Riverhounds relish chance at historic win in conference finals

The wild ride that has been the 2025 Pittsburgh Riverhounds season continues to play out like a trip on the Phantom’s Revenge at Kennywood. Some big hills, a few valleys and thrills and screams abound.

There was a slow start followed by a rather good run during the summer at home. There were allegations of racism leveled against the team’s captain — later deemed to be unfounded — followed by the removal of the club’s longtime manager under the “administrative leave” banner.

It was quite a path the local 11 took to the Eastern Conference final, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Highmark Stadium. There the club can erase 26 years of chasing down a berth in a championship game.

They couldn’t get there in the A-League, nor in the USL Pro Soccer League.

The team didn’t play in 2007 because of financial matters, then faced Chapter 11 in early 2014. But fortunes changed under Tuffy Shallenberger, a Fayette County dirt man who made his bones in the rugged construction industry of site work and excavation. He dug deep, so to speak, and took over as majority owner of the club, carving a new path for the team focused on youth development programs.

As the team found its legs under Shallenberger, the Hounds built around their existing digs at Highmark Stadium, expanding the building, while also moving up in play under the USL banner, reaching the Championship level where they sit today. With a win Saturday against defending Eastern Conference champion Rhode Island FC, the club would travel to Tulsa or New Mexico to play for a title.

How big this would be for the city and the state of soccer in town is not lost on Riverhounds midfielder Robbie Mertz, who grew up in Upper St. Clair.

“If we can get a win tomorrow, it will be remembered as our biggest.” Mertz said after practice Friday at Highmark. “That’s the nature of playoff time. It can be make or break. We had great years in ‘19 and 2023 and those ended in disappointment. There’s a bigger body of work there, but we’ve had a season of hardships. This team has managed to overcome some of that. For it to be remembered, we need to end it on a win.”

Rhode Island FC’s path to Saturday’s showdown has been paved in road wins, first against the league’s oldest franchise, the Charleston Battery, taking a 5-3 win in penalties. Then, last week in Raleigh, a pair of Albert Dikwa goals in the final 15 minutes sealed a 2-0 win at North Carolina FC and a ticket to a fourth meeting with the Hounds this season.

Pittsburgh swept the regular season series 2-0, but Rhode Island beat the Hounds in the Jägermeister Cup at Highmark.

Rob Vincent, who has been serving as the acting head coach in Bob Lilley’s absence, knows that the right preparation, given the fact his club has played in back-to-back 120-plus minute matches, is critical in having a chance to advance.

“We’ve held guys out a bit longer,” Vincent said. “(Midfielder Beto Ydrach) was feeling something a little earlier in the week, so you give them a bit of extra time to rest. For the guys who went 120, on Monday, we just did a little less with time on their feet. By Thursday, Friday, we wanted to get them back into the routine of training.

“Everybody knows there’s a trophy on the line. It’s a little extra bit of excitement and pressure that comes with it. You just have to focus on the game and not get carried away with the occasion.”

Center back Sean Suber was named first-team all-league earlier in the week. He spoke about the need for keeping this contest to 90 minutes and not going to penalties again.

“We’ve talking about it all week. We don’t want it to go to PKs again,” he said. “It depends on how the game goes. If we happen to go down and need a get a game-saving goal and we happen to go to penalties and win, we’ll take that. Starting the game off fast will be huge. Getting our rhythm and tempo is big for our side.”

Saturday’s game can be seen on Pittsburgh SportsNet and ESPN+.