The Riverhounds fought their way back from a one goal deficit to defeat the Pittsburgh Panthers 2-1 in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Upper St. Clair. The match was the first of three exhibition games slated for the Hounds.
The first ten minutes of the match held an extremely up-tempo pace with multiple direct long balls being played. As the pace began to slow down, each side received quality opportunities to open the scoring. Pitt took advantage of a bad clearance from the Hounds when Shawn Flowers stepped into a 30 yard volley that seemed to have eyes when it found the back of the net in the 24th minute. The remaining 21 minutes of the first half saw a couple different Riverhound players try to equalize, but just missed the goal. Jason Kutney took a ball out of the air with his full volley missing by inches and Ed Hayden’s header off a corner trickled wide.
For most of the second half the Panthers and the Hounds battled to win possession in the middle of the park. Tony Labudovski and Matt Baker began to add composure on the ball and the Hounds started knocking on the door to draw even with the Panthers. All fans who were in attendance could feel that it was only a matter of time before the Hounds would equalize and in the 77th minute they did just that. Jeremy Deighton, player on trial, went up and headed Baker’s brilliant cross over the Panther’s goalkeeper to knot up the score. Seven minutes later, second year Riverhound, Labudovski’s pressure on the ball saw him take a right-footed volley and placed it in the bottom right corner of the goal to put the Hounds up and secure the victory.
All in all it was a good run for the Hounds. Come out tonight to watch the Riverhounds take on Robert Morris University at Joe Walton Stadium; kick-off is set for 5:30.
