Arms extended in bird-like fashion and eyes fixed intently on the man about to strike the penalty kick — the goalkeeper is ready. No game is being played, no one else is on the field or even watching besides these two: Binghamton men’s soccer head coach Paul Marco, the teacher, and redshirt freshman goalie Jason Stenta, the apprentice.

“Oh my God,” Stenta yells as he dives to his right, Marco’s left, with the ball out of the goalkeeper’s reach. Stenta thought he should have made the save, but brushes off the failed attempt as well as the dirt on his gloves and sweatpants, gets up and tries to block another.

Practice is long over, the sun is setting over West Gym Field and winter’s cold is moving in on Binghamton. But with the semifinal match against Boston University — the only America East team to have beaten the Bearcats this season — just two days away, the team wants to be ready for any situation, including sudden death penalty kicks.

“Go with what you believe. Never question, never doubt,” Marco tells Stenta in regard to determining the direction in which a penalty shot will go.

Trusting himself is what Marco did on Sept. 3, the first day that Jason Stenta started in goal. The men’s soccer team was winless at 0-3-1, reeling from injuries, and, after the departure of its graduated 2005 players, seemingly incapable of winning.

But when Jason Stenta left the goal that Sunday, the Bearcats were headed home with their first win of the season, a 4-3 decision over Long Island University. With Stenta in goal, Binghamton finally got the monkey off its back and brought home its first win.

It would be the first of many with Stenta between the pipes.

A local who attended Chenango Valley High School (not Chenango Forks, he stresses — that was his rival school), Stenta was redshirted last season with two goalkeepers already on the roster. But, after learning from the upperclassmen and performing well in the spring, Stenta has seen his hard work pay off.

“I figured if I just kept working and working, eventually I’d have a chance,” Stenta said. “Maybe my time would come, and I’d step in goal for a game.”

Stenta’s time did come, as Marco, in his efforts to encourage better play and lessen the impact of injuries elsewhere on the field, moved the incumbent goalie, junior Ryan Bertoni onto the field. But just as the team started to put some wins together, the goalie-turned-forward went down with a broken nose, leaving Stenta as the team’s only option.

“[Stenta’s] done awesome. For a young player to come right in and step in and fill the role of Bertoni — Bertoni’s done very well for us in the past — it’s pressure enough to just come in and play good, but to fill a guy’s role … to deal with that pressure is really amazing,” said senior captain Kyle Antos.

Since being named the starting goalie, Stenta has not looked back, despite things not going perfectly that first game against LIU.

“Oh boy,” Stenta nervously said to himself when Marco informed him of his impending start against the Blackbirds. “I was so nervous, going into the game, like warming up I was shaking and doing crosses, and everyone was like ‘Stenta, you’ll be all right.’”

Stenta’s angst and inexperience showed as he made mistakes that cost the team an early 2-0 lead. But he was picked up by senior forward Pietro Sgueglia, who scored two consecutive goals in the second half to give BU the win. Ever since, Stenta has proved his teammates correct: he’s been more than “all right,” finishing the season with a .682 goals against average, 16th-best in the nation.

“Me growing into what I am right now — I couldn’t see that in the beginning of the year,” Stenta said.

But it happened, and Stenta continues to grow: better reaction time, stronger coming off the line. He truly came into his own against Albany on Oct. 18, a shutout on the road that secured at least the second seed and a first-round bye for Binghamton and kept alive the team’s hopes of winning the regular season title as well, a feat they were able to accomplish three days later against Vermont.

“He was fantastic,” Marco said of Stenta’s dominance of the Great Danes. “He made two saves that very few goalkeepers can make.”

For his efforts against the Great Danes and the Catamounts, Stenta was named America East Player of the Week for the second time this season and was also named the Eastern College Athletic Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Week (the ECAC spans 87 Division I programs). Stenta was also named second-team All Conference, as well as to the AE All-Rookie squad.

“The way he plays, he inspires people. He doesn’t have a big head about him, and that’s what keeps him so good. He’s trying to get better everyday,” said junior backfielder Adam Chavez.

It’s been an incredible season for the Bearcats, with roster shakeups, injuries and a regular season title to show for it. And at the center of it all has been the emergence of a star, one whose job has been stellar thus far but is not yet done. Regardless of what happens in this year’s playoffs, Stenta and his tangible play should be leading the Bearcats back to the postseason for the duration of his Binghamton career.

“He’s just got a solid presence now in the goal, something that you can actually feel when he’s playing behind you,” Marco said.