Evan Turner is finally entering a season with the Eastern men’s soccer team knowing the goal box is all his.

The senior goalkeeper spent all of last season in a tight position battle with Tyler Kelley, who graduated, and ended up playing in four fewer games than Kelley by season’s end. 

But every goalkeeper for Eastern has to pay his dues on the bench. Kelley did two years ago when Sean Molony started 17 of 18 games. 

Freshman Garrett Creasor will do that this year with Turner as the starter.

This is Turner’s year and he has high hopes for his final season. 

He said he thinks he can help the Panthers get to the NCAA Tournament, a place they haven’t been since 1983, on his way to becoming a first-team all-conference goalkeeper.

“I know I just need to maintain my consistency,” Turner said.

Turner will try to do so, but without having to make a lot of saves – at least, that’s how he’d like to have it. 

“You can call us lazy (goalkeepers) if you want, but if we’re smart enough we don’t have to do anything,” Turner said.

Turner said he will have to communicate well with this defense if he plans on accomplishing that. 

That means he’ll have to talk – yell – a lot to keep defenders in good positions. 

From where Turner stands, he can see the whole field in front of him, what his defense is doing, his midfield, the opponents’ forwards, and where the opponents are coming from.

Without giving away any secrets, Turner and his defense have worked on code words to organize themselves during games.

“I’d tell you, but you never know who’s going to be reading the paper,” Turner said.

Team chemistry is an invaluable asset, Turner said, and it will be important to develop it this season to have the best performance.

If it all comes together, Turner said the conference is “very winnable,” which would be the first step on a long road to get to the NCAA Tournament. 

But Eastern only has to be one of the top four teams in the Summit League to make it to the Summit League tournament, which starts Nov. 9 in Macomb. 

The winner of the four-team tournament advances to the NCAA Tournament. 

Alex McNamee can 

be reached at 581-2812

or admcnamee@eiu.edu.