After going 13 games without recording a win last season, the Binghamton women’s soccer team has largely turned itself around this year, improving its offensive performance to record twice as many goals as this time last season. On Thursday night, however, the Bearcats (4-3-2) showed flashes of the past, failing to score and losing a one-goal match to Bryant.
“It’s a disappointing loss,” said BU head coach Neel Bhattacharjee. “[We] absolutely [lost a winnable game].”
After more than 73 minutes of scoreless play, Bryant (4-4) finally gained an advantage when freshman forward Remi Manna placed an unassisted goal in the Binghamton net. Manna displayed incredible athleticism on the play, recovering a ball that had deflected off her arms before breaking away toward the Bearcats’ goal. She then outstepped another Binghamton defender, making her way back inside the box to net one in the lower left corner of the goal.
“I thought the goal came against the run of play, unfortunately, but that’s kind of the game of soccer sometimes; it can be cruel at moments,” Bhattacharjee said.
Heading into the match after an uplifting victory over Siena on Sunday, in which they tallied the most goals since the 2014 season, the Bearcats were unable to make use of any momentum they brought into the match.
The Bulldogs, on the other hand, snapped a three-game losing streak with its 1-0 victory over Binghamton. Despite the Bryant’s’ losing record heading into the matchup, Bhattacharjee knew that an easy win was not in the cards.
“Bryant was very well organized, very well coached and we knew that was going to be the case as they were coming in,” he said. “They are a team that’s better than their record.”
The first half of the game followed the pattern of the first 45 minutes of most Binghamton matches this season. In seven of its nine games, the Bearcats have failed to score a first-half goal, just as they did on Thursday night.
The Binghamton back line once again picked up the slack for the lack of offensive production, successfully shutting down eight shots in the period. Junior goalkeeper Katie Hatziyianis also recorded five saves on the night.
Bhattacharjee attributes the Bearcats’ slow start to their lack of cohesive play up front.
“One thing that we could have done better was our service in the box,” he said. “A couple of times we just mishit it; we didn’t really pick our targets well enough and were a little but off in terms of timing.”
One bright spot in the loss was the play of sophomore forward Julianne Johnston, who has been injured for much of this season. In 2015, Johnston was an impact player on the front line and was second on the team in goals scored with two. Prior to Thursday, Johnston had seen just 34 minutes of play in two games played this season. Although she didn’t record a shot, Johnston was key to the Bearcats’ improved second-half offense.
“She was a big reason that we were able to win a lot of the 50-50s,” Bhattacharjee said. “She gives us that presence in the air. When she did that, that definitely had caused a shift in the game for us in the second half. She had good impact and she deserved those minutes tonight.”
Binghamton is set to return to action on Sunday against Cornell. Kickoff is scheduled for noon at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.