When facing off against a team that has not scored in six consecutive games, there are two likely outcomes. Either you keep the streak going, or the other team awakes from the drought and scores a ton of goals.
Unfortunately for the Oakland Roots, the later outcome was what occurred against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Saturday, losing 5-0.
Oakland came into the game having won seven of nine games and risen to second place in the USL Western Conference standings.
Perhaps the Roots were caught looking ahead to their faceoff against the NorCal Rivals Sacramento Republic and a national broadcast on CBS next Sunday. Whatever the reason, Pittsburgh scored early and often against an unusually listless Roots side.
Twelve minutes in, Roots center-back Nevel Hackshaw went for a header, but unfortunately, the ball bounced right into Riverhound Robbie Mertz’s path. Mertz did a square pass at the top of the box to teammate Bradley Sample, who pushed it on to Junior Etou. Etou powered the shot past Oakland keeper Paul Blanchette for the early lead. It was the Riverhound’s first goal since June 1st.
It was just the start of Pittsburgh bursting out of their scoring drought.
Fourteen minutes later, Oakland’s Bryan Tamacas was called for a handball in the box. Pittsburgh’s Robbie Mertz converted the PK for a 2-0 lead.
The Riverhounds went up by three goals when Sean Suber’s header just before the half put Oakland in a huge hole at the break.
Six minutes into the second half, Pittsburgh put the game to bed when Kenardo Forbes headed a ball into the net. Junior Etou added another goal in the 69th minute for the final 5-0 scoreline.
For the game, Pittsburgh had ten shots, seven on goal, versus two shot attempts for Oakland, none on target.
The Roots will have to sweep this game under the rug and prepare for their next game against The Republic. Kickoff will be at Pioneer Stadium on July 21 at 1 p.m.
