With two America East (AE) matches in the books, the Binghamton men’s soccer team remains winless in conference play after dropping a Saturday evening home contest to UMass Lowell. The Bearcats (2-6-1, 0-2 AE) outshot the River Hawks (6-2-1, 2-0 AE) 10-5 in the game and performed well for much of the match, but were unable to capitalize on any of their offensive chances.

“I thought we were really good, disappointed we did not get a goal again,” said Binghamton head coach Paul Marco. “We’re creating enough chances to score goals; the guys just have to be better in front of goal.”

Two of the five shots on goal came from freshman defender Oliver Svalander. Svalander has taken 14 shots throughout the season and is currently eighth in the AE for number of shots taken. Despite outshooting UMass Lowell, Svalander and the rest of the Bearcats could not convert.

Instead, the sole goal of the match came from the River Hawks 30 minutes into the first period off a throw-in by UMass Lowell freshman defender Denis Petro. Senior forward Alejandro Osorio capitalized on the throw-in, putting the River Hawks up 1-0. Following the goal, Binghamton controlled the ball for the majority of the match, especially in the second half.

“One moment we’d give them a bit of breathing room on the throw-in and they score a goal off of it,” Marco said. “That was extremely disappointing, because our young guys are not realizing that you get punished for mistakes when you miss things and you don’t really put a lot of value into a moment. Every moment at this level has value, but overall, I thought the guys played great today. We are chasing the game, it doesn’t matter if we drop another goal and lose 2-0, we’re chasing the game; we have to try and get a goal. So, the guys played with more urgency and that caused them some problems. The way we started the game, I thought the guys were very good as they had a good idea of what to do.”

Following the River Hawks’ score, their only other good look at the goal came minutes later when senior midfielder Dario Jovanovski landed a second shot on goal for the team. The Bearcats adjusted their offense in the second half, as they were hoping to control possession of the ball and decide the pace of the game.

“Our starting positions went a little higher, and I think we’ve let teams dictate where the game is played and starts, and we need to do a better job of taking the game at our opponent a little more and I thought we did a much better job of that in the second half,” Marco said.

In the second half, the Bearcats’ offense performed better, as they registered seven of their 10 total shots in the game, three of which were on goal. Binghamton’s defense, led by junior defender Chris Stamper and graduate student defender Stephen McKenna, successfully shut down any offensive pushes the River Hawks made in the second.

“I thought everybody played their part,” Marco said. “[Sophomore goalkeeper P.J. Parker] only had to make one save in the game. Their keeper had to make five, so it’s disappointing that we couldn’t put one past their goalkeeper today with as much as we created. Both teams played soccer, and I thought our game plan was really good going into the game. I thought the execution from the guys was terrific, and I thought we kind of ran out of time; we were really good in the second half.”

Binghamton will look to snap its winless streak in a nonconference matchup against Columbia on Tuesday, Oct. 8. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. from the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.