The Eastern men’s soccer team will travel to Chicago to take on DePaul Wednesday.

The midweek matchup comes off the back of a weekend that saw Eastern go 0-1-1 in the Evansville Classic, remaining winless as its record moved to 0-5-1.

DePaul has an extra day of rest, having last played Saturday while Eastern was on the field Sunday against Evansville.

Eastern coach Adam Howarth gave his team the day off from formal practice Monday and said his team has gotten what it needs out of practice on Tuesday.

“I think we’re as prepared as we can be for a mid-week game,” Howarth said. “We’ve done everything we needed to do in terms of preparation. At this point, we’re really worrying about ourselves.”

One thing Eastern will not have to worry about is injuries as the team have returned all its players from injury, including red-shirt sophomore Garet Christianson, who returned from an ankle injury this weekend to score three goals in two matches.

The position battle for goalkeeper was on this week with red-shirt freshman Ben Feltes collecting two starts over the weekend.

Howarth said he is evaluating the goalkeepers on a daily basis and focusing mainly on which goalkeeper is in the better form. He did not say who would start against DePaul.

Howarth said he will start his strongest group in Chicago but looks to rotate players in so they are fresh for the first match of Summit League play against IUPUI.

DePaul (2-4-1) defeated Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Saturday 2-0 for its second win of the season.

The Blue Demons are led by senior goalkeeper Eric Sorby who has let up less than a goal per game this season and was selected as Big East Goalkeeper of the Week for his performance against Edwardsville and Drake. He kept shutouts in both matches.

The goal scoring against Edwardsville was done by freshman forward Erik Rodriguez who opened his collegiate account against the Salukis.

DePaul lost in its first match of the regular season against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the team that Eastern tied 4-4 in Evansville.

However, Eastern’s only matchup with a team from the Big East conference this season ended in a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Butler in Indianapolis.

“They’re going to be aggressive from a defensive standpoint and an attacking standpoint,” Howarth said of the Blue Demons. “We need to make sure we are smart on defensive set-pieces and make sure that we clear the ball.”

Eastern and DePaul will both meet in the final match before the teams are scheduled to begin conference play.

The Panthers will play four of their six Summit League matches over the next month.

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