BALTIMORE, Md. – Binghamton women's soccer (9-5-3, 6-1-1 America East) exploded for four first-half goals and cruised to a 5-0 win over UMBC (5-8-4, 1-5-4 AE) in the regular season finale Thursday night at Retriever Soccer Park. With the road victory, BU captured the America East regular season title – the program's third overall, first since 2017 and first outright title since 2004. Binghamton will now carry the No. 1 seed into the conference tournament, and have home field throughout. BU's postseason begins with a semifinal game next Thursday night at the Bearcats Sports Complex against the winner of Sunday's quarterfinal game between No. 4 UMass Lowell and No. 5 Albany.

"What an amazing night for our program," head coach Neel Bhattacharjee said. "Our student-athletes have put in so much effort since preseason began. They responded to challenges thrown their way, and then came together to overcome any adversity that we saw throughout the fall. We have been on this journey and at this stage of the process, we challenged our team to play like a Champion - and they did exactly that tonight. There is no one prouder of their team than I am today. What a great moment for Binghamton University. We'll celebrate this feat and then turn our focus to postseason."

The game quickly tilted in BU's favor when less than three minutes into the contest, UMBC had a player sent off with a red card. The Bearcats then proceeded to get goals from five different players. It's the second straight game (fourth this season) that BU has scored five goals.

Senior midfielder Victoria McKnight opened the floodgates in the 16^th minute. Sophomore defender Erin Hogan sent a long ball into the six-yard box, where McKnight's initial strike was blocked by the Retrievers keeper. McKnight, however, got her foot on the rebound and tapped it in for her fifth of the season. Freshman center back Brooke Herber scored her first collegiate goal 10 minutes later. A corner kick from senior midfielder Olivia McKnight was knocked around before Herber tapped it in from close range. In the 33^rd minute, sophomore forward Hannah Knych joined the action with her third goal of the season. After junior midfielder Molly McClelland did some work on the left endline, O. McKnight banked a shot off the post and Knych was there to tap in the rebound for a 3-0 lead. In the 42^nd minute, junior back Emma Colling celebrated her return to the lineup with her second career goal. Another corner kick from O. McKnight led to a Knych lay off touch inside the box. Colling then put a powerful left-footer into the lower right corner for a 4-0 halftime bulge.

Sophomore forward Peyton Gilmore scored the lone goal of the second half. In the 82^nd minute, Gilmore dribbled toward the box and unleashed a 28-yard shot to the right corner for her seventh goal of the season.

The Bearcats enjoyed a 20-0 shots cushion in the first half before both teams dipped into their reserves in the second half. The final shots count was 33-6.

NOTES
The Bearcats have gone 8-1-2 in their last 11 games. Their six America East wins matches the most in the program's 21-year America East membership (2004, 2009) … the team's 22 goals in conference play (2.6/game) is a school record ... the 6-1-1 conference mark is the highest win percentage (.813) in the team's America East history.