The Eastern men’s soccer team opened its exhibition season with two matches ending by a score of 4-2, one coming as a win over St. Xavier on Saturday, following an intrasquad scrimmage on Friday.

In the first half against St. Xavier, junior forward Lorenzo Savino opened the scoring when he managed to find the back of the net for St. Xavier.

His shot from the top of the penalty box was deflected past freshman goalkeeper Austin Miller and slotted into the top corner with 14 minutes to go in the half.

However, Eastern managed to draw even seven minutes later. Captain and senior midfielder Jake Plant’s shot took a deflection that chipped goalkeeper Andreas Pfatschbacher and leveled the score at 1-1.

Eastern’s superior numbers and match fitness were able to break down the Cougar’s in the second half as the Panthers broke through three more times. The scoring ended on a shot from junior left wing Will Butler.

His attempt bent into the top corner from more than 20 yards out. It was enough to put Eastern over St. Xavier, 4-2.

Coach Adam Howarth said the match only confirmed that this team has quality across the entirety of the depth chart, and Plant agreed with his coach.

“What we have as a squad is real depth in numbers,” Plant said. “We have a lot of games, and I think the squad is going to utilize that.”

Eastern and St. Xavier played to a 1-1 draw in the exhibition season last year. Since then, the Cougars lost three of their five All-Chicagoland Collegiate Athletics Conference players from last season.

The intrasquad scrimmage allowed Howarth a chance to see all his players on the field, but most importantly, the weekend was about getting in shape for the official start of season Aug. 30, Howarth said.

“The biggest thing is fitness,” he said. “We are trying to increase our fitness over the course of the week. We’ve only been together since Monday. The guys came in on their own before and were doing stuff on their own but from Monday on, that’s really all we’ve had.”

Howarth said the depth of his team would be what sets it apart this season.

“I think we’ve got a lot of depth this year which is really very nice,” he said. “I think we have a lot of players that can really push to start.”

One of those players bidding for a starting role is freshman midfielder Nick Wegrzynowicz. He scored twice in the intrasquad match with both goals coming from the buildup play of sophomore defensive midfielder Tony Meza.

In addition to his role in moving the ball through the center of the pitch, Meza also scored a free kick from just inside the attacking third.

“(Meza’s) come in a lot more fit and that’s why he is doing so much better,” Howarth said.

“We all knew he could do that, but I think the biggest thing was that we needed to make sure he was fit.”

Moreover, the entire roster is filled with youth. Nearly a third of the team is comprised of first-year freshman.

Despite the depth and youth, however, a number of Eastern players are still recovering from injuries.

Red-shirt sophomores Garet Christianson and Spencer Filosa still leave gaps at forward and defender, respectively. Red-shirt junior midfielder Chris Boswell is also missing from the list of active Panthers.

Eastern is on the road this week as it travels to Butler for another exhibition match Tuesday Aug. 20. The team will be back in Charleston to take on Dayton next Saturday Aug. 24 at Lakeside Field to wrap up the preseason.

Michael Spencer can be reached at tmspencer2@eiu.edu or at 581-2812.