The Eastern men’s soccer team will look to get another monkey off of its back this weekend.

Sunday, the Panthers (5-6-2, 2-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference) ended a 10-match winless streak against Bradley.

Saturday, they will look to beat Creighton (6-3-3, 4-2-2 in the MVC) 2 p.m. at Lakeside Field for the first time since Eastern entered the Missouri Valley Conference.

“We got to get out there and get fired up,” Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said. “We are expecting a nice, big crowd and we just have to play as well as we possibly can.”

Howarth said he expects the Bluejays to put Eastern under pressure throughout the match with a direct game plan.

“That won’t give us an extremely long amount of time with the ball,” Howarth said. “I think that is something that we are used to and something we have improved on as the season has gone along.”

Eastern junior defender Kyle Zumski said the Bluejays like to attack with their outside backs and they like to keep the ball.

Eastern played Creighton in Omaha, Neb., Oct. 11 and lost 5-1.

The Panthers went down early in the match and were never able to come back.

Zumski said Eastern came out shell shocked in that match.

“It was a weird weekend,” Zumski said. “It was postponed and when we came out they put us on our heels. We need to come out high energy and put them on their heels right away.”

Freshman midfielder Ryan Warren said last time Eastern sat back and allowed the Bluejays to play their match. This time Eastern must pressure the ball better.

“We have to push our line up higher and condense the field,” Warren said. “We have to make sure they do not have the opportunity to turn.”

He said that Creighton is a fluid team, which moves its forwards around up top a number of times, which caused problems for the Panthers.

This will be the final match of Creighton’s three-match road trip.

This has been the first year the MVC has had a round-robin format where each team in the league plays each other twice.

Howarth said the home and away aspect has had an effect on the Panthers and that it is tough because so many matches are crammed into the schedule.

“On the road it has been tough and at home it has been a little bit easier,” Howarth said. “We just have to work on concentrating on the little things. Concentrate on making every pass, making sure we win all the 50-50 balls and doing the little things right.”

Zumski, a first-year transfer, said he has enjoyed the round robin format.

“I like it because you get to see how the different teams like to play and the different styles,” Zumski said. “By playing them two times you get rivalries on the other teams. After seeing them one time you want to go out there and prove yourself.”

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

Freshman forward Jerry Maddi goes after a header against Bradley sophomore midfielder Bryan Gaul during Sunday’s match at Lakeside Field. (Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

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