The University of Maine women’s soccer team entered Thursday night’s America East semifinal as heavy underdogs against the top-seeded Binghamton Bearcats.
But the fourth-seeded Black Bears came out victorious in a 1-0 double-overtime thriller, stunning the Bearcats and keeping UMaine’s unlikely hopes of a third straight America East tournament championship alive.
Junior midfielder Victoria Dungey’s second goal of the season and third of her career, coming with 4:38 left in the second overtime, sent the Bears into Sunday’s conference title game.
She was set up by Jordane Pinette.
Dungey said Pinette did all the work, using her speed to beat the defenders and then put a perfect pass across to her for the easy finish into an empty net. She said the goalkeeper also came over to Pinette.
“Jordane was so composed,” said Dungey, who added that she “can’t explain” how much of a thrill it was for her.
UMaine’s Madison Michaud nearly won it in regulation but her shot hit the crossbar with 52 seconds remaining.
UMaine improved to 6-7-3 and will travel to Vermont for the championship game.
Binghamton had 11 shots to Maine’s nine but Maine had a 5-4 edge in shots on goal.
UMaine goalkeeper Elena Barenberg and Binghamton’s Rebecca Kessler each had four saves.
Binghamton wound up 10-2-5 and the Bearcats, regular season champs three of the last four seasons, have now won just three of its last 10 America East playoff games and only two of its last five home playoff games.
The Bearcats entered the game on a school-record 13-game unbeaten streak (8-0-5) and a 6-0-1 home record. They also had eight players selected to the All-America East first, second or all-rookie teams.
That included Defender of the Year Sophia Garofalo and Co-Midfielder of the Year Anna Buckwalter.
UMaine had just two players selected in second team midfielder Luise Reinwald and All-Rookie team goalie Barenberg.
And the Black Bears were without leading scorer Emma Nicholson and starting center backs Rebecca Grisdale and Lea Schroder, who were all out injured.
Dungey said the fact UMaine received only two all-league berths compared to Binghamton’s eight served as “extra motivation” as did the fact they felt they could have beaten Binghamton in a 2-1 regular season loss to the Bearcats.
“This shows our growth,” said Calgary native Dungey.
“It was a great team effort,” said UMaine coach Scott Atherley. “We played very well in the first half. We controlled the game. They had better chances in the second half but we were resilient.”
Atherley and Dungey said the Black Bears have played their best soccer of the season over the last three games.
“With all the injuries, players have stepped up,” Atherley said.