Riverhounds club legend, ‘Miracle on Mon’ hero and current assistant coach Rob Vincent can still hit it from distance

Photo courtesy John Krysinsky

Riverhounds current assistant coach and club legend, Rob Vincent, every now and then may polish off his boots and let one rip from distance in practice.

Club officials, Head Coach Bob Lilley and players each confirmed that during a lively preseason training session earlier this Spring, Vincent buried a shot from behind the arc — in the very same area where he scored his — arguably — most famous goal as a Riverhound in the ‘Miracle on the Mon’ comeback.

After Vincent’s shot hit the back of the net, it set off a fun goal scoring celebration as the current players mobbed their assistant coach who still has a knack for hitting bangers.

“We were doing a game of two touch and it was back-to-back half volley strikes that went as top corner as they could have gone,” Jackson Walti, who currerntly roams in the Riverhounds midfield, described.

“His quality is kind of above and beyond what what the rest of us have.”

For Vincent, it’s just fun to know he’s still got it.

“I join in every now and again the legs are getting a little bit older, and a little bit more tired,” Vincent acknowledged.

“The knees are getting harder and harder to wake up each day, but yeah every now and again Bob will need me to jump in and make up the numbers and I always enjoy you know getting a couple of shots off and that’s probably the one thing I can still do.”

With the 10th anniversary of the most astounding results in Riverhounds’ history upon us, Pittsburgh Soccer Now‘s John Krysinsky caught up with the after training at Montour Soccer Complex on Thursday.

Vincent was a key figure on the Riverhounds’ high-scoring squad, amassing a career high 20 goals in all competitions that season.

One of Vincent’s biggest goals came with the Hounds trailing 5-4 in stoppage time against then Keystone Derby rival Harrisburg City Islanders, when Vincent ripped an absolute laser into the upper right corner to level a match that saw his club come back from 3-0, 4-2 and 5-3 deficits, with the latter coming at start of stoppage time.

The Hounds would complete the crazy rally with a Kevin Kerr goal at the very last seconds of stoppage time — sending Highmark Stadium into a joyous celebration.

“On one hand it does feel like a really long time ago. A lot’s happened since then both as a player and then as a coach,” Vincent shared.

“So, it feels like a long time but at the same time like you know. I can still kind of kind of picture it pretty strongly and pretty well and remember it.”

And the current players are aware of their assistant coach’s legendary goals — and the ‘Miracle on the Mon’.

“We’ve been traveling so much the past couple weeks i’ve kind of gone through every podcast I can listen to, all shows I can watch and I ended up watching Rob Vincent college highlights and Rob

Vincent uh professional highlights — so I’ve seen all of them,” Walti said.