It was 1:20 into overtime. The ball from Bearcats junior Josh Sailar sailed to the goalpost, but it ricocheted off the crossbar as the cheers from crowd at the Bearcats Sports Complex fell with disappointment. The rebound, however, fell at the feet of junior Kyle Manscuk, who was stationed right in front of the goal.
The rest was history.
“Sometimes a team goes out to put in a point, and other times it goes out to win the game,” said Bearcats men’s soccer head coach Paul Marco. “I would say we went out to do both.”
The Binghamton University men’s soccer team defeated Colgate University 1-0 in sudden death Saturday night. The match went into overtime after a scoreless 90 minutes.
“The difficulty in playing a team like Colgate is that they’re not only competitive but they’re a good soccer-playing team,” Marco said. “We just had to create very good chances and capitalize on them. The [goal] of the game was a scramble in the box.”
The winning goal was Manscuk’s second of the season. He currently leads the team in goals.
“I thought [Kyle’s] goal was great,” Marco said. “He really made the best of the opportunity.”
The Bearcats outshot the Raiders 13-9 in the match. Although there were no assists, senior Kyle Kucharski provided the corner kick to Sailar that would eventually be the winning ball for the Bearcats. All four goals this season have been off Kyle Kucharski’s set pieces. Both teams’ goalies made five saves apiece.
Coach Marco stated how tough the Raiders were as opponents.
“Going into the game, we knew it was going to be a competitive one,” Marco said. “They were a very good team which won the Patriot League championship for the last couple of years. They didn’t graduate a large class so they brought back guys who won the league twice.”
According to Marco, the Bearcats played with the same mentality all throughout the match. The team’s strategy was just to try to create good chances, but it didn’t get the right opportunity until overtime.
“To be fair enough Colgate should have had a goal or two and we probably should have had three or four out of what we created, but that’s soccer,” he said. “We ended up putting in the goal and they didn’t. Overall I thought our guys did quite well. Competitively it was very good.”
After playing its first two games, the team says it is really starting to take shape. According to Marco, the chemistry between the players has been improving and they have been getting better movement around the ball.
“I think we can always improve on technique,” he said. “As we get closer to the goal, we need to capitalize more on some of those opportunities we are creating, so we are definitely working on that.”
The Bearcats were recently ranked fifth in the Northeast region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, behind Dartmouth College and in front of America East rival University of Maryland, Baltimore Country. Boston University, another AE contender, ranked second in the poll. Marco mentioned the honor of being ranked among Ivy League and Big East contenders.
“I think it’s great that we were able to get up in that ranking,” Marco said. “It really helps our team confidence, but it’s also important to remember that it is an opinion poll. For us to be fifth, however, is great.”
The Bearcats are scheduled to play in the Lafayette tournament this weekend. They will face Villanova University today at 5 p.m. and Lafayette on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
“Villanova is one of those Big East teams,” Marco said. “It’s going to be a difficult match. They are a well-coached team. They will be hard to break down, but we are looking forward to going out playing.”