Pitt battles to scoreless tie

With the field covered in fog, the men’s soccer team walked off its battlefield after a… With the field covered in fog, the men’s soccer team walked off its battlefield after a difficult, hard-fought match Wednesday night at Founder’s Field.

Pitt battled West Virginia into double overtime, with the game ending in a scoreless tie. The Panthers stand at 6-3-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the Big East while WVU is 3-6-1 overall and 0-3-1 in the conference.

The match was expected to be a physical battle as both teams rank among the top in the Big East in fouls and toward the bottom in goals scored per game. WVU leads the Big East with 177 fouls on the season, while Pitt ranks third with 143.

Pitt committed nine fouls and WVU had 11 with one yellow card. Goals were hard to come by as two of the Big East’s top goalkeepers, Justin Gaul and Chris McKinney, had three saves each to open the first half.

Gaul had back-to-back saves when the Mountaineers’ Paul-Anthony Perez drove to the goal unassisted. This preceded a shot by Deran Pursoo, which Gaul also blocked.

Meanwhile, the Panthers’ Nate Montgomery, John Occhiuto and Marco Carrizales took strong shots in the opening half.

Pitt came out more aggressively in the second half, controlling the tempo of play for the remainder of the game. Three strong shots opened the half as the Panthers began to put the pressure on in the first 10 minutes of resumed action.

Freshman Keeyan Young led the Panthers’ charge. On consecutive drives, the Mountaineer defense brutally took Young down to the grass. However, Young finished the half with three shot attempts as he was hustling all over the field.

“Keeyan is a good player and he plays better each game,” head coach Joe Luxbacher said. “He is the kind of guy who can decide the outcome of a game.”

Pitt senior Toure Weaver made two shot attempts while picking up a yellow card late in the half.

The Panthers’ closest chance at a goal came from a Bryan Hopper drive, which led to a shot attempt from Weaver. The intensity remained high in the half with both teams committing nine fouls.

The game entered overtime, and both teams were looking for the “golden goal” as the Panthers’ Carrizales came out kicking early, but missed high.

Tempers began to flare as the first overtime came to a close. The Mountaineers’ Jason Hillenbrand shoved Pitt defenseman, Clay Haflich, who had fallen into the WVU bench to wrap up the final seconds.

The fog settled in to start the final overtime as the Panthers’ Hopper had another strong drive to the goal. When the action shifted to the opposite end of the field, Gaul stopped a shot by Pursoo before the two collided near the goal line. Pursoo was escorted off the field.

Neither team scored.

In such a tight game, there was lots of pressure on the goalkeepers in overtime. Gaul, who has started for four years at Pitt, remained tough the entire game.

“I am used to situations like this,” Gaul said. “We had a lot of opportunities to score, but just couldn’t. Someone has to be the hero and score the winning goal.”

With the Panthers heading to South Bend, Ind., to battle the Fighting Irish Friday, they are going to have to start scoring more goals.

“Somebody has to make the big play,” Luxbacher said. “We had so many chances but could not finish. It was a solid game. We can’t just shutout everybody, we have to score.”