PITTSBURGH—The Pittsburgh Men’s Soccer team dropped a hard fought, physical game to cross-town rival Robert Morris by a score of 3-2 on Wednesday night at Founders Field in Indianola, Pa.

The loss dropped the Panthers to 1-3-0 on the season, while the Colonials climbed to

2-2-1 with the win.

The Panthers’ offense controlled the game early as junior midfielder Marco Carrizales (Missouri City, Texas/Alfonso Crutch) got the Panthers on the board in the 13^th minute of play. Freshman midfielder Jeffrey Tidd (Strongville, Ohio/Strongsville) flipped the ball forward to Carrizales, who then blasted the ball past the Colonials goalkeeper Tomer Chencinski.

Robert Morris answered back with three goals to swing the momentum in favor of the Colonials. David Currie scored the Colonials first goal in the 31^st minute of play when he took a feed from Said Ali and blasted the ball into the lower right corner of the net. Joe DiBuono notched the second Robert Morris goal early in the second half as he finished off a loose ball in the box. Then midway through the second half Ali intercepted a pass and took it the distance to give the Colonials a 3-1 lead late in the second half.

Pittsburgh’s offense fought back to net a late goal when Brian Madden (Lansdale, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) booted a corner kick that found senior captain Clay Haflich (Fort Collins, Colo./Poudre) who finished the corner kick for his first goal of the season. Haflich nearly equalized the game in the 85^th minute when he booted a 30-yard shot on goal only to hit the crossbar.

Despite earning 12 corner kicks and having numerous scoring opportunities, Chencinski kept the Pittsburgh offense in check. The teams combined for 40 fouls and the physical play resulted in four total cautions.

Pittsburgh returns to action Sunday, Sept. 14 when they host No. 8 Rutgers in a Big East Conference showdown.

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