Injuries, replacing graduated seniors, redshirt freshman goalies: All of the regular season’s stories are fine and dandy, but, starting tomorrow they become meaningless. It is the playoffs now and the regular season title — great feat that it was — is a thing of the past.

The America East men’s soccer tournament has started, and tomorrow at 1 p.m. at West Gym Field, the only America East team to defeat the Bearcats this season comes to Binghamton for a battle that decides which team reaches the conference finals.

The first-seeded and regular season conference champion Binghamton men’s soccer team (8-6-4, 6-1-1 AE) and the fifth-seeded Terriers (10-4-4, 4-3-1 AE) faced off at Nickerson Field on Sept. 30, a game Boston won 1-0 on sophomore Dan Schultz’s goal with under 10 minutes remaining in regulation.

“It’s become a good rivalry match where both teams are up for the game,” said head coach Paul Marco. “Watching Boston play a little bit, they don’t bring the same fight that they bring when they play us.”

The Terriers did not have a first-round bye like the Bearcats — who have not played in almost two weeks — and beat fourth-seeded Albany on the road in double overtime to advance to play Binghamton. Sophomore forward Peter Sigurdsson scored the game winner off a corner kick.

There is an added storyline with the Bearcats facing the only AE rival that was able to get the better of them this year. Revenge is on their minds.

“That wasn’t our best performance, no way,” said junior backfielder Adam Chavez of their previous match.

“I’m not sure what 1 o’clock will bring us, but hopefully it brings us a good crowd,” Marco said of the scheduled game time and home field advantage. “Hopefully the ‘Joey Nielson Project’ fans are all there in high spirits.”

Sigurdsson is the Terriers’ team leading scorer with seven goals, while senior midfielder Steven Gahl’s statistics are not eye-popping, he still has a strong impact.

“If we had a unsung hero award for the America East it would be him, he just sits in front of the back three, wins everything in the air,” Marco said.

Senior midfielder Ibrahim Yusuf handled Gahl well last game, and Yusuf, along with Chavez, will have their hands full, but luckily, with some reinforcements: returning to the field are senior captain Kyle Antos, junior Ryan Bertoni and sophomore midfielder Cody Germain.

“It’s definitely 100 percent,” Antos said of his injured leg.

Bertoni and Germain will not necessarily start, or play, but both will be in uniform and available on Wednesday. Bertoni may either shoot or defend penalty kicks.

The Binghamton offense will have to try to beat Terrier senior goalkeeper Zach Riffett, who had a .61 goals against average, slightly better than Binghamton’s redshirt freshman Jason Stenta’s .68, but he was not in goal against the Bearcats in their September match. Also patrolling the backfield is senior Zach Kirby, 2006 AE defender of the year.

All things considered, expect Wednesday’s match to be very tight.

It’s been an incredible year for the Bearcats. The regular season brought a lot of excitement and the team’s first AE title, but a new season starts Wednesday, and the Bearcats, with some old faces back from injury to help, first have to down the Terriers before they can reach the tournament championship.

“If you get kind of a do-over, which you very rarely get in life, hopefully you do it a little better than you did it the first time,” Marco said.