It was a tale of two halves for the Eastern men’s soccer team in its 0-0 tie against Oral Roberts on Monday at Lakeside Field.

For the first 45 minutes, the Panthers seemed to be the aggressor by controlling possession of the ball and putting pressure on Oral Roberts.

But in the second half, the Golden Eagles picked up the intensity.

The Panthers responded in overtime, but they could not pull off a victory as the two teams battled to a draw.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said the Panthers had some good opportunities.

But it was one of those matches where they could not find the back of the net.

“I thought the first half was okay and the second half we struggled,” Howarth said. “I think we struggled in the offensive third. It was just one of those games that seemed like we couldn’t get anything going.”

Howarth said Eastern did not match the Golden Eagles intensity in the second half.

But the tempo was better in the overtime periods.

Senior defender Adam Gartner said he thought Eastern’s performance was all right but not its best effort of the season.

“It didn’t seem like our intensity was as high as it has been during some of our home games, but we possessed the ball a lot better than we did in the past,” Gartner said.

Gartner said heat had an effect on the players in the second half, and that might have affected the energy and intensity levels. In the 62nd minute, Oral Roberts has its best scoring opportunity as junior defender Jim Reinsma headed a ball to the far post. Eastern goalkeeper Mark Hansen was not in position, but senior midfielder Mike Lewis headed the ball out of the net for one of the Panthers’ two team saves.

The Golden Eagles second best scoring opportunity came in the second overtime when a header again missed, as it hit the far post and was cleared by Eastern. Eastern’s best scoring opportunity came in the second overtime as sophomore defender Alex Harrison had a free kick from the middle of the field and just outside of the box. However, his shot traveled high and could not reach the back of the net.

Eastern freshman midfielder Jeff Philips had another opportunity in the 108th minute for the Panthers as he received a pass from the right side of the field from senior forward Brad Peters, but the ball was stopped to the near post.

Senior goalkeeper Mark Hansen and freshman Mark Essary combined in a shutout for Eastern. Essary played the entire first half, while Hansen played the second half and both overtimes and had six saves. Oral Roberts head coach Steve Hayes said Monday’s match was representative of a match between the two schools. He said it was similar to Eastern’s 1-0 overtime win last season.

“(Howarth) has done a great job with this program,” Hayes said. “Their guys battled and they played hard so hopefully we have similar qualities. We will come away from this game satisfied that we got a tie but disappointed because we hit the post two or three times. Credit to them they had some chances and made some good saves.”

Eastern’s defense was solid despite injuries to junior defender Chris Pearson and senior defender Patrick Mabeya. Pearson went down when he re-injured his calf in the second half, but he was able to return. Maybeya hurt his right ankle and was unable to return to the match, but Howarth said the injury was nothing serious.

“The defense was solid overall,” Gartner said. “It was tough having a couple of injuries here and there. We didn’t have the whole back for the entire game, but subs came on and played some great minutes for us – helped us stay tight and stay solid.”

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

Sophmore forward Alex Harrison takes a free kick outside the penalty box against Oral Roberts Monday afternoon at Lakeside Field. The shot would go high over the crossbar and the game would end in a scoreless tie.(Amir Prellberg

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