There is a first time for everything.
On Saturday night, the Binghamton University men’s soccer team hosted the defending America East champions, the Stony Brook Seawolves. A victory would have clinched a playoff berth for the Bearcats. Unfortunately for them, the result of the match was a milestone defeat.
Stony Brook (8-5-3, 2-1-2 AE) came back from a 1-0 deficit to top Binghamton (4-5-4, 2-1-2 AE) 2-1 in the first period of overtime at the Bearcats Sports Complex before 701 fans. It marked the first time ever that the Bearcats lost a regular season match at the Bearcats Sports Complex, which opened in fall 2007. Seawolf sophomore Raphael Abreu scored the game-winning goal with 33 seconds remaining in the first overtime period.
The loss also ends the Bearcats’ eight-game unbeaten streak. It was Binghamton’s first overtime loss since September 2009, when they lost to Gonzaga 2-1 at the New Mexico tournament. The goal came after several quality scoring chances from Binghamton during overtime. Binghamton had three of its six corners in the overtime period.
‘A couple of guys didn’t execute, that’s all it comes down to,’ said BU head coach Paul Marco. ‘Give [Stony Brook] a little credit for crashing the box but I thought that on the goal, we weren’t focused in the moment. They got a guy open on the back post which should never happen. He does a good job with his first touch and puts a good ball in on [redshirt-freshman] Chris [Hayen]. Chris makes the initial save and they have three different players that can finish the ball, so give them credit for going after it.’
The Bearcats opened the scoring in the latter part of the first half. In the 35th minute, junior captain Ryan Walter sent a ball into the box, and sophomore back Austin Hughes was there to put it away, heading the ball past Stony Brook’s sophomore goalkeeper Stefan Manz. The goal was Hughes’ first of his collegiate career. Walter’s assist was his fourth of the season, tying him with sophomore Adam Whitehead for the team lead. They also share the team lead with eight points apiece. Walter took the set pieces for Whitehead, who was banged up going into the match and didn’t come on until the middle of the second half.
‘Walter was hitting some great free kicks [last] week in training,’ Marco said. ‘I thought he was very good. He played a great ball in; I thought he played another couple of good balls in on the corner too.’
Shortly after taking the lead, Binghamton had a chance to score another goal. Junior Santigui Tounkara had an uncontested chance at a goal inside the box, but Manz was able to make the save. The missed opportunity would loom large for the Bearcats.
Not long afterward, in the 39th minute, Abreu scored his first goal of the game, tying the match at 1-1. Sophomore Kyle Schlesinger and junior Wilber Bonilla were credited with assists on the play. Abreu was named America East Co-Player of the Week for his performance, sharing the honor with Andrew Bulls of UMBC.
‘I always say that in the conference matches, the longer the season goes the tighter the games get,’ Marco said. ‘We certainly had enough opportunities to win the game [Saturday]. We pissed the ball away in the back on the first goal. Just disappointed that we didn’t execute as cleanly and as smart as we should have. It didn’t need to be pretty, it just needed to be effective and simple, and we made the game at times very simple and at times very difficult for ourselves.’
The equalizer from Abreu drained the momentum the Bearcats had built throughout the first half. The Seawolves came out energized for the second half and seemed to be playing the better soccer, but Marco felt that his squad got back into the match as the half went on.
‘I thought [Stony Brook] played better only for about the first 10 to 15 minutes [of the second half]. I thought that [our] team was better the last 25 minutes; I thought we got good chances the last 25 minutes. I thought we were very good through most of the overtime; had a lot of chances there on set pieces, and we just gave the ball away at the wrong moment.’
Binghamton had a great opportunity to score at the end of the second half. Whitehead, who came on as a substitute in the second half, took a free kick roughly five yards outside of the box on the right side. He went for the net, but the ball flew just over the crossbar. Whitehead had converted a free kick in the team’s previous match, a 1-1 draw at University at Albany.
With Boston University’s loss to University of New Hampshire earlier on Saturday, the Bearcats had a chance to close the gap on first place with a victory. Instead, they find themselves in a three-way tie for second place with Stony Brook and University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
‘One of the things that I think when we reflect back on [Saturday’s] match that the guys will all be disappointed in is we followed way too many times needlessly,’ Marco said. ‘I think that we got caught up in what the referee was calling and not focused on what we could control, and that is a sign of a young team. But maybe some of our older players were caught up in it as well.’
Binghamton is scheduled for a match at Boston on Wednesday night. A win would bring the team within one point of Boston, with one conference match remaining.
‘I think that we need to be a little smarter ourselves going into the match,’ Marco said. ‘If we can grow from this experience, this step back, I think we’ll respond quite nicely. We’ll see in training.’
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday.