Panthers open season with two tournament losses

Scoring first never guarantees a win.

No other team realizes this more than the Pitt men’s… Scoring first never guarantees a win.

No other team realizes this more than the Pitt men’s soccer team, who found this out the hard way not once, but twice over the weekend while playing in the Drexel Invitational Soccer Tournament.

First, the Panthers lost 3-1 to Drexel after leading 1-0 in the 17th minute. Then, in their second game, LaSalle erased an early 2-0 Panther lead and defeated Pitt 3-2 with a game-winning goal in overtime.

“It was a disappointing weekend,” Pitt head coach Joe Luxbacher said. “There are no excuses. We’ve got to hold the lead and we didn’t, and if you don’t play well defensively, then you aren’t going to win the game.”

Drexel 3, Pitt 1

Brendon Smith scored the first Panther goal of the season off of a corner kick from Steve Cavalier. Cavalier’s kick sailed toward Smith, who redirected it past Drexel goalie Nick Macri for a 1-0 lead.

Pitt’s downfall, however, began in the 23rd minute when Drexel netted its first goal.

Stuart Irvine’s kick from 25 yards landed in the far corner of the goal as his teammate Mike Crosse jumped for the header, screening Pitt goalkeeper Justin Lowery in the process.

“We gave up that really bad goal and never recovered from it,” Luxbacher said. “Sometimes that happens. We played pretty well up to that point and then not well at all after it. Still is a game we could have won, though.”

Crosse found himself taking the offense into his own hands during the rest of the game, scoring two more goals for the final 3-1 Drexel lead.

His first goal came at the 25:25 mark, while his second found the back of the net at 79:23. Derek Bickford, Chris Shieve and Kyle O’Connor each recorded assists thanks to Crosse’s goals.

The Panthers return to action Thursday when they travel to Huntington, W. Va., for a matchup with Marshall before hosting their first home game on Sunday at Founders Field against Mount St. Mary’s.

“I thought we’d play better this weekend, but for whatever reason, we didn’t,” Luxbacker said. “We’re going to try and make some adjustments and get organized in the back. We want to win these games, but [we] also want to get set up for the Big East schedule.”

LaSalle 3, Pitt 2

The Panthers looked to be coasting to victory in their second game of the tournament against LaSalle.

Senior Dwayne Grant-Higgins scored two goals for Pitt in the first half, pushing the Panthers out to an early 2-0 lead.

Grant-Higgins’ first goal came in the 19th minute on a diving play he made to connect with a serve from Thomas DeCato, while his second goal hit the near side of the net after a LaSalle turnover.

The lead, however, began to vanish 22 minutes later. LaSalle’s Andrew Perez scored on a rebound off of a shot by Jeremy Ortiz. Joe Heavey tied the game for LaSalle with a header in the 73rd minute.

Still tied at two apiece with three seconds left in overtime, LaSalle’s Jim Davis retrieved the ball before Pitt could clear it out away from its sidelines and sent it 40 yards towards the net.

It skipped down in a crowd of people off of Perez and found its way back to Davis, who beat Pitt goalkeeper Andy Jorgensen to win the game, 3-2.

“We had a couple of chances to ice it and just didn’t,” Luxbacher said. “We created a lot of chances the whole weekend on offense, but never seemed to take advantage of them.”