In its season-opening game on Friday, the Binghamton University men’s soccer team got off on the right foot with a 3-1 win over the Bucknell Bison. Junior forwards Jake Keegan and Adam Whitehead each scored a goal and added an assist.
The Bearcats (1-0-0) wasted no time as sophomore Tommy Moon put his team ahead just 1:18 into play. Though Bucknell (0-1-0) pulled even in the 33rd minute, Binghamton regained the lead before halftime as Whitehead drilled a free kick from 45 yards away to go up 2-1 at the half.
Whitehead then assisted Keegan’s goal in the 64th minute to give BU an insurance goal as they rolled to the final whistle.
Prior to Friday, the last time the Bearcats took the field they left it with their heads down. In the 62nd minute of the 2010 America East quarterfinals against University of New Hampshire, senior Kyle Manscuk headed a ball back to redshirt freshman goalie Chris Hayen, but the ball sailed over Hayen’s head and into the net for an own goal.
It would prove to be the only goal of the match as Binghamton went on to lose 1-0 and ended its season in heartbreaking fashion.
Now, with preseason camp over and one game in the books, the Bearcats will look to avoid the same disappointment in 2011. Head coach Paul Marco returns at the helm for his 10th season, while seven starters, including senior and second-year captain Ryan Walter, will provide leadership. Overall, 12 letterwinners return from the 2010 squad and 14 new faces join this year’s team.
Binghamton was selected to finish fifth in the eight-team America East Conference. Defending regular season champion Boston University nabbed the top spot just ahead of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, followed by University of New Hampshire, Stony Brook University, the Bearcats, The University of Vermont, University of Hartford and University at Albany.
Though the season is young, Marco said he has already noticed a change in how Walter carries himself as the team’s captain.
“In the past, he was all about making sure he was great,” Marco said. “Now not only is he taking care of himself but he’s watching the team too.”
Walter, one of the few Bearcats to captain the team for more than one year, said he does so with an understanding of how to handle a squad carrying as many freshmen as his does.
“There comes more responsibility to make sure [the newcomers] are comfortable and enjoying themselves so that they can play the best they can,” he said.
But Walter’s Binghamton career has been filled with disappointment come tournament time. The team hasn’t won an AE championship since 2006 and has been eliminated in the tournament’s first round in each of the last two years by teams the Bearcats had beaten just one week prior.
So understandably, this year’s upperclassmen may feel a sense of urgency, but Walter’s approach to the team and its youth is a cautious one.
“You have to demand a certain standard from them but at the same time you don’t want to discourage them and put them into a shell,” he said. “So really you just have to be demanding but be positive while you do it.”
Walter won’t be alone in his role as a leader; seven starters return from last year’s squad including junior forward Jake Keegan, who was the top goal scorer in the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League this summer, as well as sophomores Hayen and Moon.
Moon, who was named to the America East All-Rookie Team in 2010, and Hayen, who impressed in goal as a redshirt freshman last year, will transition in much more important ways than their class standing.
“It goes from learning a lot last year to now being able to execute and perform the way I think I should be able to perform this year,” Moon said.
The Bearcats’ major non-conference matchups lie in the upcoming weeks as they will take on University of West Virginia on Friday and then travel to The Ohio State University on Sept. 11.
The team opens America East play on Oct. 1 at Vermont and finishes Oct. 29 at home against the defending regular season champion Boston Terriers.
Despite disappointing finishes in each of the last four years and a plethora of inexperienced young talent, Marco said he is holding steady in his approach to the season.
“Every year we come in we’re playing for championships, and I don’t think this [year] is any different,” he said. “No matter how many new players we have, we’re still trying to play for championships.”