Coming off a 3-1 win over UMBC, the Binghamton women’s soccer team hosted Albany on Thursday night, ultimately playing to a 2-2 draw. The Bearcats controlled possession for the majority of the game and built a comfortable two-goal cushion with a goal in both the first and second halves. However, in the 85th minute, Albany found the back of the net to cut the BU lead to one. Then, with less than 30 seconds left in the match, Albany found the equalizer off of a corner kick, and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

“We had a pretty good amount of control for the game,” said Binghamton head coach Neel Bhattacharjee. “If there’s anything that I’d say instead of two goals, we had an opportunity for a third and a fourth. [We] hit a couple of crossbars, forced the keeper to make a couple of good saves, a couple of shots that we missed on our own. So, we could’ve put it away instead of just holding a two-goal lead with four minutes left.”

The match began with the ball in Albany’s (3-5-2, 0-1-2 AE) possession but Binghamton (3-4-4, 2-0-1 AE) quickly brought it back to the Great Danes’ box. The Bearcats’ offense came on strong, with senior midfielders Molly McClelland and Victoria McKnight and junior midfielder Hannah Knych working together to create several opportunities for a goal, but never getting a clear shot at the net. The first two shots of the game were taken by the Great Danes with one going out, and the other being saved by junior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Williams.

The Bearcats’ defense worked to move the ball out of its box and back down the field. Knych got off the first shot for the Bearcats, which went out top left. Albany was able to find two more attempts on the net, but Williams was able to save them both. Later in the half, senior defender Lexi Vegoda was able to get the ball into the Great Danes’ box to sophomore forward Lauren Clark, who capitalized in the 33rd minute by putting the ball away for BU’s first and only goal of the half. The first half ended with nine shots from Binghamton and five shots from the Great Danes. Going into halftime, the Bearcats found themselves with a 1-0 advantage over Albany.

“[There were] certain things that we expected to see from Albany,” Bhattacharjee said. “They gave us a little bit of a different look in terms of what we expected from our scouting report. But once we figured it out after the first 15 to 20 minutes, we were able to get more of the control in the game. [Vegoda] helped to play a big part in that.”

For most of the second half, the Bearcats’ attack did not let up, getting off a shot to the bottom right that was saved, along with a shot that went off the crossbar. Eventually, graduate student defender Grace Vittoria was able to break down Albany’s defense, attempting a shot through a defender’s leg. Off of the goal-kick from Vittoria’s shot, sophomore forward Samiya Reid was able to get her foot on the ball and turn it around for an unassisted goal that put BU up 2-0.

The Bearcats kept the intensity high throughout the half, doubling the Great Danes’ shot output in the second half. However, late in the half, things began to take a turn for the worse for BU. Albany got a kick right outside the box, and in the last four minutes, was able to make it past the Binghamton defense for their first goal of the game. Then with less than 30 seconds to go, Albany capitalized off a corner kick opportunity and found the back of the net, as the match ended in a 2-2 tie.

“Should have been three points and now we’re walking away with just one,” Bhattacharjee said. “So obviously pretty disappointed and gutted about it, but we got to live with it and accept it, move on for another day and get ready for Bryant on Sunday. We gotta make sure we play with the effort we know we’re capable of, putting out chances away that we know we’re capable of putting away, get a solid three points, get our footing back and that will take us into the second half of [AE conference] play. Right now, I know it sounds cliché, but we got to move on from this unfortunate result and get back to where we know we can be.”