On the weekend of Oct. 13, the Binghamton University men’s club soccer team traveled to Maryland University for a six-team, two-day tournament. The tournament quickly turned into a four-team, one-day tournament after Villanova and St. Mary’s could not make the trip. The change didn’t affect the Bearcats, who left the tournament as champions.

Binghamton started off the day against a highly talented Maryland squad. The Bearcats took an early 1-0 lead after captain J.J. Gould ripped a shot off of the post and Will Graeper put the rebound away. With roughly 10 minutes left in the first half, freshman Rob ‘Fuddrucker’ Hupcher drew a penalty kick, which Colin Coon converted on shortly after. The Bearcats went into the second half up 2-0, but knew that no lead is safe. Maryland scored fifteen minutes into the second half on a nice shot into the corner of the net. Thanks to some poor officiating, Maryland drew a penalty kick with 10 minutes remaining and scored on it shortly after to make the score 2-2. However, the resilient Bearcats never quit, and with three minutes left, newcomer Rob ‘Big’ Dickinson ripped a volley past a Maryland goalie that never saw it coming. Binghamton won the game 3-2.

In the second game of the tournament, Binghamton took on LaSalle College. Binghamton jumped on a weaker LaSalle team early when Coon put in a rebound from five yards out. Binghamton scored again 10 minutes later when Matt Hogan ran through a ball and put it through two defenders right onto the foot of Gould who buried it past the LaSalle goalie. The Bearcats led 2-0 at the half, and this time the other team would not come back. Hupcher put the Bearcats up 3-0 when he put a cross from Andrew Birstingl into the back of the net just ten minutes into the half. Binghamton went up 4-0 when Erwin Sequia took a pass from Colin McGovern and ripped it off the post and into the net. LaSalle scored late on a fluke goal, but Binghamton took the game 4-1.

Fatigue was evident in Binghamton’s third game of the day against a tough Rutgers team. The Bearcats’ defense had some trouble holding the ball, resulting in a 40-yard floater from Rutgers to take an early lead of 1-0. With two minutes remaining in the half, Rutgers scored on a penalty kick to go up 2-0. But after an inspirational halftime speech from captains Gould and Mike Mokrzycki, the Bearcats really picked up their game. The Bearcats scored six minutes into the half when Matt Powers sent a through ball onto the foot of Chuby Okoye who scored, flipped over the goalie, dislocated his pinky, snapped it back into place and went back into the game shortly after. After numerous chances, Binghamton finally tied the game on a corner kick from Mokrzycki, who found the head of Graeper. Graeper flicked the ball over the Rutgers goalie and into the net. Binghamton completely dominated the second half and Rutgers was lucky to have escaped with a tie.

‘This was without question the best half of soccer we have played all season and I am extremely proud of our drive to never quit,’ Mokrzycki said.

The Northeast Regional tournament is this weekend in Philadelphia. This is the biggest tournament of the year for the Bearcats, who enter the weekend ranked sixth in the region with a 6-0-2 record. They are one of three undefeated teams left in the region along with Colgate (2-0-3) and top-seeded Penn State (10-0-0).

‘This weekend is it,’ Mokrzycki said. ‘We’ve been practicing and preparing for this tournament all year. Some players have been waiting a couple of years to get here. I said in the beginning of the year that I would be upset with anything less than a regional championship, and that hasn’t changed. If there is any team that can win this thing, it’s us.’

When asked about the one seed Penn State, Mokrzycki said, ‘They’re a good team and they are the one seed for a reason. They beat us 3-2 last year in a real good game. But we’re a better team this year, so Penn State should be more worried about us than the other way around.’