The Eastern men’s soccer team started off the season on a bad note with a shutout loss Tuesday against Valparaiso at Lakeside Field.

The good thing for the Panthers is they will get two chances to notch their first win as they play in the Bradley Kickoff Festival in Peoria.

Eastern will play Mercer (0-1) at 6 p.m. today and Memphis (0-0) at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said practice has been going well and they just need to fine-tune some things from the first game. He said if you take away a great goal by Valpo and a bad play defensively, Eastern was in the game.

“We need to make sure we eliminate last games mistakes and I think we will be fine,” Howarth said.

Eastern sophomore forward Ryan Child said the match against Valpo Tuesday is not an indication of how the team will play the rest of the season.

“I thought we didn’t pressure as well as we did in (the exhibition match) against Butler,” Child said. “Certainly the way we kept control of the all ball needs to better. We didn’t do well enough to protect the ball and get it to the forwards’ feet.”

Child said the team has worked hard in practice at making those things better and he thinks the team has improved.

“I think a lot of people have realized especially the freshman what it is like to play college soccer,” Child said. “You cannot hold the ball to much and you have to be faster. They are all very, very good players and they are all good enough to do it, they just need the experience and I think that first game has helped them a lot.”

Howarth said Mercer is a team that plays similar to Valpo, in that they are a big team. They play similar to Bradley as well because second year coach Brad Ruzzo was an assistant coach for the Braves.

Last season the Panthers played two members of the Big Ten – Ohio State and Northwestern.

Child said that Eastern is used to playing top teams and that Eastern is not intimidated them.

“No one is worried about that,” Child said. “For us it is just any other game.”

Women’s soccer starts home schedule with Indiana State

The women’s soccer team will open its home schedule 5 p.m. Friday against Indiana State (0-3). Eastern lost to the Sycamores 1-0 last season in Terre Haute, Ind.

The Panthers have already started the season 2-1, with two wins on a three-match road trip. Eastern opened the season with a 2-0 victory against Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis, but dropped the next match at Eastern Michigan. The Panthers responded two days later with a 2-1 win against Cleveland State. Sophomore midfielder Ashley Eck and senior midfielder Alexis Miller scored goals in the final 12 minutes to secure the comeback victory. In addition to the game Friday, Eastern will host Miami (Ohio) (1-0) 1 p.m. Sunday.

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