Men’s soccer loses tough match to UConn

Men’s head soccer coach Joe Luxbacher knew Saturday’s match against Connecticut (4-2-0) would… Men’s head soccer coach Joe Luxbacher knew Saturday’s match against Connecticut (4-2-0) would be a battle. The Panthers (5-2-0) were coming off a difficult loss to Bucknell and realized that in order to beat the then-No. 7 Huskies, they would have to play at the top of their game.

Unfortunately, Pitt suffered its first conference home loss Saturday, 4-1, at Founders Field.

Connecticut struck early as Damani Ralph scored just three minutes into the game off passes from Lindon Pecorelli and Cesar Cuellar, who scored two goals and an assist.

The Panthers’ only goal came in the first 15 minutes of play, when Nate Montgomery led the offensive assault unassisted.

The first half of the match started strong with three Huskie goals from Ralph, Cuellar and Leandro de Oliveira. Montgomery’s strong drive to the net was Pitt’s only threatening offensive drive.

“We made defensive mistakes early. Nothing went as planned,” Luxbacher said about the first half. “We marked Cuellar out and watched him, but we just did not play well. We just cannot get into a scoring battle with these teams.”

The second half saw Cuellar’s second goal via a penalty kick. This was the only offensive action in the period.

Connecticut finished with 21 fouls and one yellow card, while Pitt committed 26 fouls and three yellow cards.

“Talent-wise, Connecticut is one of the top teams in the nation,” Luxbacher said, admitting he expected a tough Huskie team. “They are ranked seventh, but they should be higher. All of our games are battles; UConn is just one of the other seven ranked Big East teams we play. We just did not play up to our potential.”

Pitt dropped out of the NSCAA/Adidas rankings while Connecticut fell to No. 15. Today, the Panthers travel to Loretto, Pa., to battle St. Francis (3-4) in a nonconference match.

“St. Francis is coming off a big defeat, 3-0, against WVU,” Luxbacher said. “They are a good team. We don’t have a break in the schedule, we just got to get back on track and bounce back. The season is early.”