On Saturday, the Binghamton men’s soccer team traveled to NJIT for the squad’s second American East (AE) conference matchup of the season. After snapping their 16-game winless streak last Tuesday in a record-setting scoring affair against Hartford, the Bearcats’ offense was quiet the entire evening while their defense remained stout as they earned a scoreless tie.

BU (1-6-3, 0-1-1 AE) was held to one shot in the first half by the Highlanders’ (3-3-4, 0-0-2 AE) suffocating defense. Senior goalkeeper Mats Roorda started between the pipes for the Bearcats, stopping all three of NJIT’s shots on goal, and coming away with a clean sheet after 90 minutes of play. On the offensive side, the Bearcats managed nine shots total with one shot on goal apiece by junior midfielders Shawn Coles and Markos Touroukis, graduate student forward Ethan Homler and redshirt junior midfielder Anthony Lazaridis. However, BU was unable to find the back of the net, ending the match scoreless for the seventh time this season.

In the first half, the Bearcats mustered just one shot coming from senior back Michael Bush, whose attempt flared out right. On the defensive end, BU was outshot 11-1 in the first half, but still managed to keep the game scoreless. Binghamton came out with a different plan in the second half and flipped the switch, beating NJIT in shots eight-to-seven.

“We made a couple of slight adjustments, moved some faces around and brought a new player in,” said Binghamton head coach Paul Marco. “I think that helped us a little bit. We talked about how we were going to solve some of the things where they were getting on the ball, and I think we negated that a bit better than in the first half.”

Roorda recorded his second solo shutout of the season, totaling three saves. His previous one was against Canisius two weeks prior. Roorda is now fourth in the conference in average goals against, with 1.18 goals allowed per game in seven starts.

“I thought [Roorda] has been terrific the last few games,” Marco said. “He had to make a pretty good save on a set piece in the second half, and he dealt with that [with] no issues. I [also] thought that his game management was excellent and his communication [with] the guys was very good.”

After multiple chances throughout the course of the 90 minutes, Lazaridis had an opportunity to put the Bearcats ahead in the closing seconds of the game. Bush launched the ball above his ahead from the sideline while the ball found the Lazaridis in the 18-yard-box. The redshirt junior attempted a shot that was headed toward bottom center, but his chance was squandered by the Highlander defense with a sliding save as time expired.

“I think one of the things we wanted to improve in was our competitive spirit and competing,” Marco said. “I felt like we were really good at that today … We’ll go to Bucknell on Tuesday with [five] goals in mind — play well, perform well, compete hard and get a lot of guys minutes in the game. [Also] make sure that we put our best first forward.”

This tie is the third of the year for BU and marks the second-consecutive game where the Bearcats walked out without a loss. Since starting 0-4, BU is 1-2-2 since Sept. 9. With Saturday’s tie, Binghamton recorded its first point in conference play, putting them tied at fifth in the America East with five conference matches left.

BU returns to action against Bucknell on Tuesday, Oct. 4. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.