The Eastern men’s soccer team managed to fend off No. 19 ranked Wisconsin for 28 minutes before the Badgers finally broke through for the first goal en route to a 5-1 win over the Panthers.

Eastern allowed three first-half goals, leading to its third straight loss of the season.

“We seem to concede goals in batches and that is something that we need to address and we need to keep addressing over the course of the game,” Eastern coach Adam Howarth said.

Junior midfielder Jacob Brindle scored a hat trick to lead the Badgers over Eastern in Wednesday’s nonconference matchup. Brindle became the squad’s top scorer with the three-goal effort that gave him eight for the season.

Howarth went with sophomore Garrett Creasor in goal for the second consecutive match as Eastern fell to 1-12-1 on the season with two matches remaining before the Summit League tournament is scheduled to begin.  

With a victory in the Panther’s final conference match and some help from other teams in the league, Eastern can still make the postseason tournament. 

The match started slowly with neither team creating much on either end of the field at the McClimon Complex in Madison, Wis.

In the ninth minute, the Badgers started to fashion chances for themselves while the Eastern backline managed to hold Wisconsin at bay.

Wisconsin was in control offensively for most of the first 30 minutes, when freshman forward Brian Hail broke through in the 28th minute to score his first goal of the season.  He received a layoff from the top of the box and then curled the ball into the upper corner.

The match was suddenly fluid after Wisconsin opened the scoring.

Brindle scored just a minute after Hail with a shot that beat Creasor to the bottom corner of the goal.

Red-shirt freshman outside wing Eric McCausland was introduced for junior forward Tayron Martin in the 32nd minute and then found the back of the net with one of his first touches just two minute later for Eastern. 

However, the momentum was short-lived as Wisconsin quickly answered with a goal of its own to move the score to 3-1 and it remained there for the rest of the period.

Eastern made a goalkeeper change at halftime as freshman Austin Miller got his first opportunity in goal since the opening-day of the season against Lipscomb.  

It was just 24 seconds into the half before Brindle beat the freshman at the back post for his second goal of the day.

In the 49th minute, Brindle smashed home another goal from the top of the box to collect a hat trick and his seventh goal of the campaign.

Wisconsin used the remainder of the match to work bench players into the lineup as the Badgers started to be less intent upon finding scoring chances, Howarth said.

“The second half was really a non-event especially because we came out and conceded both goals so early,” Howarth said.

The Panthers’ attention now turns to a final conference battle with Omaha Sunday at Lakeside Field.  

“It is a must win game for us on Sunday, so we need to make sure we take care of business,” Howarth said.

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