Oct. 10, 2017
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PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- The Penn State men's soccer took a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss to the Panthers of Pittsburgh in a mid-week non-conference contest Tuesday, Oct. 10 at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
The Nittany Lions were down to their final seconds of regulation play when freshman Ethan Beckford (Manchester, England) knotted the score at 2-2 to send the match into overtime for the Blue and White. However, it was Pittsburgh who found the golden goal in the first overtime period to secure the win over Penn State.
The Blue and White capitalized on its six shots on the night, scoring two goals to mark the second multi-goal match of the 2017 season. Freshman Callum Pritchatt (Kinghurst, Birmingham) netted the first goal of his career as a Nittany Lion to tie the game in the first half of play, while Beckford scored his second goal in three matches for Penn State.
Despite giving up three goals, redshirt-freshman Josh Levine (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) had a good outing recording his second-straight game with double-digit saves making 10 stops on the night.
Javi Perez netted the game-winner for the Panthers in the final two minutes of the first overtime period, while Marcony Pimentel and Alexander Dexter each added one goal on the night for Pittsburgh. In net, Mikal Outcalt made two saves for Pitt.
The Panthers lit up the score in the 30th minute of the match when Marcony struck down the right side of the box and took a shot from five yards out that went off the left shoulder of Levine and into the back of the net.
Pritchatt quickly knotted the score at 1-1 when he brought the ball down the left side of the field and took the off-centered shot into the far right corner of the net in the 37th minute.
In the closing minutes of the first half, Penn State suffered its third red card of the season, going down to 10 players for the remainder of the game.
Pittsburgh took its second lead of the match in the second half when a ball bounced off the chest of Moxham back to Dexter in the 75th minute. Dexter took the one-time shot from 10 yards out into the bottom right corner of the net past a diving Levine to go up 2-1 over the Blue and White.
With less than a minute remaining on the clock, Dani Marks (Ra'anana, Israel) took the ball from the Pittsburgh forward and passed it up to Christian Sload (Reading, Pa.). Sload got the ball to Beckford, who raced down the pitch and buried the ball into the back of the net from the right side to equalize the score at 2-2 and send the match into overtime with the Panthers.
Pittsburgh came into the overtime period with two quick opportunities before Penn State saw their first on an Aaron Molloy (Dublin, Ireland) shot that went just wide of the net. Minutes later, Perez would drive in the winning goal for the Panthers, securing the 3-2 overtime victory.
The Nittany Lions will continue their Big Ten Conference schedule Saturday, Oct. 14 when it travels to East Lansing, Michigan for a 7 p.m. contest with the Spartans of Michigan State University.