Men’s soccer scores first, surrenders hat trick in loss

Normally, scoring the first goal of a soccer game is a good omen. Knock one past the goalie… Normally, scoring the first goal of a soccer game is a good omen. Knock one past the goalie within two minutes of the opening whistle, and that should be a grand way to start.

Unfortunately for the Pitt men’s soccer team, its game against Robert Morris peaked when Pitt scored first.

Wednesday night, the Robert Morris Colonials traveled across Allegheny County to Founders Field and handed the Pitt Panthers a 4-1 loss.

“We just played poorly,” Pitt head coach Joe Luxbacher said.

The defeat dropped the Panthers to 3-6-2 on the year and marked their second straight loss this week after going their five previous games undefeated.

Coming off a 1-0 win over Bradley University, Robert Morris improved its record to 5-4-1 with its second straight win on the road after failing to win in its first four contests away from Moon, Pa.

The Panthers’ next game is Sunday when Big East foe Marquette (1-9-1, 0-6 Big East) travels to Founders Field.

Pitt opened the game scoring on a penalty kick by defenseman Samuli Ahola. At the 1:58 mark, the freshman from Finland blasted his first collegiate goal past the dive of Robert Morris’ sophomore goalie Matt Felice.

Ahola was the sixth Panther to knock in a goal this season, which if it holds up the rest of the season, would be the team’s lowest total since 2002 when only five Pitt players tallied scores.

Luxbacher believed the loss was a result of Pitt’s unification – or lack thereof.

“It’s a collective thing,” Luxbacher said. “We win and lose as a group. It’s not just a simple one move will cure everything.”

After Ahola’s goal, the game belonged to the Colonials, but more specifically, the game belonged to Robert Morris’ junior forward Conner Curran-Hays. In the 15th minute of action, Curran-Hays and teammate Ryan Zabinski ran a well-executed give-and-go, leading to Zabinski booting the ball through the upper left corner of the net to tie things at one apiece.

Curran-Hays entered the second period with one career goal, which came earlier this season, but ended the half with three more to his name.

Curran-Hays tallied his first goal at 56:48 when he knocked in the rebound of freshman Sean Riley’s shot. Curran-Hays didn’t wait long to give the Colonials a two-goal lead.

Just 51 seconds after his first goal, Curran-Hays headed in a corner kick by Zabinski.

For his last goal, Curran-Hays collected his own rebound and scored again to give the game its 4-1 final score.

Luxbacher summed up by saying, “[It] was a bad game, and we’re going to try to learn from it. It’s done, we’re past it.”

The goal to complete the Colonials’ hat trick came in the 65th minute. All of Curran-Hays’ goals came in an 11:14 time frame, the ninth fastest series of three goals scored by one person in NCAA Division I history. For record fiends, the quickest was John Stone of Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, who took a mere 2:15 to record his three goals against Illinois-Chicago on Oct. 20th, 1985.

Although Curran-Hays stole the show, several Panthers managed to be productive on the day.

Matt Baker continued his impressive freshman campaign for the Panthers by leading the team with four of Pitt’s 14 shots. Three shots were each taken for the Panthers by Tyler Bastianelli and E.J. McCormick.

Sophomore goalie Jordan Marks saved six of the 10 shots the Colonials took against him.

Pitt continued a running theme this year by opening strong, but being incapable of playing as well in the second period.

“At times when we have a lead, which we have had the lead in several of our last games, we tend to play it more loose and calm,” Luxbacher said. “We tend to play more tight and almost like we’re afraid to give up this lead instead of just playing like we were when we got the lead.”

So far this season, the Panthers have been out-shot in both halves. Opponents have 67 shots in the first to Pitt’s 54 in the first. In the second, Pitt raises its shot total to 67 overall, but its opponents have a combined 101 shots.

With more shots usually come more goals. Somehow the Panthers have outscored their opponents seven to five in the first period this year, while their opponents have 14 second-period goals to Pitt’s three.

“We don’t play with confidence once we get the lead, and that’s when you really have to play with confidence and make the other team chase the ball,” Luxbacher said.

“We’re almost trying to protect the lead instead of playing good soccer.”

Even though it was a bad loss, Luxbacher knows the season is a long way from being over, as he looks toward Sunday’s game and beyond.

“Marquette’s like us in terms of they haven’t given up many goals, but they haven’t been scoring many, so it should probably be a tight defensive game.

“It’s a Big East Conference game, and it’s an important game for both teams. We better be ready.

“We want to make the Big East Tournament. That’s the goal. We have a bunch of Big East games coming up. That goal has not changed.”