The Eastern men’s soccer team wrapped up its preseason Saturday in a 1-1 draw against St. Xavier, and will start their season against a highly ranked team Friday.

The Panthers nearly held onto a 1-0 lead given to them by freshman midfielder Nick Smith, who scored in the 42nd minute, but St. Xavier scored with 33 seconds left in the game to draw even.

Since it was a preseason game, the result didn’t count toward anything. Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said preseason is a good time to focus on managing your team and getting players the playing time they need to be ready for the season.

Howarth said the Panthers’ goal is to get better every day, which he thinks they are acheiving.

Although the Panthers lost a 3-0 exhibition against Cincinnati Aug. 12, Howarth said it was a good game because the team got a lot of players valuable game time.

The Panthers played two preseason games this month, losing to Cincinnati and tying St. Xavier. The Panthers’ blue squad won a season-opening intersquad scrimmage, 3-0, Aug. 10.

Sophomore forward Will Butler scored two goals in the game, while red-shirt sophomore midfielder Brandon Loncar added the other.

Butler was the team’s leading scorer last season, ending the season with 11 points on three goals and five assists.

The Panthers also return two of their other top scorers in sophomore midfielder Jake Brillhart and red-shirt freshman forward Garet Christianson, who scored three goals in six games last season.

Eastern finished last season 7-9-1, but the team’s 1-4-1 Summit League record is what earned them a seventh place prediction out of eight teams in the conference preseason polls last week.

Howarth said he didn’t discuss the polls with the team after seeing them before practice Friday, but said he’s upset because he’d like to be at the top.

Howarth said the Panthers are going to have to start winning more games in league play this season, which is something they didn’t do last season despite being in many close games.

Howarth said a couple of conference games last season could have gone either way.

But now that the Panthers are beginning their second full season in the Summit League, after spending the last 13 years in the Missouri Valley Conference, Howarth said he expects more wins to come with familiarity.

“We shouldn’t have any issues with how to play a team,” Howarth said. “We’ve been around once. I’m expecting us to be competitive straight off the bat.”

The Panthers will start their season campaign Friday against No. 25 Bradley.

Playing high profile teams is something Eastern has had recent success in, beating Big Ten member Northwestern to open the season last year.

Eastern played Bradley last season, losing 2-1 in overtime.

The game will start at 6 p.m. Friday in Peoria, Ill. The Panthers will travel to play Lipscomb in Nashville on Sunday.

Alex McNamee canbe reached at 581-2812 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.