Before Wednesday’s match with University of Maryland, Baltimore County, men’s soccer head coach Paul Marco called upon his offense to step up in order to counter the conference’s second-highest-scoring team:

“We need a lot more than what we’re getting right now from Peter [Sgueglia] and Joey [Neilson],” Marco said. “You know, I think that those two guys will have to have a great day for us up front.”

Call it prophecy, as Sgueglia, a senior, went out and scored not once, but twice on the road in a span of three minutes and 54 seconds.

After a scoreless first half, junior midfielder Matt Narode staked the Bearcats to a 1-0 lead on a cross from senior midfielder Bryan Arnault at the 57:44 mark. A little less than 20 minutes later, Sgueglia let loose, but he offers much of the credit for his scores to his teammates.

“The first goal I scored because Stenta, our goalie, had an incredible drop kick — he drop kicked it and it beat the last defender and I just got on it and had a clear shot on goal against the keeper,” Sgueglia said. “And then the second goal, Kyle Kucharski cleared it out of the back and their defender got on the ball, but I was able to battle him for it and tackle it away from him, and I was in on goal … my teammates pretty much set me up, I just put the ball away.”

Defensively the Bearcats were also very strong, only allowing UMBC to score with 6:25 remaining in the second half. Binghamton outshot the Retrievers 13-5, as Adam Chavez — who received a yellow card for a verbal outburst but nonetheless played well — and the rest of the back line shut down a UMBC attack led by senior Kevin Mezzadra, the conference leader in goals per game.

“Adam Chavez probably had one of his best games, he was fantastic,” Marco praised.

Binghamton came out swinging Wednesday at an opportune time, as only three more regular season games remain. Binghamton (6-6-3, 4-1-0 AE) entered the contest in third place and still stands there, while UMBC (4-8-3, 1-3-2 AE) fell from sixth place to eighth with the loss.

“We were as competitive as I’ve ever seen us, certainly as sharp as we’ve been this year,” Marco said. “We performed for nearly the entire match like we were champions.”

The Bearcats control their own destiny as they square off this weekend at homecoming against SUNY rival Stony Brook, and then take on the first- and second-place teams, Albany and Vermont, next week.

“As long as we step up like we have been and keep playing as hard and keep putting the ball in the back of the net and keep playing like a team, there’s no reason why we can’t win the double, … the regular season title and the America East tournament title,” Sgueglia said.

MEN’S SOCCER NOTES: Senior midfielder and team captain Kyle Antos has started jogging but is not expected back until the America East tournament, or at the earliest in the final game of the season next Saturday against first-place Vermont … Junior Pablo Trillo and freshman Tom O’Neill, an Australian, have both seen time recently after starting the season injured. Head coach Paul Marco had considered redshirting them due to their shortened season, but with the amount of injuries the team has suffered, Marco elected to play the two. “We just need to play them; we’re not going to get Cody [Germain] back, we’re not going to get Ryan Bertoni back, we’re not going to get Mike Garcia back, we’re not going to probably get David Grad back,” Marco said … Redshirt freshman Brendan McGovern just started training yesterday after coming off an injury.