Jacquesson’s Brace Lifts Pitt Past Cleveland St. In NCAA Tournament First Round

Thursday, November 17

Pittsburgh, Pa.

7:00 PM

Pitt

9-4-5, 3-2-3

Cleveland State

11-4-5, 5-1-3

Cleveland St.

Pittsburgh

Jacquesson’s Brace Lifts Pitt Past Cleveland St. In NCAA Tournament First Round

11/17/2022 10:09:00 PM | Men's Soccer

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PITTSBURGH – The Pitt Men's Soccer team (9-4-5, 3-2-3 ACC) advanced to the NCAA Tournament Second Round after notching a 2-1 home victory over the visiting Cleveland State Vikings Thursday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field.

With the win, Pitt has earned at least one NCAA Tournament victory in each of the past four seasons. The Panthers also improved to a perfect 4-0 in NCAA Tournament games played at Ambrose Urbanic Field.

Pitt will now travel to No. 16 Akron on Sunday at 1pm for their NCAA Tournament Second Round game against the Zips. The Panthers and Zips played to a 3-3 draw earlier this year at Ambrose Urbanic Field.

After controlling much of the action early on, the Panthers broke through with the first goal of the match in the 28^th minute as Josh Luchini chipped a pass to Michael Sullivan who carried the ball down the left flank and sent a low cross into the box where Bertin Jacquesson deposited it into the right corner of the Vikings goal.

28' | GOALLLLLLL??@BertinJacquess4 nets the first of the match after a great feed by @Msullivan_09.

Pitt 1, CSU 0 #H2P pic.twitter.com/zvq4ZD0ef6
— Pitt Men's Soccer (@Pitt_MSOC) November 18, 2022

Sullivan had a chance to double up the Pitt lead in the 43^rd minute but his hard shot was scooped up by the Cleveland State keeper as Pitt entered the locker room leading 1-0. The Panthers held the 8-2 lead in shots through the opening 45 minutes of the match.

The Vikings opened the second half with a good chance in the 52^nd minutes as Hector Gomez broke free and ripped a shot towards the Pitt cage but Joe van der Sar made a strong stop to keep the 1-0 lead for Pitt. A couple minutes later Valentin Noel had a great chance from the middle of the box but the Vikings' keeper made another big stop.

Pitt doubled their lead in the 77^th minute as Jacquesson buried his second of the match after some great action on the left flank by Guilherme Feitosa and Rodrigo Almeida. Feitosa send Almeida in wide and he made a defender slip before sending a perfect cross into the box where Jacquesson buried the left-footed marker for his seventh of the season.

77' | The Frenchman doubles the Pitt lead ????@BertinJacquess4 buries his second of the game. Assists on the goal go to @gc_feitosa and @Rodrigom26

Pitt 2, CSU 0 #H2P pic.twitter.com/rtVw16J7aH
— Pitt Men's Soccer (@Pitt_MSOC) November 18, 2022

The Vikings made things interesting in the 88^th minute as Gomez got free on the left side of the goal and buried his third of the season to cut the Pitt lead to 2-1 with just under two minutes to go.

The Panthers defense held on down the stretch to secure the home victory and send Pitt on to the second round.

For the match, Pitt held 60% of the possession while outshooting the Vikings 15-6. Cleveland State had the 4-3 edge in corner kicks in the loss.

NOTES
*** With the win, Pitt is now 8-8-4 all-time against Cleveland State. The Panthers have won two straight against the Vikings
*** With the win, Pitt is now 31-4-5 at Ambrose Urbanic Field since the start of 2019 including a 7-1-4 mark this season
*** Pitt has now won at least one NCAA Tournament match in each of the past four seasons while improving to 4-0 all-time at Ambrose Urbanic Field in NCAA Tournament games
*** Jacquesson is now tied for 10^th place on the all-time points list at Pitt with 57 career points
*** The two-goal game for Jacquesson marked his first multi-goal game of his career
*** van der Sar made two saves in the win. He's tied for eighth in program history with nine wins on the season