Pulse of Pittsburgh Soccer: Randy Waldrum gets well-deserved Hall of Fame call | Sequential Quadruple-Header on Saturday | Steel City FC roster set for USOC qualifier | RMU WSOC draw at Indy

The weekend is here!

This time of year, there’s always newsworthy items coming from the Pittsburgh soccer scene and the past few days were no exception.

Pittsburgh’s soccer schedule gets busy for Division I men’s and women’s teams, while the Riverhounds get ready finish the first of three remaining regular season contests when they host Indy Eleven on Saturday night at Highmark Stadium (look for that match preview to drop late Friday / early Saturday).

Saturday we’ll see a sequential Men’s quadruple-header — as Pittsburgh teams will be playing at 3 p.m. (RMU host Cleveland State), 5 p.m. (Duquesne at Fordham), 7 p.m. (Hounds vs Indy Eleven) and the capper at 9 p.m. (Pitt’s on the West Coast taking on another No. 1 ranked team — Stanford).

The High School regular season is winding down, but we’re getting revved up as it will be a busy weekend to begin finalizing our WPIAL postseason projections as the playoff brackets will be released on Wednesday.

Additionally, Steel City FC’s men’s team enters the qualifying stages (2nd Round) for the 2026 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, as they’ll host FCY NY on Sunday at Founders Field.

For someone who’s covered many US Open Cup qualifiers and early round matches in the proper tournament, I can attest that getting a decent roster on game day can be a challenge.  This week, Steel City shared the makeshift roster — filled mostly with a few veterans and recent college players who will do their part for the club — led by Head Coach Dan Brower — to get back into the proper tournament.

PSN’s Colton Coreschi will have coverage from Founders Field on Sunday.

Check out the full Pittsburgh Soccer schedule at the bottom of the post.

Hope you have a great weekend!

What’s Happening?

Randy Waldrum is Elected to United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame 

What a very deserving honor for Pitt Women Soccer’s Randy Waldrum, now the program’s Technical Director, to become elected to the United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026.

Randy Waldrum named to United Soccer Coaches’ 2026 Hall of Fame Class

Even before he came to Pittsburgh, coach Waldrum achieved so many great things in the game of soccer with Hall of Fame credentials.  From his playing days in the 1970s and 80s — to becoming one of the best coaches in Women’s College soccer,  Waldrum built and/or turned around numerous programs, creating winning culture at each stop along the way.  This included two NCAA National Championships at Notre Dame University.

When he came to Pittsburgh in 2017, there was no doubt Waldrum brought instant credibility to a program that had never accomplished much before his arrival.  Sure enough, Pitt women’s soccer has since flourished and has become a competitive program in the highly challenging ACC and NCAA Division I environment.

In addition, his ability to develop and get the most out of high-level women’s soccer players was on display on the World Stage, when he took the managerial post with the Nigerian National Women’s Soccer team, defying the odds to defeat the host nation, Australia, at the 2023 Women’s World Cup and an impressive run that ended in a penalty kick shootout to England.

What an era this has been for the Greater Pittsburgh region’s soccer coaching ranks — with Hall of Fame caliber coaches in abundance including Bob Lilley, Jay Vidovich and Nikko Izzo-Brown all trailblazers in their own right.

Duquesne men’s soccer team has now had two rough road outings in Atlantic 10 competition. 

Duquesne men’s soccer team appeared to be playing well at Rhode Island on Wednesday night in the first half, outshooting Rhody 4-2, while also earning a 5-0 edge in corner kicks.

However, two sequences led to penalty kicks opportunities for Rhode Island, then the floodgates opened, leading to a result we’ve rarely seen from Chase Brooks teams in his 13-year tenure at Duquesne.

First, in the 34th minute, Dukes’ keeper Diego Chavez was called for a foul in the box, resulting in a Tiago Barriguinha conversion for the 1-0 lead.

As the match entered the second half — this time the Dukes were guilty of a handball infraction — paving the way for Barriguinha to put Rhody up 2-0.  From there, things spiraled from bad to worse and before they knew it, the Dukes were trailing 6-0, before finding a little bit of redemption late when senior forward Dakota Jonke collected his fourth strike of the year on a header at 85:13 after a long pass from Pepo Bravo. The goal for Jonke snapped a streak in which Duquesne had allowed 10 straight goals against Atlantic 10 opponents without scoring dating back to a 3-1 win over St. Bonaventure (9/14) at Rooney Field.

With this result, the Dukes slipped to 6-3-2 (.636) overall, including 1-3 (.250) in conference action.

There will be a short turnaround, which may not be a terrible thing if the Dukes can turn it into a result. It won’t be easy as they travel south to the Bronx, NY, where they’ll take on the A10’s front-running side, Fordham (3-0-2 in A10, 6-2-3 overall0, on Saturday.

Robert Morris women battle back for road draw vs IU Indy

Former Hampton High School standout Madi Hurst scored her third goal of the season — and it was a big one — as the Colonials earned an important road result at IU Indy on Thursday.

RMU finally broke through in the second half when trailing by a goal.

In the 69th minute, Ava Trethewey made a strong move down the right wing and delivered a pinpoint cross to the back post, where Hurst rose up to head home the equalizer.

With the result, the Colonials move to 3-6-3 overall and 1-2-2 in Horizon League play.

RMU remains in Indiana to take on Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday, October 12, at 1:00 p.m. The match will stream live on ESPN+.

PITTSBURGH SOCCER SCHEDULE (10/10/2025 – 10/18/2025)

Sat	10/11/2025	Robert Morris (MSOC)	3:00 PM	H	Cleveland State	Moon Township (North Athletic Complex)
		Duquesne (MSOC)	5:00 PM	A	Fordham	Bronx, NYC, NY
		Riverhounds	7:00 PM	H	Indy	Highmark Stadium
		Pitt (MSOC)	TBA	A	Stanford	Stanford, CA
Sun	10/12/2025	Robert Morris (WSOC)	1:00 PM	A	Purdue Fort-Wayne	Fort Wayne, IN
		Duquesne (WSOC)	1:00 PM	A	Saint Louis	St. Louis, MO
Tues	10/14/2025	Pitt (MSOC)	TBA	H	Denver	Ambrose Urbanic Field
Wed	10/15/2025	WPIAL PLAYOFF BRACKET SELECTIONS
Thurs	10/16/2025	Robert Morris (WSOC)	4:00 PM	H	Cleveland State	Moon Township (North Athletic Complex)
		Duquesne (WSOC)	7:00 PM	H	Loyola (Ill)	Rooney Field
Fri	10/17/2025	Pitt (WSOC)	7:00 PM	H	NC State	Ambrose Urbanic Field
Sat	10/18/2025	Robert Morris (MSOC)	4:00 PM		Oakland	Rochester, MI
		Duquesne (MSOC)	7:00 PM		George Washington	Rooney Field
		Riverhounds	10:00 PM	A	at Monterey Bay	Monterey, CA
		Pitt (MSOC)	7:00 PM	H	Syracuse	Ambrose Urbanic Field
Sun	10/19/2025	Duquesne (WSOC)	1:00 PM	A	St. Joseph’s	Philadelphia, PA
		Robert Morris (WSOC)	4:00 PM	H	Oakland	Moon Township (North Athletic Complex)