BURLINGTON, Vt. – For the first time since 2007, Vermont is the America East men’s soccer champion. Brian Wright scored the game’s lone goal in the 33rd minute to lift the second-seeded Catamounts to a 1-0 win over fifth-seeded Binghamton in the conference’s championship game on Sunday in front a capacity crowd of 1,913 at Vermont’s Virtue Field.
Vermont, whose championship is its fifth in school history, will learn its postseason draw during the NCAA selection show on Monday at 1 p.m. The show will be broadcast on NCAA.com.
Wright, a first-team All-Conference selection, earned the championship’s Most Outstanding Player award after tallying two goals and an assist in Vermont’s two tournament wins.
Both teams had scoring chances early. Binghamton (10-7-2), which was making its seventh America East title game appearance, had a prime opportunity to get on the scoreboard less than four minutes in. Ben Ovetsky fired a shot on net, but Vermont goalkeeper Greg Walton made the save and then stopped the rebound attempt by Pascale Trapp, who earned All-Championship recognition. Wright, also an All-Championship team selection, broke in on America East Goalkeeper of the Year, Robert Moewes, in the fifth minute, but the Binghamton's netminder made the stop.
With 11:50 left in the first half, Vermont (11-6-3) broke through. Reserve Jaime Miralles carried the ball through the midfield and sent a low through ball ahead for Wright, who collected it and sent it past Moewes with his left foot into the right side of the net. The goal was Wright’s league-leading 11th of the year.
The Bearcats’ best scoring chance came in the waning seconds of the first half when Trappe’s free kick from 25 yards out hit the crossbar
Binghamton controlled play for much of the second half, outshooting the Catamounts 10-4, but none of the shots were on net and Vermont held on for the win. The Bearcats held a 16-9 shot advantage for the game and had five corner kicks to the Catamounts’ one.
Walton finished with three saves for Vermont while Moewes, an All-Championship selection, had four for Binghamton.
Vermont’s Jackson Dayton earned the America East’s Elite 18 award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA participating in the championship game. Dayton, also an All-Championship team selection, has a 3.72 GPA in mechanical engineering.
Wright, Dayton, Moewes and Trappe were joined on the All-Championship team by Vermont’s Jack Seah and Nile Walwyn, Binghamton’s Logan Roberts, Albany’s Moosah Khanat & Andres Sandoval, UMBC’s Malcolm Harris and Michael Scott Stony Brook’s Martieon Watson and New Hampshire’s Andrew Chaput.