The Eastern women’s soccer team finds itself 0-2 after the first weekend of the 2014 season, following losses to Northern Kentucky on Friday and Indiana State on Sunday.

On the road against Northern Kentucky, the Panthers gave up three first-half goals en route to a 4-0 season opening loss.

Eastern head coach Jason Cherry started junior Emily Hinton at goalkeeper with last season’s starter Cortney Jerzy lost for the year with a concussion.

Hinton, who started three matches in her sophomore season, gave up the first goal of the game in the third minute to red-shirt junior forward Kelsey Laumann on an assist from freshman forward Macy Hamlin.

Northern Kentucky added two more in the first half from Hamlin, and then from sophomore midfielder Sami Rutowski.

A lightning delay in the second half shortened the match to 71:46, but the Norse were able to add one more goal from freshman forward Jessica Fray at 71:07, just before the game was called.

Red-shirt senior Lauren Hoppensteadt had two shots on goal in the loss for Eastern.

In the second match of the season on Sunday against Indiana State, the Panthers dropped a 2-0 loss in the blistering heat at Lakeside Field.

With the temperature rising into the 90s on Sunday, match officials issued water breaks at the midway point of each half to keep the players hydrated.

“You have to watch peoples’ legs and sub a little bit more, try to change the way you play at first and try to make the other team chase the game,” Cherry said about making adjustments in the heat.

Indiana State’s first goal came at the 30:50 mark from junior midfielder Kate Johnson. The second followed at the 38:25 mark from sophomore midfielder Maddie Orf.

The Panthers were not able to respond in the second half, despite Indiana State playing down a player when senior defender Alexandra Rodas was given her second yellow card of the match in the 58th minute.

Senior midfielder Meagan Radloff tried to help create scoring opportunities for teammates Bianca Navejas and Kathleen MacKinnon in the second half, but neither were able to find the back of the net. Radloff herself had a chance in the final minutes off a corner kick from senior Allie Lakie that just went wide.

“We really wanted to dictate the pace and tempo today,” Cherry said. “But I thought we kind of got caught on the back foot and Indiana State took charge of the pace and tempo which made me have to sub more because our legs got a little tired.”

Cherry used a total of 12 subs in the game.

Hinton again got the start in the game, making four saves.

Cherry said he would go back and evaluate Hinton and the rest of the team’s game film, but said he thought Hinton handled herself well in the team’s first two games.

Eastern will be back at home next weekend, hosting Marshall at 1 p.m. on Friday and Louisiana Tech at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.