In the battle of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh ultimately came out on top.
Pitt (3-1-1) downed Penn (1-1) 1-0 in the Quakers’ second game of the season in a match that remained scoreless until the final 12 minutes. Although the Quakers had an opportunity to come back with a late-game goal from senior midfielder Jack-Ryan Jeremiah, the call was ultimately overturned.
The Pitt Panthers applied pressure early on in the match, finding multiple opportunities to score. In the first period, the Panthers took five shots with three on goal, all of which were saved by senior goalkeeper Philip Falcon III. The Panthers dominated possession during the first half, which left the Quakers playing on their heels for the remaining period.
The Quakers failed to match the level of aggression on the offensive end, with the Quakers only attempting two shots with only one on goal. Penn’s experienced backline of senior defenders Connor Dawson, Malachi Neal, and Joaquin Niehenke, as well as sophomore defender Kalani Kunimura, made life difficult for Pitt despite their command of the ball.
Even with minimal offensive pressure, the match was tied 0-0 going into the second period.
Pitt continued their aggressive approach, attempting six more shots, with four of them being shots on goal. Pitt forward Bertran Bruno led the charge, recording a shot on goal in the 57th minute that was ultimately thwarted by Falcon III. The standout Quaker goalkeeper would end the day with six saves.
The Quakers showed far more poise on the offensive end in the second. Junior forward Marco Bottene came close to scoring with a left-footed missile that missed just wide. Minutes later, the Quakers had another crack at breaking the deadlock with a shot from junior midfielder Michael Howard that went over the crossbar.
“I think in the first half there might have been some nerves given the nature of the game. That’s natural,” head coach Brian Gill said. “But once we settled in and got good performances from guys coming off the bench, which was helpful for us in terms of how we felt like we finished the first half. In the second half, we didn’t really do drastically anything different with the group. I think they just had some more belief in themselves, which was positive for us.”
After nearly 80 scoreless minutes, an assist from Pitt midfielder Caden Grabfelder off a corner kick led to a goal from Pitt forward Mamadou Tall, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead over the Red and Blue.
With just four minutes left on the clock, freshman midfielder Isaac Tortola served a corner kick to the box right before Penn players started calling for a handball on Pitt. Taking advantage of the confusion, Jeremiah snuck a shot past Pitt goalkeeper Jack Moxom for what would have been the equalizer and Penn’s third shot on goal. However, in a controversial video review, the goal was overturned on the grounds that Moxom was fouled.
“It was, six minutes left, something like that. So obviously we’re pushing for a goal, sending numbers forward on the corner kick,” Jeremiah said. “Tortola served in a good ball; guys were challenging in the box. Honestly, there was no foul that I saw. And then right before the ball fell to me, there were shouts for handball, so a bunch of guys were yelling at the ref, and as I saw the ball in the air, I was like, ‘ah screw it’, I’m just going to hit this first time.”
Ultimately, the Quakers were unable to secure the equalizer and lost the match 1-0.
Although the Quakers put up a “good performance,” Gill still sees areas for improvement in this early-season loss.
“I think early stages in the season always are about building relationships and learning which players are going to play best with each other, and we do need to find rhythm in our play,” Gill said. “So we’ll continue to stress that with the group and try to find, like I said, the right combinations to put in the attacking parts of the field because, while today was a good performance for us, unfortunately, even though we had a goal wiped away there at the end with the video replay, we still feel like we need to be able to get more goals in the game in order to make that go in our favor.”
The Quakers will look to bounce back from this controversial loss against Seton Hall University on Sept. 12 at Rhodes Field.
