The Binghamton women’s soccer team kicked off its 2025 season on Sunday, securing a 2-1 road victory against Lehigh. While the Bearcats got off to an early 1-0 lead, a Mountain Hawk score saw the match deadlocked at 1-1 entering the half before BU retook the lead early into the second half and did not relinquish.

“I thought that when we got moments where we could be able to pressure Lehigh and do it with effective and organized stuff first, it really made them uncomfortable and led us in our attack in transition,” said Binghamton head coach Neel Bhattacharjee. “But there were times during the course of the game when we let off a little bit, especially in the second half of the first half.”

Binghamton (1-0-0) quickly established its lead when junior midfield/forward Paige Luke, playing in her first match back since a season-ending injury in 2024, blasted a shot into the top corner in the first attempt of the game. Lehigh (0-2-0) attempted to apply pressure to Binghamton’s back line, but the Mountain Hawks were unable to mount a significant offensive attack.

A scramble in the 25th minute of play saw Binghamton almost double its scoring tally, rattling off four shot attempts that did not find twine. BU’s favor appeared to persist in the 32nd minute when Lehigh failed to convert a penalty kick opportunity, but the Mountain Hawks pounced on the rebound to even the score. The Bearcats’ offense continued to push the field, creating several threatening chances, but both squads were unable to register a shot on goal for the remainder of the first half of play.

“I’m sure you saw today, [Luke] just covers so much ground and does so much work,” Bhattacharjee said. “How she presses, how she takes people one v. one like she did on the goal in the early part of the game today. She does so much to progress the team.”

On a day when 19 BU players saw the field, the Bearcats substituted seven starters back onto the field to start the second half of play. The offense quickly got to work when a foul against sophomore forward Jahkaya Davis awarded them a penalty kick opportunity. After a missed attempt from junior defense/forward Megan Baker, sophomore forward Alexus Worrell jumped on the rebound and buried the ball in the back of the net as BU snatched back the lead.

“I thought [Worrell] had a pretty good game overall,” Bhattacharjee said. “Consistent good amount of work rate, she’s a strong physical presence up top, was able to follow the penalty kick to score the game-winning goal for us. She’s someone that had a little bit of health concerns her freshman year that was able to limit her impact on the field, but she’s coming off a really good spring and had a good preseason.”

Binghamton almost grew its lead to two in the 53rd minute when a shot by Baker rattled off the top post. Despite only holding a one-goal lead, the Bearcats’ back line dictated play throughout the remainder of the match, holding Lehigh to just two shots on goal throughout the entire second half as they picked up their first victory of the 2025 campaign.

“Probably on the day we were good enough to score a third, potentially a fourth goal,” Bhattacharjee said. “At the end of the day, we’re happy with the result and we’ll move on from here and get ready for St. Bonaventure on Thursday.”

Binghamton will continue its season with its home opener this Thursday, Aug. 21, against St. Bonaventure. Kickoff is set for 6:07 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.