ITHACA, N.Y. – Host Cornell (4-3-1) took advantage of a pair of own goals and defeated Binghamton (3-5-1) in a non-conference men's soccer game on Tuesday night at Berman Field. The match marked the Bearcats' final non-conference contact before America East play starts this weekend.
The defeat overshadowed the second straight two-goal game by sophomore forward
Haris Brkovic. The current America East Player of the Week is the first Binghamton player to record back-to-back multiple-goal games since Cameron Keith scored five times in two games during the 2007 season.
Against a team that took down No. 11 Syracuse two weeks ago, Binghamton controlled play for most of the game. The Bearcats held an 18-11 advantage in the final shot count.
Still, it was a pair of miscues that were fatal for the Bearcats.
The first own goal came at the 21st minute, giving Cornell a 1-0 lead it would take into the half.
Brkovic tied the score a 1-1 at the 47:40 mark but a second own goal just 41 seconds later gave the Big Red a 2-1 lead.
In the 63rd minute, Cornell padded the lead to 3-1. Tyler Bagley was credited with his first goal of the season. The assist went to Caleb McAuslain.
Binghamton wouldn't go away quietly as Brkovic trimmed the deficit to 3-2 in the 87th minute. That would, however, be the final shot for either team in the game.
"I thought we had a very good performance overall but we were very unlucky in front of our own goal," head coach
Paul Marco said. "We need to be able to compete better in both boxes. We fought back at the end against a very good, young Cornell team but ran out of time at the end of the match."
The Bearcats continued to get players back off the injured list. Twenty players saw action against the Big Red.
Up next for the Bearcats is its conference opener at Stony Brook on Saturday at 7 p.m.
NOTES: Binghamton kept its average of 2.00 goals per game intact. That ranked No. 20 among all NCAA Division I schools in the national statistics released on Monday … Brkovic now ranks third on the team with nine total points. His four goals ranks second on the squad.
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