A loss that fits a season

VESTAL, N.Y. – So much for history repeating itself.

After erasing a 1-0 deficit in the 80th minute and battling through two scoreless overtime periods, the Boston University men’s soccer team fell to Binghamton University, 5-3, on penalty kicks as the Bearcats avenged last season’s penalty-kick conference championship loss.

The win was sweet revenge for a Bearcat team that lost the 2004 conference title, 5-3 in penalty kicks, after BU tied the game at 2-2 in the 84th minute and advanced to the NCAA College Cup.

The loss finalized BU’s first losing season under coach Neil Roberts, who guided his teams to 20 consecutive winning seasons until this year’s 6-8-4 campaign. The Terriers were done in by an inability to score goals – BU was shut out in half of its 18 games and scored only once in four other contests.

“It was our season in a game,” said Roberts. “At the beginning of the game we were playing well, we’re pushing them, and they’re up 1-0 out of nothing – out of a bouncing ball. But we came back, which was good. We held together and got the equalizer. I thought we had the momentum and some chances to do what we wanted to do, but we couldn’t get the second one.”

Binghamton junior forward Peter Sgueglia broke the Terriers’ hearts for the second time in four days. After scoring the game-winning overtime goal on Wednesday, Sgueglia netted the fifth and final penalty kick to clinch a Bearcats (11-4-4) victory and send them to the America East semifinals.

“It was a tough loss,” said co-captain senior back Matt Cross. “We had the momentum going into overtime, but couldn’t get much of an attack. But I’m not disappointed in anyone. I couldn’t ask for a better effort.”

Only BU freshman Zach Bauer failed to score in the shootout, as Binghamton junior goalkeeper Ryan Bertoni used every inch of his 6-foot, 3-inch frame to deflect Bauer’s shot away from the lower right corner.

In an interesting move, BU replaced junior goalkeeper Zach Riffett, who had played a full 110 minutes, with junior Chad Comroe, who hadn’t been in net against an America East foe all season and played in only two of the last 10 games.

As the Binghamton fans stormed the field and the sun set on a season, Roberts explained his decision.

“He’s been there before and he’s done it,” he said, referring to Comroe’s two penalty kick victories in last year’s postseason. “In practice, he saves penalties well. Obviously it was a gamble to just start him in there cold, but Riff had played 110 minutes in the mud.”

Bearcats junior forward Joey Neilson put Binghamton on top in the 25th minute when he slipped past the BU defense and headed a pass from junior Bryan Arnault past Riffett for a 1-0 lead.

Even Binghamton coach Paul Marco thought the one-goal lead would be enough cushion for his team who hasn’t lost this season when scoring at least one goal.

“Did we think at one-up we should hold the lead? Yeah, we did. We really did,” Marco said.

The game was physical and heated in the first half, and when Binghamton senior back Danilo earned a yellow card at 42:17 for a late tackle on BU junior back Zach Kirby, tempers flared.

An incensed Kirby jumped up, grabbed the ball and spiked it, all the while yelling a few choice words in the general vicinity of referee Lou Labbadia, who responded by issuing Kirby a yellow card of his own.

Throughout the game, BU was one step ahead of a fatigued Binghamton squad. With only 10:47 remaining in the Terriers’ season, they finally capitalized after a brilliant run by senior midfielder Sedrick Chin.

“We’ve been playing pretty hard and we haven’t made many changes, especially at the back,” Marco said. “You could see that when Roland [Erlichman] broke through. He was energized and we didn’t match that energy.”

Chin collected the ball around midfield and carved his way through the midfield and slipped a pass to Erlichman streaking down the left side. The sophomore beat Bertoni to the lower left side.

The first overtime passed without either team generating any quality chances, but Binghamton nearly ended it with 30 seconds left in the second frame.

“On the goal we missed, we went into [the penalty kicks] wondering if it should have been over sooner,” said Marco.

But Bertoni made one stop and Binghamton converted on every kick for its second victory over BU in four days.

The loss left Roberts and the Terriers trying to make sense of season that began with BU as the unanimous pick to repeat as conference champions.

“Obviously scoring was a problem,” Roberts said. “It was a difficult year. There was a lot of adversity they dealt with, and they just kept coming back and coming back. Every game was so close, including this one.”

“We never got that good bounce,” Cross said. “It’s a game of just a couple bounces.”