The $4.2 million stage was set. The bright lights were turned on. And as a record audience of 1,862 attended opening night, a star was born.

Newcomer Cameron Keith, a sophomore forward from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, scored the first hat-trick in Binghamton’s D-I history, propelling the Binghamton men’s soccer team (7-2) to a 3-0 shutout of regional foe Cornell (5-3).

Keith scored his final two goals in a span of two minutes to complete the hat trick with less than 10 minutes remaining in Saturday’s home opener for the Bearcats.

After Keith scored his third goal, the crowd showered the striker with applause. In return, Keith blew kisses to the stands and held up three fingers, signifying his achievement.

‘It was a lot more people than I was used to playing in front of at home,’ Keith said.

But Keith’s late goals were a result of his first score, which caused Cornell to move defensive players to the front line in an attempt to score.

In the first period, Big Red keeper Luca Cerretani stopped a shot by Keith just yards from the goal. Less than a minute later Keith had his revenge with a long shot from the left corner of the box that hit the top-right corner of the goal. His goal was set up by a long cross from junior Justin Leskow.

Keith’s historic night nearly overshadowed the terrific performance of BU goalkeeper Jason Stenta.

Stenta, who entered the game as one of the NCAA leaders in goals-against-average, turned away four shots for his sixth shutout of 2007.

‘He’s looked sharp in training in shot-stopping, so I thought he’d be good at that tonight, and he was,’ said Bearcat head coach Paul Marco. ‘And he needed to be, because Cornell is a very good team.’

‘They had some moments where they were very dangerous, but we kept making stops all around,’ Stenta said.

Cornell squandered its share of opportunities to equalize. Big Red forward Dana Flanders passed on several early scoring chances and could not recover. Cornell’s top scorer, Brian Kuritzky, subject to much defensive attention, only took one shot in the match.

‘I think one of our unsung heroes of this match was J.P. Ahoua,’ Marco said. ‘In the first half he kept wanting to go to the ball and score, and we told him, ‘Just calm down and stop [Kuritzky], because [Kuritzky] is fantastic.’ In the second half he did a great job of it.’

Bearcats Liam Carson, Barry Neville and Cody Germain were also credited with assists.

Binghamton has not lost in its last 14 home games, in a streak dating back to 2005.

Keith was named the America East Player of the Week for his efforts. In six weeks of soccer, Binghamton players have earned the award three times.

”””””

Men’s soccer coach Paul Marco wants more.

Call him greedy, or call him a perfectionist. Either way, Marco, never content with his success, wants more out of his team, his fans and his new star striker

‘If you asked me to start the season off if we could be 7-2, I don’t know if I would have taken it,’ Marco said. ‘I would have said I’d rather be 9-0.’

How about that record crowd on Saturday?

‘It was a great atmosphere, electric atmosphere and like I tell our guys, each week we want to get better, so next week we could break the 2000 mark (in attendance),’ Marco said. ‘Maybe next week we can get a few more fans for homecoming.’

When a Pipe Dream reporter asked him about Cameron Keith’s hat-trick masterpiece, Marco pointed out the Keith is not yet a finished product.

‘His fitness still needs to improve, because I see him being a guy who can really make a difference in the match for us,’ Marco said.

‘So he can do better than three goals?’ the reporter joked.

‘Definitely.’