Women’s soccer unhappy with early calls in loss

West Virginia fans who made the trip to Founders Field Wednesday night to see their women’s… West Virginia fans who made the trip to Founders Field Wednesday night to see their women’s soccer team take on Pitt were yelling at the referees throughout the first half. The Pitt fans were yelling at the referees throughout the whole game.

And Pitt’s head coach Sue-Moy Chin is probably still yelling at them.

In Pitt’s (4-5-1 overall, 1-3-1 Big East) 6-1 loss to West Virginia (10-3-0, 5-2-0), there was a questionable call that kicked off all of the Mountaineers’ goals.

Pitt’s Katie Surma stole the ball in front of her own net and began to move upfield with it. West Virginia’s Laura Kane tripped over the back of Surma’s foot and fell inside the goal box.

The whistle blew, and hands flew in the air from all directions.

“It was bad,” Chin said after the game about the referee’s foul call.

The foul in the penalty box led to a penalty kick for Kane. She lined up and shot the ball to the left of Pitt’s goalkeeper Jamie Pelusi for the Mountaineers’ first goal of the night.

“I don’t agree with the penalty kick at all,” Chin said. “I think that disrupted a lot of the flow of the game.”

And it did. Less than three minutes later, Kane notched her second goal of the contest, giving West Virginia a 2-0 lead. Her teammate Ashley Weimer kicked the ball on a free kick — a result of a hand ball — and Kane jumped, getting her head on the ball and redirecting it just over the outstretched hands of Pelusi.

Pitt bounced back about 12 minutes later and cut the West Virginia lead in half. Senior forward Cara Senger took a pass from Lisa Schulte and crossed the box, avoiding Mountaineer defenders. She found an opening and fired a shot using her left foot. The ball soared high to the upper left corner of the goal. Lana Bannerman, West Virginia’s goalkeeper, had no shot at making the save.

“I thought we regained our composure very quickly,” Chin said, adding that she felt her team had gained the momentum going into halftime

And coming out of the half, Chin appeared to be correct. Pitt had several chances to tie the game, but came up short.

Sara Gutting redirected a shot from Rachel Vecchio, but the ball traveled just outside the upper right side of the goal.

Another chance came on a corner kick by Jennifer DeLaHoz. Her kick flew across the box and deflected off a few Panthers and Mountaineers before Bannerman got control of the ball.

From that point on, it was all Mountaineers, as they scored four consecutive goals in the final 15 minutes.

The first was scored by Natalie Cocchi, when she used her foot to redirect a free kick from Weimer. The goal at 76:14 was Cocchi’s first of two goals. She would score West Virginia’s final goal of the evening in the 87th minute.

Both Ashley Banks and Marisa Kanela scored unassisted goals on the Panthers in the 81st and 84th minutes, respectively.

After West Virginia went up 3-1, the game went sour for the Panthers. However, the 6-1 score does not dictate how well Chin thought her team played. She said some of the goals were unfortunate and that her team fought very hard to keep it close in the first 75 minutes of the game.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” Chin said, adding, “We need to work on our attack a little more.”

The statistics confirm the notion that the Panthers need to work on their offense. Pitt fired only five shots in the game. West Virginia, on the other hand, sent 20 shots in the direction of Pitt’s goal.

The Panthers will get a chance to redeem themselves when they travel to Baltimore, where they will take on Maryland-Baltimore County. The game is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m.