By Alex McNamee

Staff Reporter

The Eastern men’s soccer team has been through three weekend road trips leading up to its first home game Friday.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said the team is excited and the seniors are ready for their last home opener at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Lakeside Field.

The Panthers will play Central Arkansas (4-1), a team that has doubled its win total from last season under a new coaching staff.

“New coach, new attitude,” Howarth said. “They’re going to be flying, so it’s going to be a tough home opener for us.”

Central Arkansas has been successful scoring early goals this season. Six of the eight goals the team has scored this season have come in the first 45 minutes.

The Panthers have been in practice all week trying to figure out defensive woes, Howarth said, giving up a lot of goals in recent games.

Eastern lost to Dayton Sunday, 4-1, and Howarth said only one of the Flyers’ goals were “legit,” while the others came off of defensive mistakes.

“The third goal they scored was a heck of a shot,” Howarth said. “The guy hit it top corner from 35 yards.”

Howarth said the problem has been individual mistakes, rather than team-wide.

“Overall, play as a group isn’t bad,” Howarth said. “We’ve been playing some tough competition, it’s just been tough that we’ve been leaking goals defensively. That goes from the goalkeeper, to the defense, to the midfielders not stopping people.”

Howarth said the Panthers have spent a lot of time “going back to the basics” in practice, especially with the group of defenders.

The Panthers have given up two goals in every game, except the one they won – otherwise, they’re 1-5 on the season.

Eastern lost 4-1 to Dayton and 4-3 to Canisius. The Panthers lost three other games 2-0, while they beat Lipscomb, 2-0. Central Arkansas’ only loss is to Lipscomb, 1-0.

The Panthers will also be home at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against Loyola (Ill.).

Also in the Summit League Friday, Oral Roberts play Air Force, Western Illinois plays Wisconsin, Omaha plays San Diego St., Fort Wayne plays Loyola (Ill.), Kansas City plays Florida Atlantic, Oakland plays SMU and IUPUI plays Illinois-Chicago.

All of the Summit League teams are in action again Sunday.

Oakland and Omaha have been the best teams in the Summit League this season. Oakland is 3-1 overall and Omaha is 2-2.

The Eastern game begins at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Lakeside Field.

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