Riverhounds win Eastern Conference thanks to Robbie Mertz's winner

Carrying 26 years of futility into Saturday’s USL Eastern Conference title match, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds came to Highmark Stadium on Saturday with a simple goal. Beat defending conference champion Rhode Island FC and wait to see where they would travel to for a crack at the elusive first club championship in franchise history.

With a stadium-record 6,745 looking on, Robbie Mertz took a header from fellow midfielder and team captain Danny Griffin, made a darting move to his right side of the Rhode Island 18-box and buried a 12-foot blast past FC netminder Koko Vegas in the 55th minute to send the Riverhounds to the USL Championship final with a 1-0 win Saturday.

The Riverhounds will travel to Oklahoma to face FC Tulsa at noon next Saturday. Tulsa defeated New Mexico United, 3-0, in the Western Conference final.

The Riverhounds spent their first 14 years looking for a home to call their own, moving from high school venue to venue.

They didn’t play a single minute in 2007 and filed for chapter-11 bankruptcy seven years later.

They placed their manager on administrative leave Sept. 10 and are now just 90 minutes away from what seemed an impossible reach: Winning a league title.

The first 45 minutes Saturday were an even tilt, one that saw the Riverhounds (15-10-8) hold the time of possession lead but concede three shots to Rhode Island (12-12-8) and register just one of their own.

It was in the 36th minute that Mertz found a ball that was flicked into the box for the half’s best scoring chance.

He got a head on it, but the shot was punched away by Vegas and kept the game scoreless.

It was a prelude to his heroics later in the match, a banger of a play as described by acting head coach Rob Vincent.

“I could not be happier for a guy on our team to score the goal, to score this goal,” Vincent said. “The amount of time, effort and work he’s put in with this club, I’m super happy for him. But like I said, it probably was going to take a moment, someone trying something out of the ordinary, taking a risk. Let’s try to create and make something happen.”

Mertz, who was visibly overcome with joy and emotion, recounted the play afterwards.

“Danny brought the ball down out of the air, and I gave him a shout. He laid it off to me, and I cut inside. I originally wanted to take it with my left, but I didn’t take the best touch. So as they committed to blocking that shot, I decided to take it to my right and had a little bit of room on the outside. I took the shot, and it took a deflection but fortunately found the back of the net.”

After allowing the only goal of the contest, the visitors then went down a man in the 60th minute when Mark Ybarra received his second yellow card of the match.

Despite the series of gut punches, Rhode Island kept swinging. And it came close to tying the score twice. In the 74th minute, Albert Dikwa sent a ball ahead of play, and it found its way to JJ Williams who got in on Erik Dick alone. His blast from just inside the top of the 18-yard box was sent away by Dick, preserving the lead.

Dick saved the best for last in the 77th minute off a direct kick just at the top of the box.

Defender Hamady Diop, who signed a free agent deal just two months prior, had a great look around the Riverhounds wall. His blast found space but was gobbled up by the netminder.

Dick collected five saves, tying a season high and claiming his league leading 14th clean sheet of the season. Vincent praised his goaltenders’ efforts.

“He didn’t have a ton to do before that, so I think it’s a good mark of a goalkeeper who can stay in the game even when they don’t have a lot of work to do. I was a little disappointed in the way we let them in behind us so easily. It was longballs that we didn’t deal with very well. I don’t know if it was nervousness or they caught us by surprise by going more direct, but we made the plays we needed to win.”

Dick spoke about that three-minute sequence afterwards.

“They knew they had to step it up and take risks and chances down. We just had to weather a little bit of a storm over the next 5-10 minutes. They had a ball over the top and Sean (Suber), he recovered so well to put JJ off just enough to make a shot to where I could save it. As for the free kick, the wall did its job. The wall stood firm. Because it’s so close, you don’t want to cheat. I said that’s my side, and I can’t get beat there. I was fortunate to be there, and everybody did their job.”

The Riverhounds also extended their club shutout streak to 512 minutes, having last given up a goal Sept. 11 against Indianapolis in a 2-1 win. The team record of 693 minutes was set in 2019.