Led by returning veterans and driven by fresh faces, the Binghamton University women’s soccer team won two of its first five games and lost by just one goal in two others to open the year. The team has had a significantly stronger start than last year’s squad, which finished second in the America East, as the Bearcats have brought their record up to 2-4 as they fight through their non-conference slate of matches.
However, the most recent match for Binghamton saw no scoring from its squad. The Bearcats were roughed up against Big East foe Syracuse University with a 4-0 loss on Sunday. Binghamton was outshot 16-3, and the Orange tallied all four of its goals in just over 20 minutes in the second half.
‘We left Syracuse with a bad taste in our mouth,’ said Bearcats head coach Sarah McClellan.
However, before the big loss, the Bearcats also took on Bucknell on the road and emerged with a big win, a 3-0 victory on Sept. 8, thanks to two big goals from sophomore forward Sarah Furminger. She and sophomore forward Jamie Holliday each scored their first goals of the season in a first half that was dominated by the Bearcats, as they fired 15 shots at Bucknell while facing only four Bison shots.
‘I think we caught them on a day where we executed really well, and they were not able to counter what we had,’ McClellan said. ‘Our possession again was good, we had the intensity in the goal box that we needed to finish chances, and we were just really well-organized and communicating and came out playing hard for the whole 90 minutes.’
McClellan was ecstatic to see her players come together so perfectly against Bucknell.
‘That was a great feeling, that win against Bucknell, because the players just did everything,’ she said. ‘They put everything out there. It’s really exciting to see when players do that because obviously our coaching staff believes in our players, and we think that they’re capable of a lot, and when they actually put it out there and see the rewards of putting it out there, it’s awesome.’
Binghamton also took on Delaware, a team that handled the Bearcats by a score of 3-0 last season. This year, though, was quite a different story. The Bearcats took the Blue Hens to overtime, but were devastated with a loss when freshman forward Shannon Kearney scored on a through ball inside the Bearcats’ box. Binghamton outshot the Blue Hens 9-8 and played significantly better compared to last time, according to McClellan.
‘We’re better than last year,’ she said. ‘We knew that Delaware would think that it would kind of be a walk in the park, and they did beat us very badly last year. They outplayed us, and just all over the field last year, so this year we were determined to play hard and compete and showcase what we’re capable of, and I thought we did do that. I thought we outplayed them, we out-competed them, our possession was much more dangerous than theirs, [and] we made them very predictable.’
Binghamton’s first win of the season came in a 1-0 win against Delaware State in the Bearcats’ home opener on Sept. 3. The lone goal was scored by freshman midfielder Kaitlyn Cook, one-timing a pass from junior forward AnnMarie Rizzi, who now has two assists on the year. The Bearcats faced only one shot on goal from the Hornets, keeping Delaware State in its defensive zone for the majority of the match.
‘That was just good to get the first win, especially at home,’ McClellan said. ‘We felt good about our possession game, we felt good about getting a lot of chances on goal.’
Last season, the team started 0-3-1 and scored no goals during that stretch, but this time the Bearcats scored in their second game. The match did not end well for the Bearcats, however, as they were defeated by Sacred Heart by a 3-2 score. Binghamton took only four shots in the entire contest, while the Pioneers tallied 14 shots. The Bearcats were kept in the contest by fresh faces, as sophomore forward Kerry Sullivan and Cook each tallied their first collegiate goal in the contest, while freshman goalkeeper Carrie Martin made nine saves.
A year after the Bearcats had two freshmen as their primary goal scorers, the team is once again utilizing youth in its game plan. Their goalkeeper is a freshman, and three of the four players to score a goal this year had never scored one for Binghamton before this year.
‘Our new players are well adjusting to the college game, and our keeper is growing each game,’ McClellan said. ‘It’s tough as a freshman to play right away, and we’ve been dealing with a couple injuries and things like that, which is putting the freshmen on the field. I think what you see is these freshmen and younger players taking full advantage of the opportunities they’re getting and they’re performing well, but that’s in large part to our returning players molding them and mentoring them along the way so that they feel confident to do that.’
The Bearcats’ next test is set for Wednesday against Iona, and McClellan sees the Gaels as a tough team to beat, but she expects her Bearcats to be tough, as well.
‘We’ve proven that we are a very good team, and so we have to recommit to that and refocus on that for Iona. Iona is a good team; they’re playing pretty well and they’ve lost some close games, so we have to play well and we have to do things the right way for the entire time of the game so that we can continue to move forward in the right direction as we come to conference.’
Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex.