Earlier this season, Eastern senior midfielder Brad Earl scored a game-winning goal in the final seconds on the road against Kentucky in double overtime, giving the Panthers their sixth win of the season.

On Saturday night against Creighton at Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb., roles were reversed.

After battling the Bluejays to a tie for 109 minutes, Creighton’s senior Tony Schmitz scored to give the Bluejays their sixth victory of the season and first victory in Missouri Valley Conference play.

“How it went in, I don’t know,” Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said. “There was a scrum in front of the goalkeeper. They replayed it on the JumboTron; there were two players standing on the line. I don’t know how it went in.”

Creighton threw the ball in with less than 15 seconds remaining to senior midfielder Dan Minutillo. Minutillo served the ball to the box, where two Bluejays got their heads on the ball until a save by Eastern junior goalkeeper Nick Alexander.

The save deflected to sophomore defender Chris Schuler, whose kick deflected off Schmitz for the goal with four-tenths of a second remaining.

“We played our hearts out,” Howarth said. “If we played like that every game, we would be very hard to beat.”

Eastern (8-3-3, 0-1-1 MVC) was looking for its first win against Creighton (6-1-2,1-0-1) since the Panthers joined the conference in 1996.

Creighton entered the game ranked No. 12 in the country by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, and is 14-0-1 against Eastern since 1996.

Eastern took the lead in the 37th minute when junior forward Brad Peters scored his MVC-leading eighth goal of the season off a cross by junior defender Mike Lewis.

“Earl checked it and played it over the top to Mick,” Peters said. “Once I saw that I ran to the goal. Lewis got the ball and had, like, a half shot that would have been played by the goalkeeper, so I ran over and redirected it with my leg for the goal.”

The Bluejays tied the game in the 61st minute when junior forward Tim Walters beat Omaha native Alexander with a header off a corner kick by Tim Bonenkamp.

Eastern out shot the Bluejays 20-11, with Alexander recording fives saves – one short of his Eastern career high.

Peters thinks this match shows how much potential the Panthers have.

“After something like that, we watched the film, and we outplayed the No. 12 team in the nation,” Peters said. “We know if we can play with Creighton, we can play with anyone we have left on the schedule.”

The Panthers will look to rebound with a victory against Missouri State 3 p.m. Wednesday at Lakeside Field.