A new season begins Saturday, when the Binghamton men’s soccer team heads to Maine to open America East competition.

The Bearcats (2-5-3) will look to open conference play on the right foot against the winless Black Bears (0-8-0), who have shuffled lineups all season in search of their first win. Despite Maine and Binghamton’s losing records, conference play is a whole other ballgame where, at the start, every team has an opportunity to make the playoffs.

“They’ve finished their non-conference play, they’re now looking to begin conference play, so it’s kind of like a fresh record right now,” said head coach Paul Marco.

Non-conference play proved tumultuous for the Bearcats this season, but their play has shaped up in recent games and they have managed to fight through injuries, despite still being snake bitten at the moment with several players out for an indefinite amount of time. Now against Maine, the real test of facing conference rivals begins.

“Obviously we didn’t get a lot of the results we wanted, but just looking at our record I don’t think justifies how we’ve come along as a program,” said senior midfielder Bryan Arnault. “I think we’ve played quite well in our past few games … if we take that into the conference … we’re playing good soccer, hopefully it’ll come.”

The Black Bears have been outshot by a margin of 101 this season, 145-44, while BU has been outshot by three, at 116-113. Four different players have one goal for the Black Bears, who have half as many goals as Binghamton’s eight.

Junior Giacomo Brunino has seen the majority of time as goal keeper this season and has 36 saves, though in Maine’s last game, a 3-0 loss to Cal State Fullerton, he played fewer minutes than freshman Dereck Loisel.

Maine’s team leaders are senior captains Cooper Friend, a midfielder, and Jason Jacobe, a back. No player, however, has been able to emerge as the linchpin of Maine’s game.

“They’re playing so many players, trying to find something,” Marco said. “I’m expecting an absolute battle.”

Maine has employed a 3-5-2, a 4-3-3 and a 4-4-2 this season, and Marco expects his team to be prepared for all three.

Marco will be facing an old friend Saturday morning, his former player at West Virginia, Dan Balaguero, new to the Black Bears staff this season. Before coming to West Virginia, Balaguero was head coach at Virginia Intermont College, the same school from which BU sophomore backs Liam Carson and Mark Wood hail.

“I’ve talked to Danny quite a bit this fall, trying to just keep him positive,” Marco said.

Old acquaintances will be put aside Saturday as Binghamton hopes to extend Maine’s losing streak to nine games and place themselves atop the America East standings.