The Eastern men’s soccer team will play in its second and third spring games of the season when it participates in the Governor’s Cup on Saturday and Sunday at the Scott Gallagher Facility in St. Louis.

The Panthers will play Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Northern Illinois and Western Illinois will also play each other in the tournament.

“We want to make sure our young guys get some quality times in these games,” Adam Howarth, Eastern head men’s soccer coach, said. “The Governor’s Cup is four top quality teams. It should be very competitive. We made it to the finals the last few years. This year we want to go out there and win.”

The winners and losers from the first round of games will play in either the championship or consolation game at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Women’s soccer to play Evansville

The Eastern women’s soccer team will travel to Evansville to play the Purple Aces in a game scheduled to begin at noon on Saturday.

The Panther’s were originally slated to host an alumni match, but the game was canceled and replaced with a road game at Evansville.

“They are a very good program and are well coached,” Tim Nowak, Eastern head women’s soccer coach, said. “They have a new coach who used to be an assistant, and she does a good job. They have some quality strikers, and this should be a tough test this weekend.”

The Panthers are coming off a doubleheader split where they defeated Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis 4-0, before losing to Central Michigan 1-0 in Terre Haute, Ind.

“We’ve played quite a few games this spring, and we are just looking to make progress in every single game,” Nowak said. “We just want to make progress and get everyone a lot of minutes.”

Men’s golf to compete at Illinois Invitational

The Eastern men’s golf team will be teeing off this weekend in the Illini Spring Invitational at Urbana’s Stone Creek Golf Course.

Eastern senior Mike Imburgia – who leads the Panthers in scoring average at 74.9 – will lead Eastern against a talent-rich field that includes all but three of the Division I schools in Illinois.

The Panthers will compete against Bradley, DePaul, Detroit Mercy, IUPUI, Illinois, Loyola of Chicago, Northern Iowa, Western Illinois, Southern Illinois, Illinois State and Western Illinois.

The Panthers are coming off of a sixth place finish at the Missouri State Invitational from March 31- April 1 in Hollister, Mo., and a fourth place finish at the Butler Invitational on March 10-11 in Jacksonville, Fla.

Men’s and Women’s track travels to Illinois

The Eastern men’s and women’s track teams will compete in their third meet of the outdoor season at the Lee Calhoun Classic this weekend at Western Illinois in Macomb.

The event will be a one-day meet and is scheduled to begin with field events with men’s javelin at 9 a.m. Running events are set to begin at 11:30 a.m. with the men’s steeplechase.

The meet will conclude with the men’s 1,600-meter relay at 4:25 p.m.

The men are coming off the EIU Big Blue Classic, where they won four individual events and one relay race.

Freshman pole vaulter Joe Noonan is undefeated in outdoor events this season, and the Frankfort native could extend his winning streak to three.

The women’s team boasts the Ohio Valley Conference Track Athlete of the Week, as Chandra Golden won the award for coming in first in the 100-meter hurdles (14.46 seconds) and finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles at the Big Blue Classic.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.