Pitt to open Big East slate

For Dwayne Grant-Higgins and Keeyan Young of the Pitt men’s soccer team, things could be… For Dwayne Grant-Higgins and Keeyan Young of the Pitt men’s soccer team, things could be looking a little better on the horizon.

The duo currently sits at one and two atop Pitt’s goal-scoring list, with four and three goals, respectively, and the Panther offense, as a whole, is scoring goals at a much faster pace than Pitt (1-2-1 overall, 0-0 Big East) ever has before.

But with all that offense from Grant-Higgins, Young and the rest of the Panthers – 11 goals in four games – it’s only been enough for one win, a 5-4 victory over Marshall last week.

As well as the offense has played for head coach Joe Luxbacher, the defense has been that much worse, allowing 13 goals in those four games.

“I’m not happy with our record because we easily could have won three games,” Luxbacher said. “We’re scoring the goals, but defensively, we have got to tighten it up. That’s the objective.”

Time is running out for Luxbacher to reach that objective as Pitt opens up its Big East schedule this weekend, traveling to Villanova (1-3-0) on Friday and to Rutgers (1-3-0) on Sunday.

Luckily for the Panthers, though, their defense will be up against two teams that have struggled to find the back of the net so far this season.

Villanova has scored only two goals in its first four games, including being shut out on two separate occasions, while Rutgers has also registered just two goals and has been shut out twice, as well.

The Wildcats and Panthers didn’t meet last year, but Rutgers played Pitt to a 3-3 tie early in that season.

Most of Rutgers’ goal scorers from that game have graduated, as Zach Simi and Adam Lloyd now lead the team in 2005 with one goal apiece. Chris Moore paces the Scarlet Knights on offense with 10 shots thus far.

An early lead wouldn’t be out of the question for Pitt in its matchup with Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have allowed five of their seven goals in the first half. Villanova, on the other hand, has allowed its goals at relatively the same pace in each period.

Charlie Rowan and Joe Taylor have scored the two goals for Villanova, while goalkeeper Jason Friel has held his own against the competition, allowing only five goals in four games.

With both Rutgers and Villanova struggling, the Panthers have a couple of games to iron out their problems and get things squared away as the rest of the Big East approaches.

One major problem for Luxbacher has come in the form of minor injuries that have kept a couple of players out of competition. Because of this, Pitt has used a different lineup in each of its four games.

“Not having the same lineup in there makes things a little harder,” Luxbacher said. “Once we can get everyone out there and on the same page, things can start to come together.”

According to Luxbacher, however, no matter who is in the lineup, the defensive problems definitely need to be corrected in time.

“It’s not as if we are playing bad soccer, we’re just making these simple mistakes and we can’t expect to win by making mistakes like that against teams in the Big East,” he said.

Outside of two later games in October – against Canisius and Robert Morris – the rest of the schedule features all Big East teams. Big East newcomers DePaul and South Florida come to town for matches on the 23rd and 25th, the first two conference home games of the year for Pitt.

So for Luxbacher and the Panthers, the time has come for the defense to step up its play and match the level of production the offense provides in each game.