Bob Lilley and his staff went into the offseason with the goal of improving the depth of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

They brought in Dane Kelly, the all-time leading scorer in USL Championship history, to pair with last year’s team leader in goals Russell Cicerone, as well as Alex Dixon and Albert Dikwa up top, and USL Championship all-time assists leader and team captain Kenardo Forbes.

There’s experience across the midfield and backline as well, which adds to the optimism that the club will compete with the top teams as the Hounds try to bring home their first league title.

The Riverhounds open their season at Memphis 901 FC at 7 p.m. Saturday. The home opener is set for next Saturday against Hartford Athletic.

“We have more than 11 starters on our roster, so I think there will be some different combinations early on,” said Lilley, who’s entering his fourth season with the Riverhounds. “We’re still seeing all the things that this group can do. We obviously have a good foundation from last year, so you know how those guys are going to play in our system, but there’s a lot of new guys knocking on the door that have either played in the league before or are college players that have come in here and impressed.

“Our job is to have competition and keep guys fighting for minutes. The benefit of that if we can keep everyone sharp is that if we have injuries or if we have to rotate the squad that we have a lot to choose from. The aim in the offseason was to build a deep team, and I feel like we have done that pretty well.

“When I look at our team, I think we can put two different capable lineups on the field and we haven’t been close to that since I’ve been here.”

The Riverhounds had an unbeaten preseason with wins over college teams Pitt, West Virginia and Villanova as well as USL sides Indy Eleven and Loudoun United and a draw with Louisville City.

Kelly has 99 goals in his USL career, which began with the Charleston Battery in 2012. Cicerone had 16 goals for the Riverhounds last season, while Dixon scored nine and had nine assists. Dikwa figured to be a major part of last season’s team but was sidelined for the majority of the second half of the year because of injury.

“It’s nice to have some extra weapons,” Lilley said. “I thought there were times last year where we lacked some attacking options off the bench, especially when we picked up some injuries. It’s nice to get Dikwa back healthy and have Dane in the fold with Dixon and Russell. We have William Eyang and Wyatt Borso playing well in the preseason as well. It’ll take the new guys a little bit of time to get adjusted to their new teammates and how we want to play, but having that foundation back it’s happening at a good rate.”

Forbes enters his fifth season with the Riverhounds. He has 45 career assists. Danny Griffin, the team’s ironman, returns for a third season. He has appeared in all 49 games since he joined in 2020. Dani Rovira also is back. Angelo Kelly, who spent the past four seasons with Charleston, is a new addition, as well as former Michigan standout Marc Ybarra.

Shane Weidt, Jelani Peters and Mekeil Williams return on the backline. Robby Dambrot, the son of Duquesne men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot, joined the team after playing the past three years for Loudoun United. Some youth was added as well with recent college grads Arturo Ordonez (Pitt), Nathan Dossantos (Marshall), Luke Biasi (Syracuse) and Toby Sims (Chowan) and 20-year old Jesse Williams from Trinidad and Tobago.

An area without a veteran presence is goalkeeper after Danny Vitiello signed with Sacramento in the offseason. The Riverhounds have two keepers on the roster — Kevin Silva, who spent time with Toronto FC II and recent Loyola (Md.) grad Chase Vosvick.

Lilley indicated the team will sign a third keeper, but is pleased with the current two.

“Obviously, losing Danny Vitiello is a big loss for us, but we went out and got two good young keepers,” Lilley said. “Those guys are growing every day, and it’s our job to improve in that area every day as we do every area of the field.”

The U.S. Open Cup returns for 2022 after a two-year hiatus. Pittsburgh hosts the Maryland Bobcats on April 5 to start cup play.

The USL Championship has returned to a two-conference structure after playing the past two years with four divisions to limit travel during the pandemic. Each team will play 34 games, and the top seven in each conference qualify for the postseason.

It’s an eight-month journey that begins Saturday.

“We have a lot of work to do all around the field to get where we want to be,” Lilley said. “Teams around the league have improved. The level of play goes up in the league every year, so having all these good attacking options on paper, doesn’t necessarily put the ball back in the net. We have to give them good service. We have to defend well, keep possession and play games where we’re able to dictate. We’re hopeful that with those extra weapons our goal production can be more consistent.”

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