Riverhounds SC’s season was on the line in October 2022 when regulation was coming to an end against Birmingham Legion FC. Pittsburgh was down 1-0 when forward Edward Kizza was subbed on at the 89th minute.
The then-23-year-old scored just a minute later to tie the game and force extra time. Birmingham struck first, taking the lead in the 100th minute, but Kizza tied it once again 16 minutes later.
It ultimately sent the game into penalty kicks, something Kizza wanted nothing to do with. Coach Bob Lilley picked five other players, but as a sixth and seventh were needed, Kizza realized his name was going to be called. He ended up taking the eighth and final attempt to win the game for the Riverhounds.
“For the first stretch there, I was calling him EdEx,” Lilley said, “because he always delivers.”
He was only on loan with Pittsburgh at the time but just three months later was officially signed to the Riverhounds as a permanent player.
Now, two years later, Kizza is one of the top forwards for the Riverhounds, tied for the most goals this season with teammates Kazaiah Sterling and Danny Griffin. Kizza has taken the most shots with just under half coming on target.
“It's good, but at the same time, it goes back to the team,” Kizza said. “As long as we're winning, that's what we need to focus on right now. Just keep winning games and get better and better.”
Kizza’s prowess as a forward goes back before his time in the pros. The Kampala, Uganda, native moved to the United States when he was 14. He spent his final three years of high school at Montverde Academy in Orlando, Fla. He was the 41st-ranked player nationally by TopDrawerSoccer coming out of his senior season.
Kizza drew the attention of Pitt men’s soccer coach Jay Vidovich, and Kizza committed to the Panthers in March 2017. He passed up offers from Clemson and Wake Forest but thought he could make a substantial impact with Pitt.
He completed his freshman season with four goals in 15 matches, earning an ACC All-Freshman team selection. During his sophomore season, Kizza started in all 18 matches for the Panthers, scoring 15 goals. He then scored 12 goals during his junior and final season with the Panthers, appearing in all 20 matches that season.
But what was bigger than his individual performance was that he was a huge part of the 2019 team that made the NCAA tournament for the first time in 54 years, a feat that has been repeated every year since.
“Being there when they were at the bottom of the ACC and by the time I left, it was something special being like a big part of what they are right now,” Kizza said. “Having been there, seeing them when nobody cared about them in the ACC and making the first NCAA tournament, that's something special. That's something I'll always be proud of.”
Despite not appearing in the 2020 NCAA season, Kizza was selected with the 24th overall pick by the New England Revolution in the MLS SuperDraft. He later signed a contract with the Revolution after impressing the coaching staff during the preseason.
His professional debut came April 17, 2021, in the season opener against the Chicago Fire.
Sometimes the jump from the collegiate level to the professional level can be a difficult adjustment. Kizza said it was easier for him to acclimate because of his time with Pitt.
“The way [Vidovich] did things, the way he coaches us, all the training sessions were professional, and that made it easier for us to come on this level,” Kizza said. “The way he carried us during training, the way he managed players, that was more of a professional environment than I've been.”
He spent the beginning of the 2022 season on loan with Memphis 901 when Lilley started looking at him again. He had trained with the Riverhounds during the summers while a student at Pitt. So when Lilley noticed he wasn’t getting regular minutes in Memphis, he convinced New England to loan Kizza to the Riverhounds.
“Fortunately, we were able to see that he had big contributions in the playoffs, especially in the Birmingham series,” Lilley said. “So we resigned him after 2022. Obviously, to have him last year alongside [Albert] Dikwa was a good combination on a winning team, and he's an honest player. He works hard for the team, and we're still trying to get him to get on the score sheet more, but he does a lot of things for the team.”
Dikwa was not only the team’s leading scorer last season but also led the entirety of the USL with 20 goals over 28 games. He signed with Rhode Island FC for their inaugural season in January 2024 — ending his time with Pittsburgh and leaving a major hole in the Riverhounds offense.
The Riverhounds led the Eastern Conference behind the offensive duo of Dikwa and Kizza. It’s only a season later, and the team has slid to the bottom of the rankings, sitting at 10th ahead of their game against the Charleston Battery on Saturday.
With Dikwa’s absence, Kizza had a lot of pressure put on him, and Lilley said he hasn’t been delivering lately. Through the first 12 games of the season, Kizza has scored just three goals. He only scored four throughout the entirety of last season, but they had Dikwa to lean on, which isn’t the case now.
“He's a great pro,” Lilley said. “Obviously, that's important — what you do in the locker room and off the pitch. So we love having him. But we want more from him on a week in and week out basis on the pitch.”
Riverhounds midfielder Jackson Walti has known Kizza for a long time. The pair were high school teammates at Montverde. Kizza had a big hand in getting Walti a walk-on spot at Pitt, and Walti doesn’t know if he’d be playing professional soccer if it weren’t for his teammate.
Their history and seeing Kizza develop over the years is why Walti is confident in his teammate’s ability to rise up to the occasion.
“It’s a different challenge,” Walti said. “But I think he has always had the ability to do it. When we were at Pitt together, he was one of the leading strikers in the country. When we were in high school together, he was one of the best players in the country, and I know for a fact that he has the ability to do that here. So I'm just excited for the goals to get scoring a little bit.”
Abby Schnable: aschnable@post-gazette.com and @AbbySchnable on X
First Published: June 8, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
