Call it a learning experience.
The Binghamton University men’s soccer team won’t start the season undefeated, but at the West Virginia Tournament, it learned what separates a win from a loss: competitive edge.
On Sunday the Bearcats (1-1) rebounded from a disappointing 2-1 loss to Duquesne to down the Lafayette Leopards, who days earlier had upset No. 15 West Virginia.
On Friday Binghamton fell behind early against Duquesne, who scored a goal in the 23rd minute and controlled the tempo. When the Bearcats tried to bounce back in the second half, the Dukes’ Stefan Lundberg added an insurance goal in the 68th minute to put Duquesne up 2-0. Just a minute later, Binghamton defender Liam Carson scored a goal off a rebound of a corner kick. But Duquesne, who outshot Binghamton 14-5, held on to its lead to hand Binghamton a loss in the season opener.
“Against Duquesne, we didn’t come out and compete hard,” said head coach Paul Marco. “We started the match well and didn’t get a goal, and then Duquesne started fighting hard and we started falling off.”
After the game, Marco tried to instill in his team the importance of competing hard for 90 minutes.
“You have to bring spirit to the match,” he said. “Talent alone won’t win the game for you. That’s an area we have to improve in.”
The Bearcats looked to rebound on Sunday against Lafayette (1-1), a team which is expected to contend for the Patriot League championship.
“Lafayette’s a very good team and when we watched them against West Virginia, I thought our team would have to show spirit, resolve and toughness to win,” Marco said.
In the first half, Darren McAllister found Carson on a corner kick, and Carson headed in a goal for a 1-0 lead. Sophomore Scott Zobre then added a goal from the top of the box to give Binghamton the comfortable 2-0 lead.
As Binghamton sat back and defended for the second half, Lafayette outshot Binghamton 14-9 in the game, mostly by serving the ball into the Bearcats’ defensive zone in hopes of igniting some offense.
But it was too little, too late, as the Bearcats outshot the Leopards 7-6 in the decisive first half. Keeper Jason Stenta only had to make one save in the game, but with three seconds left in the match, Binghamton allowed an own-goal to make the final margin 2-1.
The mental mistake was the only blemish on an otherwise dominating performance of soccer by the Bearcats, who will now start preparing for next weekend’s Colgate Tournament.
“I won’t be overly concerned [with the own-goal],” Marco said. “I think it’s an area where the guys just need to be more aware of what’s going on in the game.”
Though the Bearcats will not have a 5-0 start to the season as in 2007, they learned how to bounce back from a loss and play to their potential.
“I think this weekend we showed that if we prepare well and we try and perform to our abilities and we have a competitive spirit, then we can be a good team,” Marco said. “We can even be a great team.”