No. 5 Pitt Set To Host Howard Monday Night At Ambrose Urbanic Field

PITTSBURGH – The No. 5 Pitt men's soccer team (0-0-1, 0-0-0 ACC) returns home Monday night for their second straight match at Ambrose Urbanic Field as they welcome the Howard Bison for a non-conference battle. Monday's game will air on ACC Network Extra at 7:00 pm.

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 – HOWARD

This meeting marks the 11^th of all-time between the two programs with Pitt owning the 7-3-0 lead in the series.
The Panthers have won two straight in the series and seven of the past eight overall against Howard. Pitt has outscored Howard 11-0 in the past two meetings including a 5-0 home victory over the Bison last year.
The first meeting in the series came in 1960 as the Bison earned the 3-1 win in Pittsburgh.
Pitt is 7-1 against Howard in games being played in Pittsburgh. The Panthers have outscored Howard 20-1 across the past four matches at Ambrose Urbanic Field.

SCOUTING THE BISON

Monday's match marks the season opener for Howard. The posted a 2-11-2 overall record and a 1-5-2 NEC mark last season.
The Bison are led by Phillip Gyau who is entering his 10th season at the helm of the program. He has posted a 18-105-19 record during his time as head coach.
The Bison are tabbed to finish seventh (out of 9) in the 2023 NEC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
Leading the charge for the Bison is junior forward Bryson Baker who earned First Team All-NEC honors last season after ranking sixth in the conference in goals (6) and points (13).
Overall, the Bison return their top five players who accounted for all of their goals (11) and assists (5) from last season.
Howard also returns goalkeeper JR Gawel who started 13 games while posting a 2.92 goals-against average and .664 save percentage as a freshman.

PANTHERS DRAW PENN STATE IN SEASON OPENER THURSDAY

Pitt opened their 2023 campaign against rival Penn State on Thursday night in front of a soldout home crowd of 2,000 at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
Pitt fell behind late in the opening half as Van Danielson came in down the right wing and beat Cabral Carter to the low left corner.
The Panthers dominated most of play in the second half and finally broke through with the game-tying goal in the 79th minute. Guilherme Feitosa put a great through ball down the left wing to Abdoulaye Toure and his cross ended up right on the foot of Albert Thorsen who beat the PSU keeper to the left corner.
Following the Pitt goal, Filip Mirkovic was assessed a red card after a skirmish between the two teams occured in the PSU goal.
Being forced to play a man down for the final 10 minutes, Pitt held on to secure the 1-1 draw.
For the match, Pitt held the 13-6 lead in shots and the 6-3 edge in corners. Mirkovic led all players with four shots, two on goal, in the draw.

NEWCOMERS RECORD FIRST CAREER POINTS

The Panthers roster features a plethora of new players for the 2023 campaign and they made a big impact in the season opener Thursday night.
A pair of newcomers connected to score Pitt's lone goal as Abdoulaye Toure sent a great cross into the box where a streaking Albert Thorsen netted his first career goal. The points for Toure and Thorsen marked the first points of their Pitt careers.

MIRKOVIC CLAIMS MORE PRESEASON PRAISE

Coming off of the best season of his college career, Filip Mirkovic has garnered some preseason praise ahead of his senior campaign.
This week, Mirkovic was one of 37 players added to the Hermann Trophy Watch List. The MAC Hermann Trophy is the highest individual honor in college soccer.
Mirkovic was also named Preseason Second Team All-America by College Soccer News, United Soccer Coaches Midfield Watch List as well as the ACC Preseason Watch List.
Pitt also had a pair of players named to the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Top-100 players list as Filip Mirkovic was No. 16 and sophomore defender Jackson Gilman was No. 46.

HOME TURF ADVANTAGE

The Panthers have been one of the best teams in the country on their home turf over the past four seasons as they own a 32-4-6 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 36-17-8 at home in his eight seasons at Pitt.
Since the start of the 2019 season, Pitt has outscored its opponents 109-41 at home including a 24-12 advantage last season.
Dating back to last season, Pitt is unbeaten at home in their last eight matches (4-0-4).
The Panthers win percentage (.833) at home since 2019 is the best in the ACC and tied for 7th best overall in the NCAA.

Home Win % Since 2019

# TEAM                  RECORD             %
1. Georgetown        37-2-5           .898
2. New Hampshire   33-2-4           .897
3. Missouri State     34-3-3           .888
4. Kentucky             39-4-5           .865
5. Cornell                18-2-3           .848
6. Campbell             31-3-7           .841
7. Pitt                     32-4-6           .833
  Washington         34-6-2           .833
9. Clemson              37-8-4           .796
10. Yale                     13-3-3           .763

UP NEXT

The Panthers will hit the road for their first game away from home Friday afternoon as they travel to Washington, DC to take on No. 17 Georgetown. Friday's game will kick at 4:00 pm at Shaw Field.

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