Having wrapped up nonconference play with back-to-back wins against Wagner and Le Moyne, the Binghamton women’s soccer team was unable to maintain its momentum against Maine, falling 2-1 to begin America East conference play. Despite outshooting the Black Bears 6-3 in the first period, the Bearcats conceded the lead early and were unable to find an equalizer the rest of the way.

“I thought it played out pretty much how I thought it was going to be,” said Binghamton head coach Neel Bhattacharjee. “Two good teams that were hungry for a result that were gonna battle it out for 90 minutes. In our conference, especially with teams in the upper half, you expect it’s going to be a one-goal game or a tie, where the game is going to come down to a couple of key, critical moments. I thought that was pretty much what happened in the game today.”

With the Black Bears (5-1-2, 1-0 AE) and the Bearcats (3-4-2, 0-1 AE) having been projected as the top-two teams in the AE preseason coaches poll, Sunday’s contest was expected to be intense. Maine would set the tone early, exploiting Binghamton’s physicality to draw a penalty kick, which found its way past senior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Williams to put the hosts up 1-0 in the seventh minute of play.

“It was unfortunate, but we actually did have a couple of opportunities to win some tackles before the ball got around our 18-yard box,” Bhattacharjee said. “So that’s on us. We can get better in terms of just going harder, leaning into tackles and more stuff out of the air. If we do that, it does play a big part in terms of us having success.”

After this initial score, Binghamton went on the attack. Within those next 11 minutes of play, Binghamton would dominate the ball and get off four shots, yet they failed to find the back of the net with each attempt. The best look for BU during this stretch came from freshman forward Jahkaya Davis, who launched a shot to the left side of the goal that ended up in the gloves of Maine’s keeper. Following BU’s hot stretch, the pace of play for the remainder of the period slowed with neither team scoring for the remainder of the period.

“I don’t think it was a team where there were a ton of opportunities for either team,” Bhattacharjee said. “There just ended up being a couple of high-percentage opportunities for Maine, a couple high-percentage opportunities for us. Maine was able to get one better. The thing that we do have to do better at is how we defend in terms of our frontline, because [with] Maine under pressure, that led to giveaways and led to turnovers.”

Entering the second half of play, the contest evolved into a defensive struggle for much of the period. Maine commanded the field with its defensive efforts during this stretch by holding BU shotless for the first 27 minutes of the period, although this didn’t culminate in a second score for the hosts. The Bearcats finally broke past the Maine press in the 72nd minute, but the resulting shot from junior defense Brooke Herber was kept out of the goal.

The scoring would finally start to pick up again in the 82nd minute, with Maine tallying its second goal of the game to go up 2-0. Now on the backfoot, Binghamton would once more ramp up its attack which quickly paid off in a score, when Davis found the back of the net on her second shot of the day in minute 84. However, that would be the last score either side would tally on the day, as Binghamton left Orono with a 2-1 defeat to open AE play.

“We start off with two really difficult opponents right out of the gate,” Bhattacharjee said. “We had to travel [to] Maine and next week we have to host [New Hampshire], who also won today. So we have to be mindful of taking care of some key moments in the game, especially with the tight matches such as this, how physical games are, and then just the intensity and urgency that everyone feels when we play conference matches.”

Binghamton will look to get back on track and record its first conference victory of the year as they return home to take on UNH during Homecoming weekend next Sunday, Sept. 29. Kick-off is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.