The Eastern men’s soccer team dropped to 0-2 in the Summit League on Sunday, losing to Missouri-Kansas City, 3-0, after surrendering the first goal 13 minutes into the game.

The floodgates opened on the Panthers after failing to score late into the second half, as Kansas City added two insurance goals within 10 minutes of each other – coming at the 68- and 78-minute marks.

The Panthers pushed their attack forward late in the game, taking four shots in the final 10 minutes; however, three of the shots went wide.

The only shot in the final 10 minutes that was on target was off the foot of sophomore midfielder Jake Irwin, but Kansas City goalkeeper Connor Sparrow made one of his five saves in the game.

But Eastern fell behind early in the game again, as it has in a number of its losses this year, when Michael Oakley connected on his first goal of the season.

Oakley got up in the air off a corner kick and headed it passed Eastern freshman goalkeeper Garrett Creasor for Kansas City’s first goal of the game.

This season the Panthers have given up four goals in the first 20 minutes of games, including the one Sunday.

Prior to Oakley’s goal, Eastern had a pair of offensive attacks negated by offside penalties at the two- and 10-minute marks.

Kansas City kept the pressure on the Panthers after the opening goal with five shots in the next 10 minutes. Eastern only countered with one shot during that stretch.

The Panthers came out in the second half trying to make up the one-goal deficit, but a couple of early saves by Sparrow stopped opportunities by sophomore midfielder Will Butler and freshman forward Braiden Acton.

Kansas City connected on another header for its second goal of the game when Sylvester Yiadom flicked a ball past Creasor off assists by Oakley and Tom Gaus.

The Panthers sprayed three shots wide of the net after Yiadom’s goal, before Sparrow made another save on a shot by Eastern sophomore Tayron Martin.

One minute after Martin’s chance was saved, Kansas City’s Zach Balthazar scored a goal from eight yards out to give his team its final goal, leading 3-0.

Acton led Eastern with two shots on goal, while sophomore midfielder Jake Brillhart took a team-high four shots; however, all of Brillhart’s shots were wide of the goal.

Creasor made three saves on six Kansas City shots on goal.

Kansas City took a total of 17 shots in the game, while Eastern took 19.

The Panthers are right back into action at 4 p.m. Tuesday against Evansville at Lakeside Field. The game will end a stretch of four road games in five games.

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