PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Nonso Adimabua scored a first-half goal and Marco Brougher made eight clutch saves to power the California men's soccer team to a 1-0 upset of top-ranked Pittsburgh and to the Golden Bears' first ACC victory on Friday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
 
Cal's record improved to 4-5-2 (1-3-2 ACC). Pitt – which suffered its first ACC loss and first home loss of the season – is 10-2-0 (4-1-0).

"I felt the energy from the group, and they were excited," Cal head coach Leonard Griffin said. "I knew this would be a challenge to try to beat such a strong team, which has been playing wonderful soccer all year long. Did I forecast this? No. But did I feel we were capable? One hundred percent. They've shown grit and passion in every game, and we have a belief in the group that we could play with anyone. We didn't shy away from it. Thankfully we could grind out the result tonight."
 
Adimabua, a fifth-year senior forward, pounced on a defensive miscue in the Panthers' box to score in the 21st minute.
 
Brougher, a junior goalkeeper, made a crucial 80th-minute save of a Panthers' penalty kick taken by their leading scorer, Luis Sahmkow, to preserve the shutout win.
 
The night included Wyatt Meyer's 2024 debut. The senior co-captain and 2023 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year – who missed action this season due to injury – entered the game in the first half and played 28 minutes.

"It was a tremendous boost to the morale of the group to see Wyatt playing again," Griffin said. "He's been such an important piece of the team. This program means so much to him, and that feeds into the energy of the group. I'm extremely happy to have him back, and I was proud to see him out there."
 
The goal sequence began when the Panthers played the ball back to their goalkeeper, Cabral Carter, deep in their box. With Cal forward Arik Duncan pressuring him, Carter passed the ball to a Pitt field player. The Panther took a bad touch in the box to leave the ball in the path of the onrushing Adimabua, who slammed the ball into the net from 14 yards out.
 
Pitt outshot Cal 3-0 the rest of the half, with Brougher saving two of the shots.
 
The Panthers outshot Cal 11-2 in the second half, with Brougher making five of his saves in the last 45 minutes.
 
Pitt was awarded a penalty kick when Brougher was judged to have committed a foul of Eben McIntyre in the Cal box at 79:40. But the Cal goalie made a diving save of Sahmkow's ensuing spot kick before freshman defender Beau Morrison cleared the rebound. Sahmkow had previously converted two of two penalty kicks this season.
 
Meyer took the Bears' last shot, forcing a save out of Cabral in the 81st minute. Brougher made his last save on the game's last shot, stopping a McIntyre effort from close range at 82:06 to earn his third shutout of the season.

"Unbelievable performances and execution by a lot of Bears, including Nonso and Marco," Griffin said. "And shout out to our staff for preparing our team for the moment. Marco and Nonso definitely executed the gameplan. We wanted to press them in the right moments, and Nonso, Arik and others pressed them in the right moments. Marco felt maybe he would've done better against Louisville in our last game, and it was a testament to his character that he played so well against the No. 1 team in the country – saving a PK and being excellent on set pieces and corners. I'm so proud of him that he was able to have this performance."

The last time the Bears defeated a top-ranked team was in 2019, when they beat No. 1 Washington 3-2 in Seattle.
 
Cal remains on the road to play a nonconference game at Portland on Oct. 18.
 
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