After having his penalty attempt stopped two minutes into the game, Russell Cicerone was left shaking his head with a look of disappointment on his face.
Little did he know at the time he would be in store for a big night on the scoresheet.
Two minutes after the missed penalty, Cicerone was sprung open on goal by a long pass from Alex Dixon and this time found the back of the net.
He added two more goals for his first hat trick of his professional career, helping the first-place Pittsburgh Riverhounds to a 4-1 win over Atlanta United 2 on Sunday night at Highmark Stadium.
“It definitely took a lot of weight off my shoulders,” Cicerone said of the goal following the missed penalty. “It was an unbelievable pass from Dixon. To get an opportunity like that a couple minutes later to build my confidence back up was definitely important to me.”
With the win the Riverhounds (11-6-4) gained sole possession of first place in the USL Atlantic Division by three points over Tampa Bay. The Rowdies have a match Monday at Loudoun. Atlanta slipped to 6-8-7.
Cicerone’s second tally came in the 31st minute. Following a nice outlet pass by Danny Griffin, Cicerone won a one-on-one battle over Atlanta defender Bryce Washington, a Pitt grad, and placed his shot inside the right post. He completed the hat trick in the 66th minute by putting home a shot in tight after a low cross from Dixon. It was the first Riverhounds hat trick since Nico Brett in 2019 and the first of Cicerone’s pro career.
Cicerone has 11 goals on the season, and Dixon has seven assists to go along with six goals.
“I’ve scored two goals in a game a lot of times, but have never been able to get over that hump,” Cicerone said. “Of course I did it the hard way tonight, too, with missing a penalty. Without passes like Danny Griffin and Alex Dixon gave me, I don’t score three goals. It’s amazing playing with them.”
Darwin Matheus scored for Atlanta in the 15th minute to tie the score 1-1. The goal was set up by a high-arching pass from Aiden Mcfadden over the Riverhounds backline to an open Matheus in the middle of the box.
Tommy Williamson scored the winner in the 26th minute. Following a corner kick, the ball bounced out to Griffin, who passed it to Kenardo Forbes.
Forbes slammed a hard pass in front, and Williamson directed the ball into the goal.
The game was played at a wide-open pace in the first half, but once the Riverhounds got the lead they were able to slow things down and limit Atlanta’s counter attacks.
“(Atlanta) is explosive,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “The game got wide open. They were unbeaten in their last three and scored 12 goals. We had to slow them down. If we did, we knew we would get chances. They spread the field out. I was disappointed that every time in the first half, every chance in the first half was a trade off. I told them at half time that even though we were up 3-1 it wasn’t over. We had to get control of the game. You could see the fatigue in our guys because of playing five games in a short window. We scored good goals, and we defended pretty well in the second half.”
Upper St. Clair grad Robbie Mertz started in the midfield in his return to Pittsburgh. Mertz played the previous two years with the Riverhounds prior to signing with Atlanta in the offseason. The 2020 Pitt men’s soccer team that made the NCAA final four was honored by the Riverhounds with a halftime ceremony.
The Riverhounds’ next game is Saturday at Hartford.
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