Coming off two losses at home, the Binghamton men’s soccer team took on UMass Lowell and got back in the win column, earning a 2-1 victory on the road. After a rainy and scoreless first half, the River Hawks got on the board early in the second half. However, BU secured the victory after scoring two goals in the span of three minutes to take the contest despite the game’s poor weather conditions.

“Of course, we took [the weather] into account,” said Binghamton head coach Paul Marco. “We trained in a wet surface the night before, so I thought the guys handled the conditions quite well.”

UMass Lowell [2-9-3, 0-5-0 America East (AE)] opened up the game four seconds into the half with an immediate shot, that went out top left. Not long after, Binghamton (4-8-2, 2-1-2 AE) responded with two shots of its own in the span of 22 seconds, but both were stopped by the River Hawks’ goalkeeper.

UMass Lowell only had one more attempted shot in the first half, which came in the 31st minute but the River Hawks failed to find the back of the net. Meanwhile, the Bearcats controlled the first half with 13 shots, including six that would find their way to the net. Despite all of Binghamton’s attempts and its 13-2 shot advantage, the game remained scoreless going into halftime.

“I thought we were extremely good in the first half,” Marco said. “We just didn’t have a goal to show for how well we were playing, and you know you go in and then the guys come back out and how they start the second half sometimes is a reflection on the first half sometimes it isn’t.”

As the weather conditions worsened, both teams looked to get on the board early on in the second half. In the 50th minute, the River Hawks took advantage of mistaken positioning by the Bearcats’ defense and found the back of the net to take a 1-0 lead over the Bearcats. Although the River Hawks only attempted two shots in the first half, UMass Lowell was able to put more pressure on Binghamton’s goal, holding a 9-8 shot advantage in the second half.

“In this case, I thought we were still quite good in the second half and then to go down a goal just by miss positioning on our part,” Marco said. “We kind of got a little bit maybe overly confident that we could deal with them, and we weren’t as touch tight.”

Despite the pressure from UMass Lowell, the Bearcats’ offensive and defensive lines would work together to even the score and keep the River Hawks off the board. Just nine minutes after the River Hawks’ goal, a free kick pass from graduate student back Devin Heanue found senior back Will Noecker — who tipped in the ball to tie the game at one.

“We were on top of the game attacking so much we then were letting our defensive shape slip a little bit,” Marco said. “But after their goal, I thought we then really started to push we got another goal back right away.”

Two minutes after BU’s first goal, freshman forward Anthony Randazzo got off a shot, looking to give Binghamton the lead, but it was stopped by the River Hawks’ goalkeeper. However, the Bearcats did not stop attacking the UMass Lowell goal. Just a few seconds later, in the 62nd minute, redshirt freshman back Cailen Thomas scored the eventual game-winning goal, giving BU a 2-1 lead.

“We get the winner shortly after it,” Marco said. “And then continue to try to get more goals which was great to see.”

After taking the lead, the Bearcats’ defense continued to work to keep UMass Lowell from finding the equalizer. Even after the River Hawks picked up their pace of play, Binghamton maintained its advantage for the rest of the game to secure a 2-1 win on the road, while also being awarded three points in the AE standings.

“We’ve been talking about needing three points in this game to stay alive for playoffs and to try to continue to extend our season,” Marco said. “I thought the guys were outstanding, I mean what a great team performance yesterday [with the] conditions, the opponent [and] everything. Our guys just continue to work hard and improve through the game.”

BU will return home to continue AE conference play against Bryant on Friday, Oct 27. Kickoff is set for 6:07 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.