Riverhounds finish tumultuous regular season with scoreless draw, clinch 4th seed for playoffs

A turbulent regular season for Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer came to an end Saturday in front of a chilly crowd of 5,067 fans at Highmark Stadium. After 29 games, the local 11 held down 43 points and a fourth-place slot in the Eastern Conference standings of the USL Championship.

Coming into Saturday’s action, pending the results of two other games that had direct impact on the club’s postseason slot, the Hounds could have finished as high as third or as low as sixth. In the end, they snagged the fourth spot and a home playoff game next Saturday evening against the Hartford Athletic after a 0-0 tie against visiting Phoenix Rising.

Pittsburgh finished the season 12-10-8, earning 44 points.

Earlier in the day, North Carolina FC went on the road and beat Loudon United, 1-0, to lock up the No. 3 seed. They were helped by Louisville FC, which beat Hartford, 1-0. The Athletic slipped down to the No. 5 spot after the Riverhounds grabbed one point to tie them at 44 points each after 30 league games. Pittsburgh owned the tiebreaker after sweeping Hartford this season.

A third game will take place between the two clubs next week — one that will put both Riverhounds midfielder Danny Griffin and Athletic midfielder Marlon Hairston back on the same pitch. On Sept. 20, during stoppage time of a 2-1 Pittsburgh win, Hairston claimed Griffin used a racial slur, causing a nearly 10-minute altercation before match play resumed.

The USL investigated the alleged incident and found no wrongdoing. Neither Hairston or the Athletic issued any retraction or apology.

On top of that, don’t forget that the home team was still without its head coach for a third straight match — the one who is their all-time winningest manager. The one who was placed on administrative leave via a cryptic X post on Oct. 10.

Since being named Riverhounds “acting” head coach in Bob Lilley’s absence, Rob Vincent has guided the club to a 2-0-1 record, and by all accounts, a reinvigorated offense that produced five goals in the last two games before Saturday night’s draw.

As for Saturday’s match, there were few scoring opportunities for either club, outside a few posts the Hounds found in the first half. Of the 24 shots taken between the teams, only three were credited with being on net. Riverhounds goalie Eric Dick recorded his 11th clean sheet of the season in league play, his 12th overall on the campaign.

Vincent spoke about the team’s effort Saturday.

“For the first half, I thought we played really good,” he said. “We executed kind of how we wanted to. We asked for a lot of movement from our midfielders, and we got that. We broke through them quite a lot. We just couldn’t find the finishing touch.”

Back to the real headlines surrounding this game: The uncertainty of Lilley’s return for the playoff encounter and the entire Griffin-Hairston incident.

“It’s a narrative that hopefully has been cleared,’ said Vincent. “I think the USL did their thing and didn’t find anything. We still stand by Danny. This is playoff football. Both teams want to win. We’ll just focus on the game.”

As for Vincent being in charge next Saturday? He remained coy.

“I’ll talk to Tuffy in a bit,” he shot back when asked about his role next week, referring to team owner Tuffy Shallenberger.

As for Highmark Stadium next Saturday, the Riverhounds are facing some scheduling issues as the WPIAL has the venue booked for two soccer championship games Nov. 1. The USL will announce start times for all playoff games at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Phoenix Rising finished their season 9-8-13 and fifth in the Western Conference of the USL Championship. They will visit El Paso in the first round of the playoffs.