Mens soccer lets win slip away, ties Marshall

The Pitt men’s soccer team carried a 3-1 lead into the closing minutes against Marshall on… The Pitt men’s soccer team carried a 3-1 lead into the closing minutes against Marshall on Wednesday afternoon at Founders Field, and looked to be closing in on its third win of the season.

But the Panthers quickly learned that even the shortest lapse can be costly.

Marshall (4-4-1) got goals from Jeremy Ashe and Mike Barbera in the 87th and 90th minute to level the score at 3-3 and force overtime. Neither team could break the deadlock in extra time, and the teams settled for a draw, one that Pitt (2-2-3) will clearly look back on as a missed opportunity.

“We got that feeling that we knew we were better, and we just got overconfident,” said senior striker Billy Brush, who figured prominently in the Panthers’ attack.

Marshall took a quick 1-0 lead on a headed goal by Jarod Dombrowski in the 8th minute, but Brush quickly responded with a highlight header of his own to level the score.

“[Dwayne Grant-Higgins] made a good run, got fouled, and Tyler [Bastianelli] played a great ball. It was just me and the defender. I just dove and got it,” an exhausted Brush said.

Bastianelli’s free kick, which assisted on the goal, was a high-curling kick from the center of the field toward the left side. As the kick floated into the box, Brush accelerated past his defender, and dove to make contact, gingerly redirecting the ball around the charging goalkeeper and into the opposite side of the net.

Play got chippy after that, as a foul by Pitt’s Mike Cunha on Marshall’s Karim Boukhemis led to a scuffle on the ground, with punches thrown and players from both teams shoving near the incident. After the referee separated the players, Cunha and Boukhemis both went in the book, lucky to have not seen a red card.

When the soccer continued, it was all Pitt, as the Panthers went up 2-1 on a well-worked passing sequence through the midfield, resulting in Keeyan Young finding the net on a short breakaway, created by passes from Thomas DeCato and Steve Cavalier.

After half time, Brush recorded the second half of his brace, with a simple touch home from a pass by Young, putting Pitt ahead 3-1.

Conservative play from the Panthers allowed momentum to shift to the Thundering Herd, as Pitt dropped one of its attacking players into midfield with a two-goal advantage.

Justin Lowery starred in goal for Pitt, recording five saves, including two spectacular saves at full extension to his left, smothering a pair of rocket shots from Michael McDonald, who assisted on two of the Marshall goals.

Lowery’s acrobatics could only do so much for Pitt, as constant Marshall pressure in the final half-hour of regulation led to the comeback. With the wind out of Pitt’s sails, overtime seemed like a bleak proposition, but the Panthers regained their composure.

“We’re tired of losing; we know we’re better,” said Brush of the team’s sentiment heading into overtime, referring back to the recent losses at Robert Morris and Connecticut.

Extra time yielded much more balanced play than regulation, and each side failed to find a good chance to win.

Boukhemis first forced another quality save from Lowery, who moved quickly to his left to keep out the hard, low shot. Brush then missed out on the chance for a 104th-minute hat trick, putting the ball over the goal in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper from a sharp angle, and ensuring the 3-3 final score.

Pitt will try to bounce back on Saturday at 1 p.m. with another home game against conference foe Seton Hall.