The Pitt News T he in d e p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh
September 14, 2015 | Issue 21 | Volume 106
QB Pitt Rowing christens new boat, Jonas Salk controversy brews after Pitt victory Stephen Caruso
Assistant Sports Editor
Doug Flutie or Rob Johnson? Cardale Jones or J.T. Barrett? Nate Peterman or Chad Voytik? Because of a touchdown drive from the backup quarterback to end the first half against Akron on Saturday, Pitt may have the next big quarterback controversy. Pitt’s coaching staff pulled Voytik, the junior starter from last season, near the end of the second quarter of Pitt’s 24-7 win in Akron and replaced him with redshirt junior and Tennessee transfer Nate Peterman. Peterman would go on to finish the game. Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi, however, is trying not to overthink things. “[Peterman] seemed like he was in a better rhythm ... Maybe he ate Wheaties for breakfast, we don’t know,” Narduzzi said after the game. See QB on page 10
Donald Burke pops a bottle of champagne to christen the Jonas Salk Courtesy of University of Pittsburgh Club Rowing
Josh Ye
For The Pitt News
On a sunny Saturday afternoon on the Allegheny River, Donald Burke popped a bottle of champagne to honor Jonas Salk, the father of the polio vaccine, as well as of the newest addition to Pitt’s rowing team. A seemingly odd juxtaposition, the Pitt scientist and the eight-person heavyweight boat share a name, as
Burke, dean of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, officially christened the team’s newest addition to its racing stock as the Jonas Salk. To the world, Salk represents the eradication of a terrible disease. To the team, Salk means fighting the hard fight. When Pitt Crew first acquired the boat, the team proposed several different names — including the Victory Light and Soldiers and Sailors — but
picked Jonas Salk as soon as a few members suggested it. The team chose to name the boat after him because, thanks to Salk, they are able-bodied and do not have to worry about polio, which causes severe muscle weakness. Crew members officially welcomed the boat to their fleet in an intimate ceremony at the Pitt Crew’s boathouse at See Salk on page 4
News
Pitt Law fosters job development for recent grads Emma Solak Staff Writer
Pitt’s law school has developed a specialized incubator program to help law graduates fly when they “leave the nest,” according to Pitt law professor Thomas Ross. Starting in January 2016, the Pitt Legal Services Incubator program is going to support six to eight Pitt alumni as they create solo firms or connect to create small firm practices. According to Thomas Ross, professor of law at Pitt’s School of Law and inaugural faculty director for the program, the school will provide the new lawyers with office space, technology support and training in running a small law business. Pitt law grads will offer their legal services to underprivileged clientele, occasionally free of charge. Although some of the cases will be pro bono, others will be for profit. The graduates will function as professional lawyers. “The goal is to nurture lawyers so they have a practice built but also can sustain a living.,” Ross said. “The idea is that after two years of support [the lawyers] are ready to leave the nest and go get their office space and keep rolling on.” Ross will oversee the new program, according to a release, and the new lawyers will work within Pitt’s law school. Pitt’s incubator is one of three in the state. According to the American Bar pittnews.com
Association, the Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services and Widener University also have similar programs. The law school is funding the startup with an $8,000 American Bar Association catalyst grant, meant for law schools and local bar associations to start new programs. Using the grant, Pitt will hire an “innovation fellow” for one year who will help connect underprivileged clientele to the lawyers working in the incubator. Pitt has not announced when it will select the “innovation fellow.” To qualify, applicants must be recent Pitt law grads who have passed the bar and have their license or are working to become licensed. Applications for the program will open after the bar association releases results in October. Ross said the law school will have no contact with the actual clients, and the incubator will teach students how to find their own clientele in the greater Pittsburgh community. The lawyers in Pitt’s incubator will find their clients in part through Pittsburgh’s legal aid offices. Mark Martini, president of the Allegheny County Bar Association, said in the release that incubator programs are beneficial largely because they serve underprivileged clients. The incubator attorneys will also benefit from one-on-
Aby Briner STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
one mentoring relationships with professional lawyers and make money from their non-pro bono work. “People often go to legal aid offices thinking they qualify for free aid but find out they get too much money,” Ross said. “They’ll get referred to our incubator lawyers.” One feature of the Pitt Legal Services incubator is unbundled legal services, which can help drive down legal fees. This means the lawyer teaches the client how to do as much of their own legwork as possible, which saves the client from paying the lawyer a steep hourly rate for work they could have done, Ross said. Third-year law student Jesse Exilus said the practical experience feature of the program appeals to him. “It’s a jump-start on people who just take the classes,” Exilus, who is specializing in immigration law, said. Exilus said he would be interested in applying to the incubator program for the hands-on value as well as the client base. “They get services, while law stu-
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dents get experience. It’s about helping find solutions,” Exilus said. Although she sees the incubator’s merit, Susan Gogniat, also a third year student, said she wouldn’t apply. Gogniat, who is specializing in corporate law, aims to work in a large law firm with big companies, rather than lower income cases. That’s not to say she doesn’t think it’s a viable program, though. “The problem is law school doesn’t teach you how to be a lawyer, it teaches you how to think like a lawyer,” Gogniat said. “Law students could use that experience to start or join a firm.” After a year, Ross hopes the program will be fully functioning with 12 to 16 lawyers. “There are plenty of students who graduate top of their class who are not good incubators,” Ross said. “We’re looking for legal skills but as importantly, entrepreneurs and self-starters, who don’t just sit behind the desk waiting for a phone call but are out in the community.”
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Pathway to pathogens: Researchers find way to detect bacteria
TNS
Annemarie Carr
minutes later, based on the color, you get a sense whether you are bugged and whether you should go to see the Pitt researcher Xinyu Liu hopes doctor.” to someday see a sick person figure When the sensor detects a pathoout exactly which pathogen is causing gen, an infectious agent such as bactheir illness just by visiting their local teria or fungi, it attaches itself to the pharmacy. surface of the infected cell and emits a Concluding a two-year study, ray of colored light Xinyu Liu, an asthat varies with the sistant professor type of pathogen. of chemistry, and Currently, the senSanford Asher, a distinguished pro- “A few minutes later, sor only works on the fungus that Liu fessor of chemisbased on the color, you and Asher used try, have found a way to pinpoint get a sense whether you in their study — the culprit of an are bugged and whether Candida albicans, illness within minyou should go to see the which causes oral thrush and yeast utes using microdoctor.” infections. scopic sensors. Xinyu Liu According to “Imagine you Assistant professor of chemistry Liu, doctors often can pick up a kit prescribe a broadin CVS ... to see if spectrum antibiyourself or your otic when a patient has an infection close family members are infected until a doctor or technician can take with some nasty bacteria,” Liu said. “Take out the kit, put it in their mouth See Bacteria on page 5 or expose it to their body fluid. A few pittnews.com September 14, 2015
Staff Writer
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Salk, pg. 1 Washington’s Landing, an island on the Allegheny River. The rarity of the event made it all the more special, as Helen Lawless, the vice president of the Pitt Crew, said the team doesn’t always have the financial means to christen their boats. The club paid for the boat and the christening partially through a crowdfunding campaign on EngagePitt where it raised $6,090. The team raised the rest of costs through alumni donations. Pitt Crew purchased the boat, made
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out of fiberglass shell and equipped with speakers and aluminum wing riggers, for more than $40,000 last year. “Sometimes we don’t have the money, sometimes the alumni that we want to name [boats] after live too far away,” Lawless said. “We didn’t think this was going to happen because Jonas Salk is no longer with us.” The tradition of christening a boat by breaking a bottle on its bow began with the British in the 1700s. In the 1800s, champagne became the popular bottle of choice. If the bottle broke, a boat was
safe and secure for travel. If the bottle did not break, bad luck was on the horizon. Luckily for the Pitt Crew, the bottle shattered. Prior to this christening ceremony, Jonas Salk had already competed in races all over the country. Matt Huff, the current president of the Pitt Crew, said the team raced the boat in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston immediately after purchasing it. “We picked it up with eight people from a boathouse that is a few miles away from the river,” Huff said. “We car-
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ried it overhead all the way back down to the river. And right from there, its first ride was a race.” Pitt placed eighth in the race. Although not a win, the team exceeded their ranking of 15th out of 40 boats, according to a press release on the team’s website. Salk’s polio vaccine met instant success when he introduced it to the world in 1955. “Literally, church bells rang around the country because people were so afraid of polio,” Burke explained. The team hopes to mirror that success as it attempts to transition from racing with heavier boats. Lawless said Pitt is getting ready to step up its racing game by moving from midweight shells to heavyweight eightman shells. Since the sport favors height and strength, the heavyweight boat races are more competitive. In Salk’s spirit, the crew team has already nicknamed the boat “the Polio Slayer.” “It is a fight to make that transition because it entails more pressure in both competing and fundraising,” Lawless said. “So Jonas Salk represents that fight.” Burke, the UPMC-Jonas Salk Chair in Global Health, first met Jonas Salk as a young captain in the U.S. Army in 1985. They worked together on an AIDS vaccine. Just a few years after the vaccine went into widespread use, polio rates dropped to almost nothing in the United States, and polio is now close to being completely eradicated worldwide. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, the United States has been “polio-free” since 1979. Burke explained that Pitt students and faculty have always taken tremendous pride in the University’s accomplishments in the medical field. “I remember hearing students chanting ‘We Cured Polio’ during a basketball game in the [Oakland] Zoo,” Burke said.
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Bacteria, pg. 3 a sample of bacteria from the body, swab it into a petri dish and wait for it to grow. “You can do a swab and culture the bacterium or fungi, but that takes days,” Liu said. “You can examine the DNA, but that takes another day or two. It’s a pretty tedious process.” Liu and Asher conducted their research in the Chevron Science Center. The University of Pittsburgh and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency within the United States Department of Defense funded their two-year project, which Asher estimates cost $100,000 per year, or $200,000 in total. “If we have a panel of pathogenspecific sensors, I believe they will be very useful tools in the clinics or for personal care,” Liu said. Liu and Asher based their method on the diffraction, or composition of different colors, of light from their sensors. The diffracted colors change upon the interaction of the pathogen with the sensor. Liu and Asher have developed a protein hydrogel in which a protein polymerizes — when smaller proteins come together to form larger proteins, which coalesce into a responsive film. The hydrogel, which swells in water, is specific to Candida albicans. For patients more susceptible tooral thrush and yeast infections, these fungal infections can be life-threatening. For doctors and lab technicians, Liu and Asher’s method lets them figure out which pathogen is causing the illness by monitoring the color of light diffracted by the sensor. The sensor, made of proteins and carbohydrates, reacts to the infectious bacteria and emits a ray of light almost immediately. With Liu and Asher’s method, every time a researcher screens a pathogen, he or she must use a laser point pittnews.com
and a different hydrogel sensor. Because of its minimal equipment requirements, hospitals and clinics will not have to spend a lot of money up front to implement Liu and Asher’s technique, according to Asher. Liu said he and Asher plan to expand their research to include Escherichia coli, to combat food poisoning, and Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), to cut down on infections. David Nace, leader of a UPMC
study on antibiotic overuse and resistance, said doctors in hospitals could use the new technique to monitor multiple patients with similar illnesses. “It could be used in active surveillance in hospitals when looking for problem organisms such as MRSA and VRE [Vancomycin-resistant enterococci],” Nace said. Nace does not think Liu and Asher’s research will directly affect his own, which focuses on urinary tract
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infections in nursing homes. If Liu and Asher, or other researchers, expand the technique to viruses such as influenza, however, it could be incredibly helpful. In terms of real-world benefits, Liu imagines the take-home test kit and the help it will provide to everyone in all parts of the world. Liu and Asher said the kit is a far-out dream but not one they plan to give up anytime soon. “The impacts will be tremendous,” Liu said.
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Opinions from the editorial board
Choosing a college isn’t a numbers game On Saturday, the Department of Education unveiled a website that allows prospective students and their parents to select a university and then determine the yearly average costs, graduation rates and salaries after graduation. This information is a valuable asset, but we shouldn’t take it beyond face value. Your college experience is what you make of it, and average numbers don’t define the individual experience. According to the Department of Education’s new website, Pitt has an average yearly cost of $26,861 after considering the average aid received by students who qualify for financial assistance. Pitt has a graduation rate of 80 percent, and Pitt students earn an average salary of $48,200 10 years after attending Pitt. These numbers say nothing about the everyday life of a Pitt student. Selecting a college is no longer a question of whether a small, liberal arts campus is more attuned to foster your personal development than a large, urban-based university — it is a question of which one will ensure the most stable future. But a good school doesn’t equal a good future. It’s the student who completes that equation. pittnews.com
In the pursuit of return on our financial investments, we have forgotten returns on our personal investments — which are just as vital components of our college experience. The Department of Education data won’t allow students to determine their personal growth at a university. The information doesn’t take into account whether or not college helped you to figure out your purpose in life. The information lets you make a smart, mathematical decision and plan ahead how to manage debt. That’s great, but that’s all. Regardless, these numbers can alleviate the stigma associated with opting out of higher education. College isn’t for everyone, even if we often feel like it’s the only option. If you are wavering whether or not you want to attend college or enter the workforce, this tool will allow you to make a more informed decision. If you’re already planning to pay the price, don’t allow the numbers to determine your decision. If you hate living in a city, but the urban school has better “returns” than the small, liberal arts college that fulfills your every childhood dream — pick the liberal arts college and make the math work for you.
Column
Investments in education can save syrian futures Mariam Shalaby For The Pitt News
How does a Syrian child turn into a terrorist? When conflict ravages a region, children bear the consequences. Their families can no longer live in the country they love. They become refugees, and their primary concern becomes survival. Education takes a back seat and violence defines their lives. In Syria, children are losing their chance to achieve success through education. The mounting crisis and the inadequacy of educational aid paves the way for extremism in the next 10 to 20 years. The international community need to support the crumbling national education system and expand self-learning programs to protect Syria’s children from prowling extremist recruiters. Before conflict hit, Syria had one of the highest literacy rates in the world. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, from 2008 to 2012, 84 percent of Syrians aged 15 and older were literate. In the same September 14, 2015
time frame, the primary school net enrollment rate was 99.6 percent. Those numbers changed significantly once Syria — and Syrian children — fell victim to the effects of war. A joint 2015 report from UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics determined that 3 million children are out of school in Syria and Iraq, where the effects of war have destroyed much of the education system. That means 40 percent of all school-age Syrians are out of school, according to a 2014 UNICEF report. The joint report found that the conflict has resulted in one in four Syrian schools being damaged, destroyed or converted into a shelter for the military or displaced civilians. The remaining schools lack teachers and supplies and can’t promise safety to their pupils. At least 20 percent of children need to cross active lines of conflict just to get to their exams. Rather than risk getting hurt, many children just stay home. Seven hundred thousand Syrian children are
refugees in neighboring countries whose school systems simply can’t handle the extra load or are ill-equipped to teach Syrian children, according to another UNICEF report. Refugee camps in Lebanon, for example, offer a school share system in which state schools run extra shifts to educate Syrian refugee children. However, the system has a limited capacity, and the Lebanese curriculum’s French delivery is frustrating to Syrian children accustomed to Arabic, according to an article written for The Guardian. The report emphasized that families caught in the conflict identify continuing education as their first priority. While organizations like UNICEF and UNWRA have started initiatives to provide self-learning materials and expand and supply learning spaces — like the UNICEF-supported adolescent-friendly learning spaces (AFLS) — they struggle to fund them. “We are on the verge of a lost generation of kids,” See Shalaby on page 7
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Shalaby, pg. 6 said Peter Salama, the UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, in an interview with the New York Times. These kids are lost educationally, but they also have the potential to be lost culturally. A parallel trend to the dropping number of children in school, said Salama, is the recruitment of kids into paramilitary organizations. Extremist activity hasn’t claimed every impoverished nation, but Syria’s situation is different. Children in Syria come from highly educated families, and growing up in instability represents a drastic change in culture. These changes, coupled with frustration, make them easily attracted to readily available outlets, like terrorist groups. Extremist groups attract children with limited access to education, according to a 2009 report by the Homeland
Security Institute. The report states that lack of education, paired with mental instability, creates opportunities for radicalization. “The best way to fight terrorism is to invest in education,” said Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in 2014. She went on to advocate for the international community to follow new policies of aid, imploring, “Instead of guns, send books.” Other countries and world organizations have invested in the education of Syrian children, but it simply isn’t enough. The United States has provided aid to Syria since 2012, according to a U.S. Government Fact Sheet, but the amount of educational aid still falls far short of what the children need, according to UNICEF’s call to the international community. UNICEF has requested $624 million from the international community to address the humanitarian crisis in
Syria and surrounding countries. If other countries want to prevent children from falling prey to the lure of radical groups, international donors should intensify focus on expanding learning opportunities in Syria. Currently, the U.S. government is spending $68,000 an hour to fly warplanes to battle ISIS. Meanwhile, the United Nations has received just $908 million out of the $2.89 billion needed to aid those displaced in Syria, according to Yacoub El Hillo, the top U.N. humanitarian official in Syria, in an interview with the New York Times. UNICEF’s No Lost Generation initiative creates school clubs in places like the Safi Al-Din Al-Hilli School in Qamishli where children can go to make up missed classes, and UNRWA and other partners have created a self-learning curriculum that corresponds with the national system. These programs are still struggling to catch up with the surging need. Policy makers, donors and the inter-
T P N S U D O K U
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national community at large need to redirect their attention to Syrian children’s education. The national education system needs further support to maintain safe environments, and the nation needs to make teachers, supplies and selflearning packages more widely available. The Syrian government, which is working toward collaborating with rebels to end the conflict, simply does not have the resources to focus on the education crisis. Even the most vulnerable child should have the opportunity to learn. Nearly half of all Syrian schoolchildren have dropped out of school in the past three years. It’s all too possible that these children will grow up lost and traumatized, and look for support in the wrong places. If we want to prevent children from adopting radical mentalities, we need to keep them in class and out of radical environments. Write to Mariam at mas561@pitt.
Today's difficulty level: Hard Puzzles by Dailysudoku.com
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Sports
FRESH START
First year players help propel Pitt to best beginning in team history Jeff Carpenter Staff Writer
As they head into conference play next week, Pitt women’s soccer team is in good standing. Make that historically good standing. A pair of victories over Liberty and Akron, 2-1 and 3-0, respectively, have the team off to its best start in program history, at 6-1-1. Liberty The Panthers took on the Liberty Flames on Thursday night, with Women’s World Cup champion Meghan Klingenberg, a western Pennsylvania. native, from the United States National Team there to watch the game. After Klingenberg talked with the team in the locker room before the match, the Panthers jumped out to a quick start, connecting on crisp passes and using their back line to provide an aggressive attack to generate offense. However, the Flames struck first in the 38th minute, when a defensive miscue led to a small breakaway for Liberty. Junior goalkeeper Taylor Francis turned a shot aside but was visibly shaken up on the play. On the ensuing corner kick, freshman forward Jaime Bouffard got Liberty on the board when she nailed a goal after a scramble in front of the net. Francis stayed in the pittnews.com
game and finished with four saves. Pitt head coach Greg Miller worked to motivate his players during halftime, especially the team’s top scorer, Taylor Pryce. “I challenged [Pryce] at halftime, she had a little bit of a stomach ailment that she was dealing with, but I thought she was really able to change the game,” Miller Freshman Sarah Krause has scored three goals this year. Jeff Ahearn ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR said. many good chances, finishing with six career goal, Vazquez approached the Miller’s challenge saves. set piece and bent her shot to the left worked, as sophomore forward Pryce The 5-foot-10 last line of defense corner of the net and away from the took a feed from sophomore midfieldalready has a decorated career, aft er outstretched arms of Van Noord. er Ashley Moreira and scored her third registering 14 shutouts as a redshirt It was a big play from the first-year goal of the season in the 59th minute. freshman, a Liberty and Big South player, coming at a moment when Pryce’s tally became a real moConference record. the team’s primary free kick taker, sementum shift, as the Panthers had 13 However, when granted a free kick nior forward Roosa Arvas, was on the of their 18 shots in the second half. in the 80th minute, Pitt freshman forbench. Liberty goalkeeper Holly Van Noord ward Juliana Vazquez took advantage was still able to keep the game close, Find the full story online at of it. A game removed from her fi rst however. The sophomore turned away
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ACC woes continue as Wake Forrest shuts out Pitt
Adam Richman For The Pitt News
The rain and Pitt’s ACC hopes fell hard Saturday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field. Squaring off at home against No. 14 Wake Forest, Pitt’s men’s soccer team fell in a one-sided competition, continuing its conference losing streak since it joined the ACC in 2013. The final score was 4-0 Demon Deacons. Wake Forest entered the game with a 4-0-0 record, compared to Pitt’s 3-01. The loss ended the Panthers’ threegame winning streak — all in nonconference games — as well as Pitt goalie Dan Lynd’s shutout streak. Lynd had opened the season with four consecutive shutouts, which made him the program leader in consecutive shutout minutes with 386. Pitt tied Lafayette 0-0 on Aug. 28 before reeling of its three wins. After heavily possessing the ball and failing to convert on a few opportunities because of offside calls down the field, Demon Deacon midfielder Michael Gamble managed to find the net just 5:29 into the game. Gamble powered down the left side and scored on a low cross from defender Kris Reaves to make the score 1-0 Wake Forest. Pitt head coach Joe Luxbacher said Gamble’s score defined the rest of the night. “Giving up that early goal set the tone for the whole game,” he said. “We had to play catch-up.” But the growing pains didn’t end pittnews.com
there, and Pitt continued to struggle. Unable to possess the ball for more than a few seconds at a time, the Panthers couldn’t seem to find an offensive rhythm. The team often sat back on defense hoping to strike on a counterattack. When that moment did come, Pitt turned the ball over to the faster and stronger play of the Demon Deacons’ defense. Turnovers established Wake Forrest’s success — and Pitt’s lack-there-of — in the first half. “In games up until today, we did a pretty good job [holding the ball],” Luxbacher said. “But today, I don’t know if it’s the nervousness of being in the ACC, but we gave the ball up under no pressure at times. That was a major factor [in the loss].” The one silver lining of the first half for Pitt came on a Wake Forest turnover. After Senior Dan Lynd lost his scoreless minutes streak against Wake Forest. Jeff Ahearn ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR the Panthers stole the ball away, forward Kevin Angulo received a “There’s no excuse for the way to possess the ball for longer periods of pass across the middle of the field we defended,” he said. “We were just time. about 30 yards from the goal. sloppy all around, so we’re just going Despite the stronger play, Wake However, a Wake Forest defender to have to watch the film to improve.” Forest stayed in-control. Aft er another tackled him as he dribbled toward the In the second half, offensive turnturnover by Pitt, midfielder Steven net at the corner of the penalty box. overs continued to plague the team. Echevarria scored from the right side The referees remained silent despite Whenever the Panthers jumped off a pass from midfielder Jack Harangry cries from Pitt fans. out on the attack, misguided passes rison, increasing Wake Forest’s lead to Toward the end of the first half, and faster play from Wake Forest sent 2-0. Pitt finally seemed to find an offensive them right back onto defense. Lynd criticized the squad’s poor degroove. The team’s passes were coming fensive play. See Men’s Soccer on page 10 out cleaner and faster, and it managed September 14, 2015
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QB, pg. 1 After trading punts, Voytik, who started the game, led the Panthers on a drive to set up a Chris Blewitt 25yard field goal. The drive ended underwhelmingly. It took Voytik 13 plays to go 59 yards in seven minutes, 31 seconds, and Akron extended the drive with a third down roughing-the-passer penalty. Voytik also fumbled once, but it was recovered by Pitt. In total, the incumbent was 6-8 but with only 32 yards passing and no touchdowns in an accurate, but unexplosive performance. Bad weather could easily be blamed for Voytik’s mediocrity — or the lack of time to get into a rhythm. But the same things could be said of Peterman, and he found success under the conditions. After the field goal, Peterman got the ball on Pitt’s next possession and led a drive of the same length. It took three fewer plays, required no penalties to extend and took four fewer minutes. Narduzzi certainly noticed the backup’s success. “[Peterman] seemed to run the huddle better and move the ball down the field,” Narduzzi said. Pitt still came away empty-handed on Peterman’s first drive because of a missed field goal by Blewitt.
Men’s Soccer, pg. 9 “We were giving up the ball needlessly at times,” Luxbacher said. “You work so hard to get [the ball], you just want to keep it, but it was just one of those games where we could never catch up.” In the 70th minute, the game stretched out of the Panthers’ reach. After a low cross from the right side by Harrison, the ball deflected off of Lynd pittnews.com
Akron fumbled on the next drive, giving Pitt the ball on Akron’s 35. Peterman came out for his second drive of the game — and was sacked on a fourth down conversion attempt. At this point, Pitt fans could have expected Peterman out of the game, following two fruitless drives.
the rest of the game. But Peterman trotted out to lead the Panthers’ offense with a little over two minutes left in the first half. An Akron touchdown had put Pitt down 7-3. Everyone was surprised, except Peterman.
[Peterman] seemed like he was in a better rhythm ... Maybe he ate Wheaties for breakfast, we don’t know,” -Pat Narduzzi
In Peterman’s playing time last game, the leash seemed short. Against Youngstown State, Pitt’s coaching staff gave Peterman two drives. He first led the team to a touchdown, but he promptly threw an interception on the very first play of his next drive. Peterman then rode the pine for
“It was a series by series kind of thing,” Peterman said. The opportunity was one the recent transfer could not waste. A score there would be “huge,” according to Narduzzi. And Peterman did not waste the opportunity. He led an eight-play, 73-yard drive, with all but four yards
and bounced directly in front of the net. Wake Forest forward Tane Gent raced toward the ball and chipped it over Lynd, giving his team a 3-0 lead. Shortly afterward, a finessed, topcorner shot by midfielder Ricky Greensfelder iced the win for Wake Forest. With the loss, Pitt has a 3-1-1 record. Luxbacher said the team “is capable of playing much better soccer.” The team plays next at Boston College on Sept. 19. September 14, 2015
coming via his arm or legs. An 18yard strike to J.P. Holtz finished the drive with a touchdown, the first passing touchdown of Peterman’s collegiate career. The relieving quarterback did not understate the score’s importance. “It was huge, we really needed some points, we had gotten in the red zones a couple of times and we needed to capitalize,” Peterman said. He would go on to complete the game as quarterback, closing out the 24-7 victory. Regardless of the win, Narduzzi wouldn’t predict who will start next week. “There’s competition every week,” Narduzzi said. “Every week we are going to compete to get better, so you better show up to practice.” Voytik has the history to back up his status as starter. Last season, he threw for 16 touchdowns, seven interceptions and 2,233 yards, with a 61 percent completion percentage. Even more notable, through the final six games last year, he threw only one interception. Peterman never got a lot of playing time at Tennessee, but was ranked the No. 10 quarterback prospect in the country by Rivals, a college athlete scouting site, in 2011. Regardless,don’t expect Narduzzi to play favorites. “We have two damn good quarterbacks,” Narduzzi said.
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