Pitt Defeats Lehigh to Advance in NCAA Tournament

Thursday, November 21

Pittsburgh, Pa.

7 p.m.

Pitt

10-7-2 (4-3-1)

Lehigh

13-5-3 (6-0-3)

LEHIGH

Pitt

Pitt Defeats Lehigh to Advance in NCAA Tournament

11/21/2019 11:45:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)Photo Gallery Vidovich Postgame Photo Gallery

Panther to Face Georgetown Sunday, Nov. 24 in Second Round

PITTSBURGH – The University of Pittsburgh men's soccer team had another historic night at Ambrose Urbanic as the Panthers earned their first win in the NCAA Tournament in program history, defeating Lehigh, 2-0.

Pitt advances to the second round and will face three-seeded and second-ranked Georgetown [15-1-3] Sunday, Nov. 24 at noon in Washington, D.C.

With the win, Pitt improves to 10-7-2 while Lehigh finishes the season 13-5-3.

"We are very excited to get out first victory in the NCAA Tournament," said fourth-year head coach Jay Vidovich. "Hats off to Lehigh, who is coming off of a championship, they were a great foe. I think the game started quite well for us and we found the back of the net after a great play by Edward Kizza and then after another restart we found the back of the net again after a nice play by Bryce Washington. It was great to go into half with the two-goal lead but we still feel like we squandered some chances there in the second half that we could've really put the game away. In the big picture that might've been a blessing as we have to learn to suffer a little bit when our opponents are putting something on us. Overall we are very excited about moving on.

Juniors Edward Kizza and Bryce Washington were the goal scorers in the historic game, netting two first half goals.

Pitt got on the board first in the 18^th minute thanks to the Dexter-Kizza connection. After receiving a cross from freshman Arturo Ordonez, junior Alexander Dexter found Kizza crashing down the middle and dished it off. Kizza finished to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead in the first half. The goal was Kizza's 12 of the year.

In the 44^th minute, freshman Josh Hesson crossed the ball into the box to Washington who then poked the ball past the Lehigh keeper to give Pitt a 2-0 lead entering the second half.

"Don't give up a goal," Vidovich thought as the game was ending. "That's all I was thinking about the last four to five minutes. We had some sloppy defending and they had a couple chances and I just kept thinking that we cannot concede here. In tournament play, weird things can happen in the last four minutes."

Redshirt junior Arie Ammann earned the clean sheet, making four saves.

Pitt attempted 18 shots between the two halves, while the Mountain Hawks recorded eight.

Tonight marked the 300^th career win for Vidovich, who is a familiar face in postseason play.

#H2P | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram