After spending its last two weeks on the road, the Binghamton men’s soccer team will truly have a homecoming weekend as they return to Vestal to face UMass Lowell on Saturday. The Bearcats (6-4-1, 1-0-0 America East) will look to follow their success from last weekend in Vermont, where they defeated the Catamounts, 2-1, thanks to two first-half goals. Graduate student midfielder Pascal Trappe, who currently leads the team with three goals and seven points, scored the game-winning goal.
BU is set to compete in its first conference home game of the season tomorrow, where the Bearcats have routinely dominated their AE opponents in the past. Last year, BU went 3-1 at home in regular-season conference play. However, the Bearcats faced UMass Lowell (5-5, 0-1 AE) on the road last season, dropping the contest, 2-1, to cap an 0-3 conference road campaign.
The River Hawks are coming off a 3-1 loss to New Hampshire in its AE season-opening contest last Saturday. Junior midfielder Wuilito Fernandes, who leads UMass Lowell with three goals, three assists and nine total points, netted the Hawks’ sole tally. Fernandes was named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List back in August and will prove to be a dynamic challenge for the Bearcats.
“He is a terrific player,” BU head coach Paul Marco said. “He is very good at any position they play him at. He’s one of the better players in the conference, and we have to pay attention to what’s going on around us and realize that he can hurt us if we’re not careful.”
The Bearcats, however, have their answer in junior goalkeeper Robert Moewes, who was also named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List. Moewes, the 2014 America East Goalkeeper of the Year, currently leads the conference with 45 saves.
A key to the game for BU will be to collect shots on goal. Currently, BU ranks seventh in the America East in shots with 108. UMass Lowell, on the other hand, ranks last in the eight-team conference in shots with 106.
The BU squad, however, will look for more than just offensive development on Saturday evening.
“The challenge for us always is whether we can improve throughout the match — can we do a better job of getting better from the first whistle to the last whistle,” Marco said.
Through nine Homecoming Weekend games at the Bearcats Sports Complex, BU is 4-3-1 all time. The team will attempt to improve this margin in front of what is typically the biggest crowd of the year, and the crowd’s impact will not be lost on the Bearcats.
“[The atmosphere] is a great thing,” Marco said. “It does a few things. Obviously there’s more energy, so it can work for you.”
Kick-off against the River Hawks is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.
Orlaith McCaffrey contributed in reporting to this article.