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After an entire season of playing hard in Bearcat green, the only color that mattered for the men’s soccer team on Saturday was red.

Binghamton University squared off against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers in the quarterfinals of the America East tournament at the Bearcats Sports Complex. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, when the clock turned to 0:00, their season officially came to a close. The Bearcats took a heartbreaking 2-1 loss against the Retrievers after a red card forced them to play man-down for a long stretch of the match. It was the first time Binghamton lost a home match in 2009.

The loss ensures that the Bearcats will not appear in a record seventh straight America East championship game. It also ends the careers of seniors Liam Carson, Kyle Kucharski, Jason Stenta and Chris Terry.

After a scoreless first half, the Retrievers came out for the second half determined to score, and did so quite swiftly. Less than 30 seconds into the half, freshman Mark Lubetkin received a pass from the America East Midfielder of the Year, junior Levi Houapeu, and fired a shot past Binghamton senior goalkeeper Jason Stenta to give UMBC a 1-0 lead.

Binghamton head coach Paul Marco was not pleased with allowing such a quick score.

“Disappointed we conceded that first goal within a minute into the second half,” he said. “It shouldn’t have happened, but that’s soccer.”

The Bearcats would not let that lead stand for very long, however. Just 1:10 after UMBC took the lead, freshman Jake Keegan netted the equalizer after redirecting a pass from fellow freshman Adam Whitehead and putting it past UMBC freshman goalkeeper Phil Saunders, leveling the score at 1-1. The goal was Keegan’s seventh of the season, which is a team high.

The turning point in the game came in the 65th minute. Carson, the Bearcats’ team captain, was standing over a UMBC player who had fallen to the ground. According to one of the officials, Carson spit on the fallen player, and was given a red card as a result. This was a very controversial call at a pivotal point in the match, with the scored tied 1-1. It was a disappointing end to Carson’s collegiate career. Carson was recently honored for his stellar play by being named as an All-America East first team center back. Terry took over the captaincy after Carson’s ejection.

Marco and his players feel the red card was unwarranted.

“Their guy who was laying on the ground didn’t move after Liam was over him,” said Marco about the incident. “If somebody spit on me, I’d probably get right up.”

Kucharski explained what he saw.

“There was a collision on the play,” he said. “[UMBC’s] player went down, I believe looking for a foul. Liam didn’t like the fact that he had gone down … and it was a clean play. I think the referee misjudged Liam’s reaction, and misinterpreted his response, and his interpretation warranted Liam getting sent off. I don’t believe it was worth it. I don’t believe Liam would do something like that, but that’s the way it goes.”

Stenta had arguably the best view of the exchange.

“Liam and their player collided,” he said. “Liam had a few words for him and was pointing at him, and the linesman thought Liam spit on him, but he never did, and they issued him a red card. It was unfortunate for us because the official saw something different than what happened.”

With a man advantage, the Retrievers capitalized. In the 72nd minute, a Bearcat defender headed the ball into the middle of the box, right where Houapeu happened to be. He took advantage, and fired the ball into the net, scoring the game-winning goal for UMBC. The goal was Houapeu’s 15th of the season, which ties his teammate Andrew Bulls, the America East Striker of the Year, for most in the nation.

The Bearcats had one final chance to tie the game with 26 seconds remaining. They had a free kick in the middle of the field several yards beyond the box. Kucharski went for the net, but put it over the crossbar.

“[Kucharski] and Whitehead were talking about what to do,” Stenta said about the free kick. “All I told him was to keep it on target, because if you hit it over the bar, it’s the end of the game. If you keep it on target, maybe there’s a rebound, but he got a little bit under it and it went over the bar, and that was it.”

The Bearcats were outshot 8-7, but had four corners to UMBC’s zero.

Kucharski was pleased with how the team performed despite being a man down the final 25 minutes of the match.

“I think we responded very well from [the red card],” he said. “Obviously it’s tough to play a man down, but if you watch the rest of the game, I don’t know if you notice us to be a man down. Maybe on the final goal if we have another player in the middle, he doesn’t get that open look. But as far as the rest of the game goes, the team responded great. The guys left it on the field, and it just wasn’t enough.”

Ultimately, the Bearcats could not rally enough following the contentious red card.

“We didn’t get it done in the first half,” Marco said. “In the second half, we had a couple of obstacles that we couldn’t overcome.”

Binghamton finishes the 2009 season with a 9-9-1 overall record.