On Sunday afternoon, the Binghamton women’s soccer team faced Temple in its home opener. Despite failing to score in the first half, the Bearcats put two goals past the Owls in the second to take a 2-0 victory.

“Definitely nice to get that first one,” said Binghamton head coach Neel Bhattacharjee. “We’ve been putting in the work over preseason and in our scrimmages … It was really good to get that confidence going with that first win.”

BU (1-1) got out to a slow start on offense as they were held scoreless through the first half. The Bearcats managed only two shots in the half compared to Temple’s (0-1-1) six. However, senior goalkeeper Nicole Scott prevented the Owls from getting on the board with four saves in the first half. Sophomore goalkeeper Kaitlyn Williams took over in the net for the second half and tallied four saves of her own to complete the shutout.

“I thought [Scott and Williams] did two things very well,” Bhattacharjee said. “I thought the way they handled the spacing behind and the way they handled higher service balls was pretty good and had a big impact on the overall result for us to get the shutout that we needed.”

Binghamton sparked its offense quickly in the second half, scoring a goal less than a minute into play. Junior midfielder Molly McClelland received a pass up the left wing and crossed a ball into the middle of the box with her left foot. As the ball flew through the air, senior forward Maya Anand got her head on the ball and directed it straight into the back of the net for the first goal of the game.

“It’s always nice when you can get a goal very early [in the half],” Bhattacharjee said. “Because of course that changes the complexion of the game.”

Just over 20 minutes later, the Bearcats struck again with a goal from senior midfielder Olivia McKnight. McKnight found herself within the six yard box with an opportunity to score. The senior’s first shot was blocked by Temple’s goalkeeper, but the rebound came back to McKnight’s foot as she put away the goal.

“I thought the two goals were really nice,” Bhattacharjee said. “The leadup between [freshman forward Lauren Clark] to Molly McClelland to Maya Anand [and] the individual effort of Olivia McKnight for the second goal … Those were game changing moments and they did well with that.”

The second half saw more offensive action from both sides as Temple tallied 11 shots and BU had eight. Despite the Owls having more shots than the Bearcats, they were unable to find the back of the net.

“One thing that we talked about is just keeping the play in front of us a bit,” Bhattacharjee said. “Temple did have 17 shots, but the shots that they had were shots from distance. Those are shots that we expect our goalkeepers to be able to make saves on.”

Binghamton closed out the final 20 minutes of the game, despite consistent pressure put on its defense by Temple. The Owls attempted five shots in that time span, forcing Williams to make three late game saves to secure the shutout victory for the Bearcats.

“Right now we are really just focused on the process [and] getting better day by day,” Bhattacharjee said. “[We’re] continuing to find our identity, continuing to establish our style of play … [We] know that we want to compete at the right time, which is, for us, when we get to America East (AE) conference play.”

BU will hit the road for a three-game road trip starting with Marist on Thursday, August 25. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Tenney Stadium in Poughkeepsie, New York.