Nov 9, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 5 min read

PITTSBURGH — Behind the largest crowd to watch a USL Championship match at Highmark Stadium, the feeling was leaning towards an unfair result for the home team on Saturday night at Station Square in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh had outshot Detroit City FC, 18-5, including a 3-2 edge on target, maintained possession for 58 percent of the contest and had 6,220 screaming fans yellow the city’s colors.

However, the Riverhounds had a goal from Augi Williams on a header in the 71st minute waved off and were in penalties for the second-straight week in a playoff match.

Pittsburgh trailed 2-1 after each team sent two of their shooters to the penalty line.

Detroit’s Sebastian Guenzatti and Kobe Hernandez-Foster beat Hounds keeper Eric Dick, and Detroit keeper Carlos Saldaña robbed the home team’s Robbie Mertz with a diving glove save.

Dick equaled his own team record with his 14th clean sheet across all competitions this season. He caught a late Detroit free kick from a dangerous area to end the first 45 minutes and knocked away a chance by Jordan Adebayo-Smith in the 96th minute to keep the match scoreless.

Saldaña stopped three shots for the clean sheet. He stole a goal from Mertz with three minutes to go in stoppage time with a full-extension dive to his right.

Pittsburgh’s Bertin Jacquesson scored on the first opportunity for the Riverhounds.

Detroit’s Devon Amoo-Mensah hit the post and Augi Williams blasted a shot to the left of Saldaña to give each club two goals apiece after three shooters.

Ryan Williams’ shot hit the cross-bar and Pittsburgh took a 3-2 lead when Sean Suber put his shot to the upper right-hand corner.

Detroit’s Michael Bryant put his shot to the left of the cage to bring the visitors level before Beto Ydrach blasted his shot in the upper right-hand corner and the Riverhounds advanced to the USL Championship Eastern Conference Final on penalties, 4-3, after playing a second consecutive 120 minutes without a goal.

Ydrach’s shot was strong enough to go off the fingertips off Saldaña and into the net.

“We work on penalty kicks before these types of games when we know it could go to penalties, so I was ready to go,” Ydrach said. “The moment just happened to come to me. My body went numb for a second, and my heart was in my throat when I saw he got his fingertips on the ball, but when I saw it go past him, it was just straight ecstasy.”

The fourth-seeded Hounds will host No. 7 Rhode Island FC this Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Pittsburgh will be appearing in its first conference final since the Championship began its current format in 2016. The Hounds defeated Rhode Island twice this season in league play with a 1-0 victory on May 24 at Rhode Island and a 2-0 triumph at Pittsburgh on Aug. 2. Rhode Island, who is the defending Eastern Conference champion, downed the Hounds, 1-0, on May 31 in USL Jägermeister Cup play.

Pittsburgh’s players and coaches knew during Saturday’s match that they would be back at Highmark Stadium if they won against Detroit City, which is not something that acting head coach Rob Vincent, his staff, or team, wanted to know as the result of the match was still very much in question.

“I was thinking when they announced it (that the Hounds would host the conference final if they won) over the speaker, ‘I hope they didn’t just jinx us,'” Vincent said. “It will be great to be in front of the ‘Steel Army’ again, and I think it helps put a spring in our guys’ step if we get into that 100th minute.

“We know that Rhode Island is going to be a challenge. We have fared well against them this season, but they advanced to the championship last year, so we know they can win in the playoffs.”

The Riverhounds have played three scoreless matches in a row, dating back to the regular-season finale, when they played Phoenix Rising FC without a tally for 90 minutes.

Pittsburgh thought it had broken through on Williams’ header, which let off the smoke and pyrotechnics at Highmark Stadium, but the celebration only lasted several seconds as referee Natalie Simon disallowed the goal for a push by Williams against former Hounds defender Shane Wiedt. Pittsburgh’s Luke Biasi served the long diagonal ball into the box for Williams.

“From what I’m hearing, the call was questionable on Augi’s goal,” Vincent said. “I’m not that worried about that. We just have to keep playing the way we are playing, creating chances, and hopefully one falls in. I would be more worried if we weren’t creating chances.”

Bradley Sample, who was recognized as the “Modelo Man of the Match,” was stopped by Saldaña on a low shot through traffic three minutes into the match.

Sample, a second-year pro, played 120 minutes and connected on 55 of 61 passes (90.2 percent). He was second on the team in winning possession eight times. Sample connected on 22 of 26 passes in Detroit’s final third.

Sample hasn’t played in back-to-back matches that were decided by penalties in many instances during his career.

“You have to probably go back to my academy days since that has occurred,” Sample said. “It has been a little bit.”