When Tommy Williamson touched home his fifth goal of the season shortly after coming off the bench against Loudoun United on Sept. 11, it might not have seemed like a major moment considering it was the fourth goal as the Hounds were cruising to a 5-0 win.
A quick count through the annals of team history revealed that it did have a small piece of significance: It was the 900th competitive goal scored by the Riverhounds.
As the team prepares to host the Charleston Battery at 7 p.m. Saturday — a battle between the two remaining USL Championship clubs that have been around since the 1990s — the timing seems right to glance backward at names and games connected to the other milestone goals in Hounds history, both memorable and obscure.
(Editor’s note: The 900 goals in question include all competitive goals for the team: Regular season, Playoffs and Cup. Goals scored in preseason or friendly matches do not count, so while the Jose Angulo rocket to take a 1-0 lead over FA Cup holders Wigan Athletic remains one of the Hounds’ great goals, it does not count for record-keeping purposes.)
• The very first goal in Riverhounds history came 30 minutes into the team’s May 1, 1999 inaugural match against the Cincinnati Riverhawks, as Emil Haitonic put the Hounds ahead 1-0. While it got the packed house at Bethel Park High School celebrating, the match would end with the Hounds losing on penalties (all tied A-League matches went to a shootout in 1999) after a 2-2 draw.
It would be the only goal scored for the Hounds by Haitonic, who came to the U.S. after five seasons with CFR Cluj, one of the top clubs in his native Romania. Haitonic later played for the Riverhawks and still coaches youth teams in Ohio.
• Late in the next season, the Hounds hit the century mark through the team’s all-time leading scorer, club Hall-of-Famer David Flavius.
Flavius, another Hounds alum now coaching youth players locally, netted the team’s 100th goal on Aug. 5, 2000. Coincidentally, it again came at Bethel Park against the Cincinnati Riverhawks, but this time, the opening goal in the 27th minute was part of a triumphant effort, as the Hounds won 2-1.
• Through the team’s nomadic first decade and change, the Hounds would accumulate 494 goals. Then came the opening of Highmark Stadium in 2013, giving the club a permanent home.
Little more than a month after the opening of Highmark, the team’s 500th goal was struck May 14, 2013, in a game more affectionately remembered by the fans in attendance than the players involved.
On that night, in the first round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the Hounds struggled against Chicago amateur side RWB Adria and trailed at halftime. Goal No. 500 was the equalizer, scored in the 53rd minute by Seth C’deBaca, and it was enough to force extra time, a 1-1 draw, and, eventually, a penalty shootout won by the Hounds despite the best efforts of newfound fan favorite Igor Dimov in the Adria goal.
Goal scorer C’deBaca spent four seasons with the Hounds, but the 500th goal in team history, while important, would be his last.
• No. 600 came two seasons later in a game die-hard Hounds fans will remember by the date: May 30, 2015.
That game, of course, was the Miracle on the Mon, the remarkable 6-5 comeback win over the Harrisburg City Islanders that helped propel the 2015 side to arguably the Hounds’ best season in a decade.
While the lasting image from that match is the celebration around a shirtless Kevin Kerr after the winning goal — the second scored in stoppage time — the milestone goal was the 90th-minute strike that cut what was once a 3-0 deficit to 5-4, and it was a left-footed laser off the boot of Danny Earls that was so good the TV cameras on the match couldn’t keep up with it!
It was Earls’ second goal of the match, the first being No. 599 on the rebound of a Kerr penalty save by Nick Noble, and it certainly goes down as an unforgettable, albeit poorly documented goal.
• Goals No. 700 and 800 are linked, as they both came courtesy of another of the club’s top goal scorers in history Neco Brett.
The goals are rife with coincidence, as both goals were the second goal scored in an eventual 4-0 Hounds win over Canadian opposition; the first came April 7, 2018 against Toronto FC II, the second on Aug. 30, 2019 at TD Place Stadium against the Ottawa Fury.
Neither match was particularly memorable for its play, though the Toronto win had a few other milestones and quirks.
For one, the match was moved to Highmark from BMO Field because of an unplayable surface in Toronto after a midweek CONCACAF Champions League match. Brett also scored goals 699 and 701 in team history for his first career hat trick in the win, which was the first win as Hounds coach for Bob Lilley after two draws to start the season.
• That brings us to Williamson’s goal two weeks ago.
As with Brett’s two club milestones, the game won’t be particularly memorable because of its lopsided nature. Kenardo Forbes wrapped up the scoring two minutes later — Hounds goal No. 901 — which begs the question: How long until the Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ 1,000th goal?
Assuming the USL Championship sticks to a 32- or 34-game schedule, along playoff matches and the return of the U.S. Open Cup, it’s reasonable to assume the Hounds will score anywhere between 45 and 70 goals. That, plus a few more this season, means that sometime in the 2023 campaign, we should see goal No. 1,000 in team history.