Eastern had not allowed more than three goals all season going into Saturday’s match at Evansville.

That changed as the Panthers allowed four goals off set pieces in Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Evansville.

“Our performance was dismal,” Eastern men’s soccer head coach Adam Howarth said. “We didn’t show up, our warm-up was bad and our play was bad.”

The Panthers (9-4-3, 1-2-1 Missouri Valley Conference) never led as the Purple Aces (8-6-0, 2-2-0) bested the Panthers.

The Panthers tied the match when sophomore Jeff Kupiec scored his first collegiate goal when he scored a sliding shot in the 43rd minute. The goal was assisted by sophomore defender Nick Bonacker.

“The ball came off the corner,” Bonacker said. “I went to cover and saw the ball on the ground and I just tried to poke it through.”

The rest of the scoring belonged to the Aces as Evansville scored four goals off set pieces.

Evansville started the scoring as Eastern gave up its own goal off a free kick. The ball deflected off senior defender Jeremy Maubach to the far post in the 19th minute.

Senior midfielder Dustin Awe scored next for the Aces to give Evansville the lead with 34 seconds left in the first half. Evansville senior forward Cory Elenio assisted on the goal.

The Panthers were put in at a disadvantage when freshman Alex Harrison was kicked out of the game for receiving his second yellow card in the 65th minute. Harrison received his first in the 63rd minute.

Eastern was forced to play a man down the rest of the game and trailed on the scoreboard.

“It was frustrating because I was about to take Alex (Harrison) out,” Howarth said. “It was very frustrating, and it was tough to back out of that hole.”

Evansville took advantage quickly.

The Aces scored seven seconds later as freshman midfielder Robbie Lynch padded the lead with a header over the top of Eastern sophomore goalkeeper Nick Alexander in the 65th minute.

The final goal came on a penalty kick after a yellow card from Alexander. Evansville sophomore Dan Gibson was able to beat Alexander and hit the top crossbar and beat Alexander in the 69th minute.

Kubiac said restarts killed the Panthers.

“We worked on their restarts all week during practice,” Kupiec said. “We worked on it. I thought we were prepared, but we were not.”

Bonacker said the team was not pumped up enough.

“In pre-game, we were not into it; we were not pumped up,” Bonacker said. “We did not get excited; we did not show up.”

The Panthers will play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Western Kentucky.

Brad Peters, junior forward, breaks away from a Missouris State player October 17 at Lakeside Field. Peters scored two points and the Pathers won 4-2. Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News

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