Pitt Welcomes Crosstown Rival #25 Duquesne Monday Night

PITTSBURGH – The Pitt men's soccer team (6-3-3, 3-2-1 ACC) returns home to close out their non-conference slate Monday night as they welcome crosstown rival Duquesne (10-1-3, 4-0-2 A-10) to Ambrose Urbanic Field. The Panthers will be looking for their third win over a ranked opponent on the year and their fifth straight against the Dukes.

FOLLOW ALONG

Monday night's contest will be live on ACC Network Extra and can be found online HERE.
Live stats for Monday's game can be found HERE.
Live updates throughout the game will also be posted on Twitter by following the Pitt men's soccer account @Pitt_MSOC.

THE SERIES – DUQUESNE

This meeting marks the 12th meeting of all-time between the two programs with Pitt owning the 9-0-2 advantage in the series.
The Panthers have won four straight in the series including a 7-0 season opening victory against the Dukes last year at Ambrose Urbanic Field. Valentin Noel, Bertin Jacquesson and Rodrigo Almeida each netted goals in the blowout win for Pitt last year.
The Panthers are 6-0-1 against the Dukes at home while outscoring them 16-1 in those matches.
Overall in the series, Pitt is outscoring Duquesne 23-3. The Dukes haven't scored more than one goal in any match against the Panthers in the all-time series.

SCOUTING THE DUKES

Duquesne enters Monday's match with a 10-1-3 overall record and a 4-0-2 A-10 mark. The Dukes have won three straight overall including a 2-1 home win over Davidson Saturday night.
The Dukes are currently ranked No. 25 in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top-25 Poll while also earning an RPI ranking of No. 41.
The Dukes are led offensively by Ask Ekeland who has a team-high six goals, one assist and 13 points on 27 shots while Maxi Hopfer has five goals, three assists and 13 points on a team-high 45 shots. Junior Nate Dragisich leads the squad with seven assists on the year.
Defensively, the Dukes have been great all year long as they have allowed just seven goals through 14 matches. They haven't allowed more than one goal in any game this season.
In goal, Domenic Nascimben has started all 14 matches and owns a 10-1-3 record to go along with a 0.53 goals against average, .900 save percentage and seven clean sheets.

FACING RANKED OPPONENTS

The Panthers are no stranger to nationally ranked opponents. Pitt has played a total of seven nationally ranked opponents through their first 12 games of the season for the first time in program history.
Pitt opened the season with back-to-back wins over top-10 programs for the first time in program history as they downed No. 2 Georgetown 2-1 and No. 6 West Virginia 3-0.
Pitt is 4-0-1 against top-5 opponents over the last two seasons as they downed Georgeotwn (No. 2), Clemson (No. 2), Duke (No. 3) and North Carolina (No. 4) during the regular season and tied Notre Dame (No. 4) in the Elite Eight last season.
Overall, Pitt is 6-2-4 against nationally ranked foes over the last two seasons.
Over the last three seasons, Pitt owns a 10-5-4 record against ranked opponents.
Currently, Pitt has two more ranked opponents remaining on their regular season schedule including Monday against #25 Duquesne.

SCORING FIRST A MUST FOR PITT

One of the keys to victory for the Panthers over the last four seasons has been scoring the first goal of the match.
Since 2019, Pitt owns a 38-1-2 overall record when they record the first goal of the match.
The Panthers are 5-0 this year when scoring the first goal while being just 1-3-3 when allowing the first goal of the match.
Pitt hasn't lost a game when scoring the first goal since falling to #2 Indiana 3-2 in double overtime on August 30, 2019.

Season             Record             Win %
2022                 5-0-0                1.000
2021                 11-0-2              .923
2020-21            14-0-0              1.000
2019                 8-1-0                .889

SAHMKOW FINDING HIS GROOVE

After fighting injuries early in the season, sophomore Luis Sahmkow has fianlly settled into his improtant role for the Panthers.
Sahmkow has been one of the best players on the pitch for Pitt of late as he has netted a goal in back-to-back matches for the first time in his career. He buried the game-tying goal in the 2-2 draw against No. 10 Denver and then his first career game-winner in the 1-0 road win over Virginia Tech Friday.
On the year, Sahmkow has two goals, two assists and six points on nine shots. His two goals and two assists are both career-highs.

HOME TURF ADVANTAGE

The Panthers have been one of the best teams in the country on their home turf over the last four seasons as they own a 28-4-4 record at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
Pitt held a 19-match home winning streak from Oct. 7, 2019 to Nov. 10, 2021, which at the time was the longest streak in the ACC and second longest unbeaten streak in the nation.
Head coach Jay Vidovich is 34-17-6 at home in his seven seasons at Pitt.
Since the start of the 2019 season, Pitt has outscored its opponents 104-38 at home including a 20-10 advantage this season.
The Panthers win percentage (.833) at home over the past four seasons is the best in the ACC and 7th best overall in the NCAA.

Home Win % Since 2019

# TEAM                  RECORD             %
1. Georgetown        35-2-5           .893
2. Missouri State     32-3-2           .892
3. New Hampshire   28-2-4           .882
4. Campbell             28-2-5           .871
5. Washington         32-4-2           .868
6. Kentucky             33-3-5           .866
7. Pitt                     28-4-4           .833
8. Yale                    13-2-2           .824
9. Cornell                14-2-3           .816
10. Clemson              34-7-4            .800

UP NEXT

Pitt hits the road Friday night for a big road test as they travel to Durham, NC to take on No. 3 Duke.
Friday's match will air live on ACC Network at 8 p.m.
The Panthers are 4-6-2 all-time against Duke.
Pitt has won four straight against the Blue Devils including a 3-2 home victory last year as Mirkovic netted two goals and Jacquesson scored the other.