Following its third victory in as many matches, the Binghamton women’s soccer team secured its spot in the America East Championships with a 3-0 victory over Albany on Thursday evening. The Bearcats dictated the pace of play throughout, finishing the night with a 23-1 shot advantage over the visitors.

“Nice that we got three goals,” said Binghamton head coach Neel Bhattacharjee. “Nice that we got a brace from [junior midfielder/forward Paige Luke], great finish from [sophomore midfielder Anna Buckwalter] and getting our second consecutive shutout. So really pleased on the night, and now we get to enjoy this and then pretty quickly, then turn to recovery, getting ready for being at UNH on Sunday.”

Binghamton (10-1-3, 5-0-1 AE) wasted no time working its way into Albany’s (2-10-2, 1-5 AE) defensive third, dominating possession through the opening minutes of the match. Luke was first to open her shot book, rattling off two attempts by the 10th minute, before junior defender/forward Megan Baker registered the first attempt on net of the night in the 13th.

The Bearcats continued to search for twine, with another pair of shots by the 18th minute, but neither attempt made its way towards the opposing goalkeeper.

“That one that I missed off the crossbar, obviously, I was freaking out just a little,” Luke said. “[Buckwalter] talked me down on that one and told me that I’ll be fine. And the two crosses that came in, I saw Albany shift to the front post, and I knew if I just held back and got open that I could possibly score.”

Still searching for their opener, the Bearcats continued to pepper the opposing net with shot attempts, adding four more by the 34th minute of play. A minute later, a drive down the left flank saw freshman forward Grace McCasland deliver a ball into the box for Buckwalter, who buried her shot in the top right corner and gave the Bearcats a one-score advantage.

Albany capitalized following the score, attempting a shot in the 42nd minute, but it flew above the net as BU went into the half nursing a 1-0 lead.

“Really happy overall with the performance over the course of 90 minutes, the first 45 was just OK,” Bhattacharjee said. “I thought we had some moments here and there, great finish by [Buckwalter] to get us going in the second half. You know, basically what we want to do at half times.”

The Bearcats carried their momentum into the second half, adding three more shots to their account by the 48th minute. The offense continued to generate chances, adding six to the tally, including two pairs of attempts from freshman midfielder Sydney Krempasky and two attempts by sophomore forward Alexus Worrell by the 71st minute.

“We just said, ‘Let’s get after them a little bit more,’” Bhattacharjee said. “We want to put our opponents on their heels a bit, just attack them more one [versus] one, use the spacing a little more, especially the flanks. Once we did that, that kind of shifted the game.”

After being awarded a corner kick in the 71st minute, Buckwalter played the ball into the box where Luke headed it in and padded BUs lead to 2-0.

In the 80th minute, Baker delivered a cross to the edge of the six-yard box, as Luke, once again, headed the ball over the goal line for a Bearcat score. As the clock wound down, the Bearcats’ stout back line prevented the Great Danes from attempting a single shot for the remainder of the match as Binghamton claimed its third consecutive victory.

“We just thought that the best way that we could keep them off the ball is if we were on the ball,” said Bhattacharjee. “I thought we had a good amount of possession, pass strings, playing in their defensive half, playing in the defensive third.”

Binghamton looks to secure a top-two seed in the AE Championships when it takes on UNH on Sunday, Oct. 19. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Bremner Field in Durham, New Hampshire.