Pulse of Pittsburgh Soccer: Steel City moves on in Open Cup | HS regular season wraps up | Past ‘mid-term’ College DI teams’ have catching up to do | Hounds turn attention to Monterey Bay

Just another Manic Monday, right?

Wish it was Sunday?

But we’re ready to run today…

High School Regular Season Wraps Up

One of our busiest periods for our site and Pittsburgh soccer comes this week, as we officially get into postseason mode as the High School soccer regular season ends and the WPIAL Playoff Brackets are released on Wednesday.  First round matches are expected to kick off at the end of the week and early next week, with all roads in WPIAL leading to Highmark Stadium, where the Finals for each of the four classifications in Boys and Girls will be played October 30-November 1.

Look for a lot more coverage to come including a new edition of Coaches Corner, our final playoff seeding projections and of course — we’ll be posting brackets for each classification as they’re revealed and getting reaction from coaches on Wednesday afternoon/evening.

Monday’s schedule has been posted:

WPIAL and City League Boys and Girls Soccer Schedule (10/13/2025)

High Drama at Founders: Steel City FC men move on in USOC qualifying…

Kudos to Head Coach Dan Brower and his ‘ragtag’ group from Steel City FC, who came away with a 3-2 win on Sunday to keep the USL League Two club’s hopes for a second appearance in three years in the proper US Open Cup tournament.

PSN’s Colton Coreschi was at Founders Field and has the full match report:

FINAL: Steel City FC 3, FCY New York 2 (2026 USOC Qualifying)

There are two more rounds expected to go in qualifying.  Steel City will likely learn their next opponent later this week after Second Round concludes (still matches to be played Monday).

Round three matches are slated for November 1-2.   The fourth round is scheduled for November 22-23.

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Ava Trethewey’s brace leads Robert Morris in key conference road win

RMU women’s soccer team excelled on both sides of the ball Sunday afternoon, defeating Purdue Fort Wayne, 3-0, to earn a crucial Horizon League victory. The Colonials improve to 4-6-3 overall and 2-2-2 in conference play, while collecting their fourth shutout of the season.

Junior Ava Trethewey recorded her first career two-goal game, bringing her season totals to five goals and two assists for 12 points. She now leads RMU in both goals and points, ranking among the top five in the Horizon League in each category.

Over her career, the Charleston, WV, native has totaled six goals, six assists, and 18 points.

Duquesne’s Matesa-Moore combo connects again in loss at first-place Saint Louis

On Sunday, in a tough road challenge against first-place Saint Louis, the Dukes fell behind 2-0 in the first half.  Still, the Dukes found a second half goal just under eight minutes after the break, with the senior forward pair of Maya Matesa and Brianna Moore connecting again. Matesa pushed forward with a header, and Moore raced to the ball, beating her defender with a burst of speed before slicing it past Parker into the bottom left corner of the net to make it 2-1 in the 53rd minute.

This was a historic goal for the duo, as Matesa (58) and Moore (48) are the now to top-scoring tandem in Duquesne history with 106 combined points. They surpassed former Dukes Katie O’Connor (67) and Abby Losco (37), who registered 104 points as teammates from 2015 to 2018. In addition, the assist for Matesa pushed her point total for the 2025 campaign to 28, establishing a new program single-season scoring standard. Matesa eclipsed Audra Mathews (2004-07), who owned the record of 27 that she established as a freshman in 2004.

Now past ‘Mid-Terms’, College DI teams have some catching up to do..

It really is crunch time for all of the Division I college teams and after this weekend’s results, they all have work to do.

It’s been a rough season (so far) for Pitt’s men’s and women’s squads, while Duquesne’s men and women also took conference losses over the weekend, and while Robert Morris men and women remain very much in contention for Horizon League postseason bids, each team has its most important matches still ahead of them.  Below, we compiled a forecast grid profiling each DI team’s status and postseason possibilities.

	Overall Record	Conference Record (and place)	Last Result	Upcoming Match(es)	PSN Outlook
PITT MSOC	4W-6L-1D	0W-4L-1D (15/15)	0-2 (L) @ No. 1 Stanford	Tues v Denver (H)	We haven’t seen a Pitt MSOC squad this far down in the standings, in dead last, since Jay Vidovich’s first season (2016). Despite tough schedule,  RPI is sinking with 0-5 road record. Even winning final three, all at home, vs Denver, Syracuse and Wake Forest (which may be a stretch the way this team is not scoring), still may not be enough for NCAA bid
PITT WSOC	5W-7L-2D	1W-5L-0D (14/17)	1-3 (L) @ No. 19 UNC	Fri v NC State (H)	With four conference matches remaining, they can still look to finish at or over .500 for season, but the postseason is all but out of reach as ACC only takes top six.
DUQUESNE MSOC	6W-4L-2D	1W-4L-0D (12/13)	0-1 (L) @ Fordham	Sat v George Washington (H)	A perplexing start in Conference play — all losses coming on the road — have put the Dukes in a hole they have to climb out of to get into the A10 tournament. Good news is 2 of last 3 A10 contests are at home.
DUQUESNE WSOC	9W-4L-2D	4W-2L-0D (4/14)	0-1 (L) @STL	Thurs v Loyola (IL) (H)	The Dukes didn’t back down on the road at Saint Louis. The aggressive mindset needs to continue as they continue to be a threat as long as Matesa are the 1-2 punch at the top of the attack.
ROBERT MORRIS MSOC	4W-2L-5D	2W-0L-3D (3/10)	1-1 (D) v Cleveland St	Sat at Oakland (MI)	Talk about a logjam at the top — there’s one 3-0-2 team and three 2-0-3 teams (including RMU) in the Horizon League race, that’s why giving up a goal at the very last second vs CLE ST on Saturday had to sting a bit for Jon Potter’s crew. Rematch of last year’s final awaits on Saturday, at Oakland.
ROBERT MORRIS WSOC	4W-6L-3D	2W-2L-2D (5/11)	3-0 (W) @Purdue F-W	Thurs v Cleveland St (H)	Currently in position for a playoff berth, results will be imperative in the next two at home before they finish the season on the road vs two teams above them in the standings (at Wright St and Youngstown St)

Playoff-bound Riverhounds prepare for last road match of regular season…

Look for more to come on the Riverhounds this week, as they are officially playoff-bound yet again, but look to finish strong, with acting Head Coach Rob Vincent at the helm.  I will have more on Saturday’s win and will also be planning to visit training at some point this week before they head off to California, to take on Monterey Bay FC, on Saturday night (10 p.m. ET).

 

PITTSBURGH SOCCER SCHEDULE (10/14/2025 — 10/19/2025)

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)