With the Missouri Valley Conference tournament just around the corner, the Panthers have to play a non-conference game.

Eastern will travel to Dayton, Ohio, to face Wright State in a game that is as much a schedule-filler as it is competition. But there are some things the Panthers hope to get out of the trip.

“We have our own goals that we would like to accomplish,” said head coach Adam Howarth. “We would like to get to 10 wins as quick as possible.”

Vanderbilt dropped its men’s soccer program entirely after last season so the Missouri Valley Conference is down to just seven teams. That leaves a hole in the schedule that Howarth needed to fill. Howarth plugged that hole by scheduling road games against Wright State and Valparaiso. They are away games because both of those teams last season played Eastern at Lakeside Field.

But Howarth is not worried about going on the road for the teams’ final three games.

“We’ve done fantastically well on the road this year,” Howarth said. “The guys seem to like it.”

The Panthers have played nine games away from Charleston this season, posting a 6-3 road record.

Scheduling games against Wright State and Valparaiso this late in the season is strange because the games fall during conference play. But it was something Howarth had to do because of the two-week gap between the Creighton game last Saturday and the Panthers’ Oct. 28 game in Des Moines, Iowa, against Drake.

Just one conference game remains and it gives the Panthers just one shot to move up from sixth in the conference standings and try to earn a higher seed in the MVC Men’s Soccer Championship. The conference tournament begins Nov. 1 and the winner will earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.

With the tournament upcoming, Howarth will be cautious with his players at Wright State.

“I might (rest some players). I will have to see how things work the next couple of days,” Howarth said. “I’ll have to be smart with the guys, especially with cards – you don’t want someone getting their fourth yellow the last game of the season.”

In the NCAA, when a player receives five yellow cards he has to sit out of the next game and the total accumulates through the season and into the playoffs. Howarth said he is not too worried, because no player has more than three yellow cards right now.

While Eastern has one conference game remaining, other MVC schools have two left, which could help the Panthers. Of particular importance are Evansville and Drake. Evansville, who the Panthers beat 3-1 on Oct. 8 at Lakeside Field, has two games remaining and are currently 1-3 in the conference, just behind the 1-3-1 Panthers. The Purple Aces have to play conference-leader Creighton Saturday night in Omaha, Neb., and then take on Western Kentucky Oct. 27.

Drake has a game against second-place Missouri State Saturday and then a game with the Panthers for the last game of the regular season.