Bearcats fans were treated to an unexpected show on Saturday as the Binghamton University men’s soccer team played one of its highest-scoring games of the year.
Chris Pusateri/Contributing Photographer
No. 3 seed Binghamton University (11-5-3) defeated No. 6 New Hampshire (7-7-4), 3-1, in the America East quarterfinals and will travel to No. 2 Albany tomorrow for the semifinals.
All four of the game’s goals came in a wild 16-minute stretch in the first half. Those 16 minutes were all about junior Cameron Keith, Binghamton’s leading scorer, who scored one and assisted two Bearcats goals.
Six minutes into the game, Keith shot a rocket from outside the box that sailed over New Hampshire goalie Colin O’Donnell into the top shelf.
“Andy Tiedt laid it down, I absolutely smashed it and it dipped and swerved past the keeper,” Keith said. “It was going the way [O’Donnell] was going and then it took a swerve.”
Seven minutes later, Keith found senior Cody Germain near the goal. Germain went one-on-one with O’Donnell and scored his first goal of the season. Germain has scored or assisted a goal in each of the last four postseasons.
“I didn’t know that [statistic] till you just told me,” said head coach Paul Marco. “We don’t design anything for any of our guys, we just expect them to perform. Whoever gets us the goal, gets us the goal.”
Germain, known as a clutch player, said he loves the postseason.
“It could not have come at a better time,” Germain said. “I don’t know if anything changes. Some things just seem to click. Confidence, maybe? I don’t know.”
In the 20th minute, Ryan Walter took a shot that O’Donnell deflected. Keith knocked the deflection into the net, but he was ruled offsides.
“It was never offsides,” Keith said. “I was behind Walter when he hit it, so I couldn’t have been offsides. There was no reason why it should have been called offsides.”
New Hampshire capitalized on the official’s ruling by scoring a goal to make the score 2-1. Scott Rowling found Robin Gerum for a header past Binghamton’s Jason Stenta.
But Binghamton advanced the ball on the ensuing kick-off and retaliated just seconds later. Keith brought fellow Scot Darren McAllister into the box with a leading pass, and McAllister scored the game’s final goal.
“It was just a great ball from Cammy,” McAllister said. “I’m seeing him on the ball, I’m seeing a gap, so I made the run and he put it right on my foot.”
The play was reminiscent of the back-door passes that Binghamton’s men’s basketball team likes to throw in its Princeton Offense. McAllister, however, had never heard that term.
“We don’t call it a back-door pass in soccer,” joked Marco.
The exciting first half was capped by a New Hampshire indirect kick from the top of the box after the referees ruled that Binghamton’s Kyle Manscuk’s pass to Stenta was a violation. Germain blocked the kick to help preserve the score.
There were few such opportunities in the second half. In one sequence, Stenta saved a point-blank shot by Dylan George. Shortly thereafter, Marco substituted in Ryan Tomko and Chris Terry, two defensive-minded midfielders.
With his goal on Saturday, Keith is now one goal behind Charles Darkwah on Binghamton’s Division I all-time scoring list. Darkwah scored 19 goals in his three years at Binghamton after transferring from West Virginia University. Keith has 18 goals in two years after transferring from Aberdeen University in Scotland.
“I feel like I’ve had a good season; some of my points this season have been a lot better than last year,” Keith said. “Maybe I haven’t scored quite as many goals as I did last year yet, but some of the performances I’m putting in have been really encouraging. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better this year.”
Marco praised Keith after the game, not for his scoring, but for his passing.
“I thought Cammy was special tonight,” Marco said. “He brought a lot of guys into the game with his passing.”
Germain echoed his coach’s evaluation.
“He played unbelievably,” he said. “That was a brilliant game. He had passes that world-class players find.”
The Bearcats travel to Albany tomorrow at 1 p.m. for the AE semifinals.