It is playoff time for the No. 3 seed Binghamton University men’s soccer team (10-5-3, 5-3-0 AE) as No. 6 seed New Hampshire (7-6-4, 2-4-2 AE) visits the Bearcats Sports Complex for the America East Quarterfinal on Saturday.
The game will be a rematch of a sloppy regular season game in which Binghamton defeated the Wildcats, 2-0, in pouring rain. Senior Cameron Keith scored both goals for the Bearcats.
Throughout most of the night, the weather conditions caused the ball to skip and skid around the turf, which may reduce the value of that game’s scouting report. Still, the Bearcats saw some things from UNH that they expect to see again.
“[Despite] the conditions, teams still have tendencies that they tend to repeat,” said head coach Paul Marco. “And who knows? It might rain on Saturday.”
Senior Justin Leskow said UNH has some players the Bearcats have to watch out for.
“They were dangerous on a couple of set pieces,” Leskow said. “They’ve got some big boys that they throw out in the box.”
Chris Banks leads the Wildcats with seven goals, while Kyle Urso has four goals and five assists. In 2006, Banks was the AE Striker of the Year as a rookie, but missed the all-conference squads this year. Urso, a senior, was named to the 2008 AE All-Conference second team.
The Wildcats did well out of conference and were regionally ranked No. 5 until a loss to Harvard set off a string of losses and underperformance. Sophomore Colin O’Donnell starts in goal with a 1.16 goals-against-average, but Chris Devine has seen time in less important games.
Keith, who was named to the AE second team along with Kyle Manscuk, leads Binghamton with seven goals. Seniors Barry Neville and Leskow were named to the first team.
With seven seniors on the roster, Binghamton has the edge in experience. The Bearcat seniors have played in three AE tournament finals, winning one.
“Experience will certainly play a role in it,” Marco said. “Certainly I’ll look to our returning players and our experienced seniors who played in three [tournament] finals to help us get back to the final game.”
Binghamton has reached the AE finals in five straight years, winning the tournament twice and the regular season championship twice. To get to the NCAA tournament this year, the Bearcats will have to win three straight tournament games. Their season will end with one loss in the tournament.
“I don’t really look at it as winning three in a row; I look at it as winning your next match,” Marco said. “If we win the UNH game, then we’ll prepare for Albany. If we win the Albany game, then we’ll prepare for whoever our opponent is. I think it is difficult to keep winning games, but for us to go deep into the NCAA tournament, we have to be capable of a pretty good run. And I think this team is capable of that.”
In tournament play, the game can go to penalty kicks if the game is tied after two overtime periods. Binghamton goalie Jason Stenta won the only penalty-kick shootout in his career in the 2006 semifinals against Boston. Then a freshman, Stenta made a dramatic save on Boston’s final kick to seal Binghamton’s advance to the finals.
“We’ve been preparing all year for [penalty kicks],” Marco said. “I think he’s quite good. We’ve taken a bunch today. I think it’s a thing that each year we try to spend as much time preparing our guys as best we can, but what separates winning and losing is a fine line and a little bit of that is mentality, the edge that the players have in a moment. All indications right now is that we are developing that edge.”
The prospect of penalty kicks adds excitement to a match that already should attract a large crowd to the BSC. The Binghamton Athletic Department will cover the cost of tickets for all BU students.
“It’s playoff time, and anything can happen,” Neville said. “It’s been shown in recent years: No. 6 beating No. 3, No. 5 beating No. 4. That makes it dangerous.”
The teams will kick off at 7 p.m. tomorrow.