LEWISBURG, Pa. – Redshirt junior forward
Anthony Lazaridis scored twice, lifting Binghamton (2-6-3) to a 2-1 win over Bucknell (2-9-0) on a rainy Tuesday night at Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium. With the victory, the Bearcats are 2-0-1 in their last three matches.
Lazaridis, whose goals were his first two of the season, scored once in each half. He now has two career matches with a pair of goals, having also scored twice against NJIT on Oct. 23, 2021.
Before Lazaridis' heroics, however, the match couldn't have started worse for the Bearcats. They fell behind 1-0 after just 50 seconds on an Bucknell goal by Cade McGrath. Charlie Holmes was credited with the assist.
It took the Bearcats until the 39th minute before they got the equalizer but when they did, the play took up the entire length of the field. Senior goalkeeper
Mats Roorda took a free kick just outside his own box. His kick went all the way to the other end of the field, where graduate student
Ethan Homler was in position to head the ball. Homler's header advanced the ball to a wide-open Lazaridis who went in on a breakaway to score from close range.
Lazaridis then netted the game winner in the 63rd minute. He fired the ball from the top of the left side of the box and it went into the upper-right corner of the net. The assists were credited to senior midfielder
Parker McKnight and sophomore midfielder
Carlo Cavalar.
After being outshot 8-5 in the first half, the Bearcats held an 8-7 advantage over the final 45 minutes of play. While Bucknell had a 15-13 edge in total shots, Binghamton had the upper hand in shots on goal -- by a 6-5 margin.
"I thought our guys were great in the second half," head coach
Paul Marco said. "We weren't ready to start the match and didn't play well overall in the first half. But we finished the match well and are continuing to get better."
Roorda, the current America East Defensive Player of the Week, made three saves. In addition, he is the first Binghamton goalkeeper to record an assist since Alejandro Cubillo in 2017.
Binghamton now heads into its Homecoming Game on Saturday at 6 p.m. against Albany.
