Heading into the Pittsburgh Riverhounds home opener at Highmark Stadium, coach Bob Lilley was hoping to slow down Indy Eleven striker Tyler Pasher.

For about 95 minutes Wednesday, that’s exactly what they did. Pasher didn’t register a shot until about the 77th minute, and midfielder Dani Rovira shut him down for a majority of the night.

But in the waning moments of the game, the former Riverhounds striker broke free around midfield, dribbled through three Pittsburgh defenders, took a touch to his left just outside of the 18-yard box and hit a left-footed bender that found nothing but nylon in the top-left corner of the net to give Indy Eleven a 1-0 victory.

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“It’s tough to lose a game like that with as much work as they put into it,” Lilley said. “It’s the third game of the season, it was a critical game and a game we wanted it. We play them again in a couple weeks and hopefully if we take care of business, we’re playing in the playoffs with a third game down the road. We just need to keep getting better.”

Indy Eleven’s (4-0-0) victory ends a historic streak for the Riverhounds (2-1-0). The Black and Gold had gone unbeaten in its last 25 regular season games (14-0-11) at Highmark Stadium.

Throughout the first 95 minutes on Wednesday night, the two teams battled, both skillfully and physically. They traded opportunities throughout the first half, with the Riverhounds creating five shots and Indy Eleven tallying three.

The game turned a little more physical in the second half as seven different yellow cards were handed out, five of which went to the Hounds. But, Lilley was expecting the physicality.

“We told the guys, I mean we’re not that physical and we can be, but I told the guys it was going to be physical,” Lilley said. “I told them I didn’t want yellow cards, but I said you gotta compete, they are going to bang you and the game was going to end up like that.”

The Riverhounds had their closest chance in the 27th minute when Kenardo Forbes delivered a corner kick into the center of the box and Tommy Vancaeyezeele got a head on it.

The ball hit the top bar and bounced straight down, looking like it crossed the goal line. While the ref called it off, Forbes was still in the corner and had a pretty good look and said he thought it should’ve gone the other way.

“I’m not one to sit here and bash the ref, but I think he got it wrong,” Forbes said.

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Indy and Pittsburgh traded possessions for the remainder of the game, but as the game carried on it opened up more and more. Around the 77th minute, right after the second mandatory water break, Pasher got free of Rovira and tallied his first shot of the contest. Although it was just a dribbler directly at Tomas Gomez it might have been a sign of things to come.

The Riverhounds also came close in the 90th minute off a corner kick, when Steevan Dos Santos got a shot off but it was blocked in front of the net. Overall, Lilley looked at Wednesday’s contest as an opportunity for his team to learn, and it was quite a test to see where they stand amongst the top teams in the league.

“I think our mentality was good for the game, and our execution wasn’t as good as we could’ve played,” Lilley said. “But I think it’s more about learning from this. I don’t think anyone is going to go 16-0; it’s a short season. You don’t want to drop too many points, especially at home, but if this is a measuring stick for us it should push us forward rather than set us back.”

The Riverhounds now look forward as they enter the back half of a three-games-in-nine-days stretch. On Sunday, they’ll take on the New York Red Bulls II in New Jersey at Red Bull Arena, and Forbes is excited to take the next step forward with his team.

“It’s hard to take, but we just have to move on,” Forbes said. “We just gotta put this one behind us and move forward.”

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