Going into Saturday’s match the Binghamton University men’s soccer team, having already clinched a spot in the America East tournament, had one goal in mind: secure a home game for the first round of the playoffs.
Although the Bearcats were successful in the end, defeating the University of Maryland, Baltimore County 4-0, getting there was not easy.
The Bearcats took a 2-1 loss at the University of New Hampshire on Wednesday. Junior forward Dylan George netted both goals for UNH, with senior forward Chris Banks notching an assist on each one. Bearcats freshman Jake Keegan tied the game early in the second half, scoring his fifth goal of the season, before Banks and George connected for a second time in the 63rd minute.
Binghamton outshot UNH 18-9, and performed strongly for the duration of the contest, according to head coach Paul Marco.
“I thought we played pretty well throughout the entire match,” he said. “There were just a couple of moments where we weren’t really good. They have a candidate for Player of the Year in the conference in Chris Banks, and he was a handful. He attracted a lot of attention, he caused some havoc, and it let Dylan George get free a little bit.”
Then Saturday, on Senior Night, in front of 497 fans at the Bearcats Sports Complex, the Bearcats defeated the UMBC Retrievers 4-0, clinching the No. 4 seed in the America East tournament. Binghamton (9-7-1, 4-3 AE) finishes the regular season with a 6-0-1 record at home. Although the score seems lopsided, Marco insists the game was much tighter than it seemed.
“It was a highly competitive game,” he said. “Even through the match as it went to 4-0, it was still a highly competitive game. [The Retrievers] have won 12 games, and they have the leading goal scorer in the country [in Andrew Bulls]. We did a fantastic job with them.”
Although it was a night honoring the senior class, it was the freshmen that stole the show. Greg Mathers opened the scoring for the Bearcats in the seventh minute. He dribbled the ball into the box past two defenders, and rifled a shot into the net on the right side to put Binghamton ahead 1-0. It was Mathers’ second goal of the season.
“What a fantastic strike,” Marco said of Mathers’ goal. “[Mathers] is good at combining with players, he’s good one-on-one, he can go inside with the ball, he can go wide … in that moment, he was special.”
The score remained 1-0 until the 63rd minute, when Jake Keegan put in a cross from Tyler Bailey, giving the Bearcats a two-goal lead. The goal was the sixth of the season for Keegan, extending his team lead. He is also first on the team with 15 points. The assist was the first of the season for Bailey.
The game would be put out of reach in the 84th minute. Matt Kristek received a pass through the middle of the field from Adam Whitehead, and put it past freshman goalkeeper Phil Saunders, making the score 3-0. Kristek, who earned America East Rookie of the Week honors last week after scoring the game-winning goal at the University of Vermont, has played in just eight games this season, yet he has scored three goals, which is the second most on the team.
“Matt has been great coming into matches,” Marco said of Kristek. “He’s helped us change the look of our team. He’s great in and around the goal.”
In the 88th minute, Bailey got in on the goal scoring after receiving a pass from sophomore Santigui Tounkara, and chipping it past Saunders to extend the lead to 4-0. Bailey had a season-high three points in the game. Marco, who has coached Bailey since Bailey was 11 years old, praised his ability.
“I think he’s got a bright future with us. He’s been very good at times. He needs to show a little bit more competitiveness in certain moments, but he is very clever. He has very good feet, and he’s deceptive. He can hit a ball pretty good.”
Senior goalkeeper Jason Stenta made seven saves, and recorded his 36th career shutout, improving his own school record. Marco feels that Stenta is “the best goalkeeper in the conference, hands down,” and that if he’s on top of his game, the Bearcats will be tough to beat in the playoffs.
Saturday’s match could have been the last home match ever for Stenta, along with the other seniors Kyle Kucharski, Chris Terry and team captain Liam Carson, but you wouldn’t have known by looking at them prior to the match, according to Marco.
“[The seniors] approached the game as if it was business as usual,” he said. “The four seniors just looked to be ready to play, and they’ve done that all year.”
The seniors earned one more chance to play at home. They are scheduled to play none other than UMBC, the No. 5 seed, in the AE quarterfinals on Saturday. Before then, though, the Bearcats have one final non-conference match.
They are scheduled to play a nonconference match at Hartwick College on Tuesday, where they will look to keep their momentum rolling into the playoffs. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.