As time expired, the scoreboard read 1-0, but that did not indicate the dominance on the field on Wednesday.
Binghamton University’s men’s soccer team (10-4-3, 5-2-0 AE) defeated last place Stony Brook (2-12-4, 0-4-3 AE) in the last regular season home game.
Binghamton controlled the first half, taking a whopping 13 shots. Seawolves goalie Dawid Ditrich, a 6-foot-7-inch Polish player, withstood the barrage with several stunning saves to keep his team alive.
Cameron Keith, Binghamton’s leading scorer, had three outstanding opportunities to score in the first 15 minutes of the match. Ditrich made two spectacular one-on-one saves and Keith missed an open header to come away empty.
But late in the first half, a trio of Bearcat seniors combined forces to put a goal past Ditrich. Darren McAllister fired a corner kick into the box, and Mark Wood deflected it toward Ryan Tomko. Tomko headed the low ball from the ground into the bottom left corner of the net to score his second goal of the season. The ball hit a Stony Brook defender on its way in.
“It was behind me and I went to try to get a head on it and get it towards the net, and I think I got a little help from the defender, but it went in,” Tomko said.
In the second half, senior Justin Leskow had a seven-minute stretch where he had three good opportunities to add an insurance goal. He had a header blocked by Ditrich, missed a shot right and missed another left.
“It was a bit frustrating,” Leskow said. “I think I whistled a few by the post.”
The Bearcats finished the game with 21 shots to Stony Brook’s eight. The final score was not indicative of Binghamton’s dominance in the match, but the Seawolves still had a few opportunities toward the end of the game to score an equalizer.
“Every time you create opportunities and don’t get the goal that you created, the feeling just mounts a little bit more and the opponent feels a little more energized,” said Binghamton head coach Paul Marco. “When it’s one-nil, they are still in the match. I’m disappointed we didn’t finish the match in the first half, but late in the game our guys took care of the match.”
Late in the game, the Seawolves moved to playing four up front and risked some opportunities in the back. At one point, Ditrich even lined up as a striker for a corner kick. While the goalkeeper could not come away with a goal, his play between the pipes had Marco buzzing after the match.
“Unbelievable, wasn’t he? He was fantastic,” Marco said. “First of all, he’s a giant. When he walked in for the warm-up, he ducked his head to get under the crossbar. He’s a good goalkeeper, but I thought tonight he was special.”
Binghamton goalie Jason Stenta made three saves to preserve his school-record 30th shutout.
The Bearcats, who solidified their third-place standing in the America East, still have the opportunity to win a No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the AE Tournament. The top two seeds receive a first round buy in the tournament, but Binghamton needs the teams above it to stumble on Saturday, the last day of the regular season.