No. 9 Louisville's four goals lead to win against Pitt

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Junior Ricardo Velazco scored two goals and fellow junior Shane Campbell added a goal and an assist to lift the No. 8 Louisville men's soccer team to a 4-1 victory against visiting Pittsburgh on Friday evening.

With its fourth consecutive victory overall, the focus for Louisville was to put pressure on Pittsburgh throughout the match. Head coach Ken Lolla wanted both the defense and offense to stay focused on forcing Pittsburgh into making mistakes on the field.

"The number one thing was pressure, pressure in two ways," Lolla said. "One was defensively putting them under and not giving them an opportunity to get into a rhythm. And the other part was putting them under pressure by our possession and forcing them to have to make plays and create opportunities. I thought we did a good job in both of those areas."

The Cardinals struck first in the 14th minute when Campbell capitalized off of a free kick, curling the ball into the left corner of the goal and putting Louisville up 1-0.

"I'm glad to get the goal for the team," Campbell said. "The biggest thing is that was the first goal of the match and I felt like once we got one, the floodgates were going to open up. I was glad I was able to put a decent ball in and luckily it fell in the back of the net."

A little more than four minutes later, Velazco extended the advantage to 2-0 when he scored in a scramble in front of the goal. Junior midfielder Ben Strong assisted Velazco on the play.

Louisville finished the first half with a 14-2 shot advantage. The Cardinals earned two corner kicks in the first 45 minutes of play, while the Panthers did not see a corner chance.

Velazco opened up the second half scoring with a penalty kick goal in the 48th minute. It was his team-leading fourth goal of the season and the first ever penalty kick goal scored at Lynn Stadium.

"I knew where I was going to go [with the penalty kick]," Velazco said. "In the PKs, you've just got to be decisive, know where you're going to place it. Then I put it where I wanted it and it went in."

Two minutes later, senior Daniel Keller scored his first goal of the season to put the Cardinals up 4-0. Campbell assisted the play, as his free kick found Keller in the middle of the box for a deflection goal.

Pittsburgh's lone score of the match came in the 74th minute of play, when Kevin Murray capitalized on the Panthers' only corner kick opportunity of the game. Patrick Dixon was credited with the assist.

The Cardinals finished the match with a 19-7 shot advantage, including a 9-3 edge on goal. Both teams finished the game with two corner kicks apiece.