Riverhounds threaten in 2nd half but settle for scoreless draw with Sacramento

The score was the same as last week, but how the Pittsburgh Riverhounds got there was different.

They were fairly lifeless in the final third for most of the second half against Louisville City a week ago, but Saturday night, the Hounds had the top team in the Western Conference, Sacramento FC, on the ropes.

The common denominator, however, was they couldn’t find a goal and settled for a second consecutive scoreless draw at Highmark Stadium.

With the draw, the Hounds ran their unbeaten streak within the USL Championship to 11 games.

“We were better this week than last week,” Hounds coach Bob Lilley said. “The first 20 minutes were slow for us. They were outworking us and playing at a different tempo, but after that, our level started to go up. The second half, we played pretty much the entire half. We had some more runners in the box, but they defend well. They’ve given up one less goal than us.

“It’s still disappointing, because you never want to draw at home, but there were things tonight that we can point to and say we were dangerous. It’s tough to be cheerful, but we’ve played a lot worse and won.”

The Hounds (8-2-8) are now in second place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind a surging Tampa Bay Rowdies team that’s won three straight. Sacramento (9-2-7) is three points clear in the Western Conference.

The Hounds pushed for a winner after halftime and were sparked by the return of Albert Dikwa and Robbie Mertz. They both entered the game in the second half with Dikwa coming on after the halftime break. Dikwa had been out with a broken collarbone since the June 6 U.S. Open Cup match at FC Cincinnati. Mertz had been out since June 10 with a foot injury.

Both were on the back end of dangerous chances, but neither could find a way to get one past former Hounds keeper Danny Vitiello.

Dikwa was sprung on a break by a long pass from Griffin, but Vitiello was there to make the save. Mertz got a shot off in the box after a cross by Griffin, but again Vitiello was in good position to make a stop.

Vitiello stopped all five shots he faced in his return to Pittsburgh. He spent the 2020 and ’21 seasons with the Hounds.

Two other former Hounds were in Sacramento’s starting 11: Russell Cicerone and Shane Wiedt, who both spent the last two seasons in Pittsburgh.

Cicerone and Dikwa are currently tied for second in the USL for goals with nine each.

Former teammates greeted all three ex-Hounds before and after the game.

“Those are three good guys,” Griffin said of his former teammates. “Over the years, they had good roles here in Pittsburgh. Obviously they’ve gone elsewhere and are having a good year in Sacramento. It’s always good to see familiar faces. We just shook hands before the game, and then it was all business. We wanted to get the three points here tonight, but we got a draw, which was disappointing.”

The Hounds continued to defend well at home. They’ve yielded only four goals at Highmark Stadium all season and have had nine clean sheets in a dozen home games across all competitions.

Lilley wasn’t satisfied with another draw, even if it kept the undefeated streak going. He’s hoping they can add to the win column in a tough environment at Louisville City on Wednesday prior to coming back home to host Detroit City on Saturday.

“Hopefully our unbeaten run doesn’t turn into a draw run and we start putting threes on the board again, because they were adding up pretty quick,” Lilley said. “If you drop points at home, you have to go make them up somewhere and a good win against a quality team in Louisville could do that.”