Ten wins.

Head coach Adam Howarth’s main goal for his team this season was to win 10 games and make it back to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

“We put it on our little wristbands to start the season,” Howarth said about the 10-win goal. “We certainly exceeded that which is great.”

Eastern finished the season with an 11-7-2 record and the first official MVC tournament win in school history.

The Panthers started the season better than anyone could have expected, jumping out to an 8-2 record to start the season.

Eastern ended 9-3 in non-conference play.

In the MVC play during the regular season, the Panthers struggled, recording just one conference victory.

But they played nationally ranked Creighton tough in a 1-0 loss and were defeated by co-conference champion Bradley 1-0 on a penalty kick.

“It was frustrating to finish where we did in the conference,” Howarth said. “I thought we played well, but we made up for it in the tournament. We had a great win on Wednesday.”

The Panthers squeaked into the MVC postseason tournament with the No. 6 seed, but upset No. 3 Missouri State last Wednesday night in the opening round of the MVC tournament before losing in the semifinals to Creighton, the eventual tournament champions.

Friday night, the MVC postseason awards were announced and junior midfielder Mick Galeski and sophomore striker Brad Peters were named first-team all conference.

“Having two guys on the first team, I don’t think we have ever done that before,” Howarth said. “It is a great statement for our program. The best part is they will both be back next year.”

Galeski, the teams’ captain, led the team with seven assists and the Blackburn, England native has started 32 consecutive games.

Peters led the conference in scoring, racking up 11 goals including his first collegiate hat trick against IPFW.

Seniors David Amdor, Phil Clemmer, Mike Comiskey and goalkeeper Paul Jennison will be graduating and Howarth will need to find replacements for them on the field and for their locker room presence.

“They are all very big personalities. Everybody loves those guys,” Galeski said about the seniors. “They’re like elastic. When things start to get tough they pull it back together. I will miss those guys a lot. They are all great players, but I will miss them in the locker room and off the field the most.”

The seniors were emotional after their season ending loss to Creighton but they knew going into the season their playing careers were waning.

“Senior year you kind of prepare yourself for this moment but its a rude awakening when it finally comes,” said Clemmer about facing graduation. “But this is a new stage of life we’re entering and it was great while it lasted.”

Howarth had some recruits visit during the season, but will start recruiting full-time now.

“We are looking at guys that are more offensive minded,” Howarth said. “We are pretty well stacked at midfield but with (Jennison) gone we will have to look at keepers as well.”

Freshman defender Nick Bonacker should be the front-runner to replace Clemmer at left-back but Howarth was quick to point out that Clemmer was a converted forward and that could happen again.

Filling Clemmer’s shoes will not be easy as the senior was the vocal leader of the defense.

“Phil played extremely hard all season, we moved him around a bit and by his senior year he proved to be a very accomplished defender,” Howarth said.

Howarth is proud of the way his seniors led his young team this year.

“I always talk about the seniors making a mark, leaving the program better then when they started,” he said. “When they started out it was in a bit of a mess. But we have turned a corner now, so to speak. (The MVC is) not an easy conference to play in.”