Perhaps we have an answer

[Joe the Panther Fan]

To the question in the other thread about the women's soccer team potentially having turned the corner.

Duquesne - 2
Pitt - 0

Pitt with a ton of shots, almost all of which came from outside the penalty area that caused the Duquesne keeper little or no trouble. I think the Duquesne keeper made one good save and they had another ball on a goal mouth scramble cleared off the line by a defender. Duquesne had far fewer shots but at least as many good chances, and they didn't miss theirs. A disappointing result for sure, especially since Duquesne was coming off a 2-0 loss to Central Michigan.

One interesting thing I noticed from looking at the team rosters. Pitt has essentially abandoned recruiting Western PA, or even Pennsylvania in general. Pitt has one player from the WPIAL and she doesn't play. They have one other player from Pennsylvania on the roster. Duquesne has 10 players from the WPIAL on their roster, and they started six of them. One of them scored the first Duquesne goal, off a nice free kick from another WPIAL player. Of course that WPIAL player that scored for Duquesne actually used to be at Pitt, but not any more.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Nm

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Pitt just received a local commit for 2017 from a different local club but I never heard of her. Maybe she's not a WPIAL kid and drives a good distance to play club ball. My guess is she's probably just a walk on.

If you are referring to who I would have to guess you are talking about, Alexis Bengel goes to Highlands High School. Highlands is a WPIAL school. It is in Natrona Heights, along the Allegheny River just north of New Kensington.

I didn't realize that Vasquez played her club soccer there. She's from Youngstown, which isn't all that far to go. Especially considering my niece's team had a girl from Erie playing with them.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

If you are referring to who I would have to guess you are talking about, Alexis Bengel goes to Highlands High School. Highlands is a WPIAL school. It is in Natrona Heights, along the Allegheny River just north of New Kensington.

I didn't realize that Vasquez played her club soccer there. She's from Youngstown, which isn't all that far to go. Especially considering my niece's team had a girl from Erie playing with them.

Yeah. My younger daughter has two from Erie on her team. Julie Vasquez from Youngstown is a very good player. Streaky at times...but I loved her game. The girl who scored the winning goal yesterday was yours nieces coaches daughter. Interesting that your niece's team did not have one Pitt commit on it.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

The girl who scored the winning goal yesterday was yours nieces coaches daughter.

Yes, correct. Talked briefly with her mother on the way out after the game last night.

 

[mike412]

Is it a case ofDuquesne being much more up to play Pitt than vice-versa, or does Duquesne have better players? If you can get better players recruiting out of the area, then do it, but it certainly doesn't appear that the recruiting approach we are using is providing positive results.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

It's hard to say. From what I've seen Pitt and Duquesne actually have similar problems, they have no clue in the final third. The big difference specifically in the Pitt - Duquesne game was that Duquesne got a couple of good chances and buried them, and Pitt got one or two good chances and didn't. Pitt took a ton of shots, but quite frankly most of them were shots that had almost no chance of finding the back of the net.

To show how things change from game to game, Duquesne tied Youngstown State 1-1 on Sunday. Duquesne had a ton of great chances, but couldn't put the ball in the back of the net except on a PK that came on a foul on someone who wasn't even in a dangerous position (but was clearly fouled in the box). Being able to score goals is one of the hardest things to do in soccer, and it appears that neither Pitt nor Duquesne have anyone who can do that on a consistent basis.