The Eastern men’s soccer team was eliminated from the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament race with a 1-0 loss to Bradley Saturday.

The Braves scored early and played defense-minded to blank the Panthers on the road.

“It was kind of a frustrating game,” said Eastern head coach Adam Howarth. “We came out flat on the road, something we have done a lot this year, gave up kind of a crappy goal off of a corner kick and from there, we had a great deal of possession, but really didn’t create a whole lot of meaningful chances.”

In the sixth minute, Bradley sophomore midfielder Bryan Gaul scored off a corner kick, and it was the only offense the Braves (6-10-1, 1-8-0 MVC) would need.

“They got the ball out to him near the top of the box and he had time to take a kick,” Howarth said. “It bounced off of one of our defenders so (junior goalkeeper Sean) Molony really never had a shot.”

Howarth said that after the goal, Bradley played a defense-minded style of soccer.

“They blocked off the top of the box, and we had trouble getting behind them,” Howarth said.

The best opportunity for the Panthers (6-7-3, 2-5-1) came near the end of the match when senior defender Nick Bonacker took a shot that went over the bar.

“We had a couple of shots that were at the goalkeeper, but they were farther back,” Howarth said. “But we just struggled with different parts of our game and that caused us not to create that many chances.”

Molony finished the match with two saves.

With the loss, Eastern is eliminated from the MVC Tournament since only four teams qualify this season because of the round-robin format.

Missouri State, Drake, Creighton and Evansville will be the teams participating this year.

Howarth said looking at those teams shows how difficult Eastern’s schedule was. The lowest RPI of any of those is Evansville at 72.

The Panthers beat the Braves 1-0 on Oct. 24 at Lakeside Field, and Howarth said that in this match the Braves were more defensive minded.

“They sat back and were looking to counter us,” Howarth said. “They had a lot of shots, but they were long-ranged and they were not serious chances.”

He said even though the loss eliminates them from contention, the team wants to finish strong and play for the seniors.

Eastern will continue its season when it takes on Drake 3 p.m. Wednesday at Lakeside Field.

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

Senior defender Chris Pearson slides past Creighton senior forward Jeff Thayer Oct. 24 at Lakeside Field. The Panthers were eliminated from MVC Tournament contention after losing to Bradley 1-0 Saturday in Peoria. (Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

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