After a disappointing 1-2-1 start to the season, the Binghamton University men’s club soccer team have now won six straight games.

At a three-team tournament at New Paltz on Sunday, Oct. 5, the Bearcats stole the show. Binghamton defeated the Hofstra Pride in the first game by a score of 6-1, taking away most of Hofstra’s “pride” in the process.

Scoring goals in the Hofstra game were sophomore Matt Naioti, who had two, senior J.J. Gould, senior Chuby Okoye and senior Colin Coon. But the nicest goal of the game came off the foot of Binghamton midfielder junior Mike Garcia. Garcia lined the ball up from about thirty yards out and ripped it past a helpless Hofstra goalie, right into the back of the net.

In the second game against New Paltz, Binghamton ran into a little trouble, but still prevailed by a score of 2-1.

After a sloppy first half, the Bearcats went up early in the second when Gould crossed a ball from the top of the 18-yard box which dropped over the New Paltz goalie and into the net.

Then, with just 10 minutes left, BU gave up the lead when a New Paltz forward found an open ball in the box and buried it into the net.

But Binghamton never stopped fighting and with under one minute left Gould struck again. Naioti took the ball into the box and laid a beautiful ball onto the feet of Gould who had a wide-open net to place the ball into. While not pretty, BU escaped with a 2-1 win.

On Sunday, Oct. 12, Binghamton hosted a four-team tournament against the Cornell Arsenal, Hartwick, and Albany.

The Cornell Arsenal was a bit depleted and Binghamton took full advantage. The Bearcats controlled the pace of the game and won by a score of 2-0 on to the strength of two goals from Okoye.

The second game featured a Hartwick team that wasn’t afraid to get physical, even if that meant playing dirty. But regardless of the physicality of the game, BU won again by a score of 2-0.

Gould scored his fourth goal in four games for BU when he dribbled through two defenders and blasted a ball over the Hartwick goalie from 20 yards out to give Binghamton a 1-0 lead.

Early in the second half, Binghamton junior Matt Farfaglia followed up on a ball in the box and put it past a helpless Hartwick goaltender.The two goals plus Binghamton’s impenetrable defense was too much for Hartwick to handle.

The last game was the Bearcats’ toughest test of the day. Albany had several chances to score in the first half, but the relentless BU defense wouldn’t allow them to finish.

With under four minutes left in the first half, Binghamton junior Nick Ricci placed a beautiful corner kick onto the head of Naoti, who put it past the Albany goalie for a 1-0 lead.

The lead held for the entire game thanks to the defensive efforts of junior Paul Guijarro, junior Matthew Powers, senior Andy Kolb and senior Jordan Katz.

Binghamton goalies Jeff Egan, a junior, and Joe Krisch, a sophomore, combined for three shutouts on the day.

In their last six games, all wins, BU has scored 16 goals while only allowing three.

This weekend, the Bearcats will head to the Northeast regional tournament as the ninth-ranked seed out of 32 teams. They will play the eighth-seeded Maryland University, the 24th-seeded Lehigh University, and the 25th seed, West Chester University.

“We’re exactly where we would like to be headed into regionals,” said junior captain Colin McGovern. “Seeds are really meaningless at regionals because any team can win. We know we’re going to have to beat the best to be the best, but we definitely like who we are matched up against.”

The team’s other captain, Guijarro, had a similar opinion. “Last year we were the six seed and we lost on the first day,” he said. “Ranking means nothing, anyone can win. I think we have a better team this year than we did last year and somehow we’re a lower seed. But right now we’re on a roll and I think it will continue through regionals.”