. They also scored last — and won.

The play in the first half was very similar to two days prior — only Pitt took half the time to score. It was Chris Bastidas this time taking the Panther corner kick from the left side in the ninth minute.

Again, Brendon Smith’s head met the ball out of the air, but didn’t direct it straight to the net. The ball careened off Smith and found Matt Baker’s foot, then found the net to put Pitt up 1-0.

The Pitt defense took over, including several key saves by Marks to take the Panther lead into the half.

Pitt almost went up by two, three minutes after halftime, but Keeyan Young’s laser ricocheted off the goal post, leaving the door open for Cincinnati.

The Bearcats entered that door in the 51st minute when Amir Ikner redirected Omar Cummings’ corner kick past Marks to tie it.

The game remained tied through regulation and the first golden goal overtime period. Then in the 104th minute, Pitt was awarded a free kick. Mike Cunha booted it toward the pack in front of the Bearcat net and E.J. McCormick took care of the rest. The sophomore headed the ball to the back of the netting and gave Pitt its first win of the season.

“It was great that we finished out a game,” Luxbacher said. “We had some chances and they missed some opportunities, and we scored a great goal.”

The win comes as a relief to Luxbacher, who said that a win is never easy to come by.

“Soccer’s an unfair game sometimes,” Luxbacher said. “We’ve been playing great defense, and we could have won Friday but closed it out today.”