While most of Binghamton University went home for a relaxing long weekend, the men’s soccer team was busy learning ‘ learning the tough lesson that winning streaks are meant to be broken.

After dropping a 1-0 heartbreaker to Richmond (3-3-0) on Friday, the Bearcats (5-2-0) fell to Duquesne (1-3-1) by a score of 3-1 the next day.

With seconds remaining in the first sudden death overtime period Friday, Binghamton fouled Richmond near the goal. The resulting free kick resulted in a header from Spider sophomore Jake Russel, which slipped past BU goalie Jason Stenta for the win. The teams were one second away from a second overtime period ‘ and a fresh start for Binghamton.

Stenta and the Bearcat defense had not given up a goal in 561 minutes dating back to the 2006 season.

‘Richmond is very good in the air,’ said BU head coach Paul Marco. ‘We were playing in pouring rain. Sometimes you give up a goal like that. I’ve never had a goal given up or scored a goal with one second remaining, so that was disappointing.’

Binghamton and Richmond traded opportunities for 99 minutes in an evenly played match. The Bearcats out-shot the Spiders 15-12

‘Certainly a break in the game here and there could have been a little different. But we didn’t take care of that set piece,’ Marco said. ‘Hopefully our guys learned from the mistake. Every second counts.’

The stunning loss affected the Bearcats in the next day’s match against Duquesne. Binghamton let up an early goal and played catchup the entire game, resulting in a weak defensive effort.

Freshman midfielder Yusuf Yusuf netted an equalizer with 15 minutes remaining in regulation, but Drew Jeffery and Alex Trujillo quickly responded with two goals in the remaining minutes to seal a Duquesne victory.

Binghamton had trouble recouping from the loss against Richmond.

‘We didn’t even warm up well before Duquesne,’ Marco said. ‘We [the coaching staff] could tell that our players didn’t get over the previous night’s game easily.’

Stenta, who entered the game with a 0.16 goals-against average, notched just one save and allowed three goals.

‘It is uncharacteristic for the Bearcats to lose two games in a row,’ Marco said.

For a team that seemingly regroups after every loss and emerges stronger, it’s true: the weekend’s outing was an anomaly. The last time Binghamton lost two games in a row was during a three-game slide to start the 2006 season. Before then? 2002, Marco’s first season.

‘It will be a different team this weekend than last weekend,’ Marco said.