The Eastern men’s soccer team, which hasn’t won a game since Sept. 18, will host Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne this weekend, a team that’s on a three-game winning streak.

Eastern and IPFW will start at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lakeside Field.

IPFW is 3-12-1 this season, but hadn’t won a game until Oct. 13 against Nebraska-Omaha.

The win over Omaha started the Mastodons’ three-game winning streak.

IPFW has won the last three games by a combined score of 5-2, defeating Omaha, Bowling Green and Oakland in those games.

Against Omaha, Nate Shipman scored his first goal of the season for the Mastodons at the 30-minute mark and the team held onto its one goal lead for the win.

In the game against Bowling Green, IPFW surrendered the first goal of the game to the Falcons’ Anthony Grant, his sixth of the season.

IPFW scored two consecutive goals to take the lead and hold on to the win, with the game-winner coming off the foot of Jackson Tooke at the 80-minute mark.

IPFW defeated Oakland, 2-1, scoring the game-winning goal at the 68-minute mark when it was a man down after Mitch Falkenstern got a red card.

Austin West scored his first goal of the season to lead the Mastodons to a victory.

The Mastodons were at the bottom of the Summit League before the three-game winning streak.

The victories over Oakland and Omaha came against two of the top four teams in the Summit League.

The wins have vaulted IPFW into the fifth place spot in the conference, one spot shy of making the Summit League tournament in early November.

A win for the Mastodons could benefit them more than a win could for Eastern because IPFW has an even conference record with Omaha, the fourth place team.

IPFW (2-2-1 in the Summit League) holds a tiebreaker over Omaha (2-2-1 in the Summit League), although Omaha has a better overall record — one win better, while IPFW is three losses worse.

A win would give IPFW an opportunity to jump over Omaha, giving them a chance to get into the postseason tournament.

Omaha will play Oakland, the league’s top team, on Sunday to try to keep pace if IPFW wins Saturday.

Meanwhile, Eastern is 0-5 in the Summit League and is the only team in the league with just two wins overall.

A win for Eastern would move them to 1-5 in the league, but it wouldn’t help too much after losses to Western Illinois and Oral Roberts — the two teams ahead of them in the standings — hold tiebreakers over the Panthers.

Western Illinois and Oral Roberts are in action Saturday, too, in a game against each other.

The late Summit League game Saturday pits IUPUI against Kansas City, a battle of the second and third best teams in the league this season.

The Oakland-Omaha and Kansas City-IUPUI matches would be previews of the Summit League tournament if the standings stay the same, as the top and lowest seeds would play each other, as well as the second and third seeds.

Eastern’s three seniors will be honored at the game, goalkeeper Evan Turner, defender Ian McCausland and midfielder Jordan Collins.

The Panthers have two more games following this weekend’s game.

The team will take on Belmont at 3 p.m. on Oct. 30, as well as taking on Oakland on Nov. 3 on the road.

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