The Eastern women’s soccer team remains upbeat despite its two losses over the weekend.

Friday, the Panthers lost in overtime to Western Illinois 3-2, in which Eastern coach Jason Cherry said it was the best game his team played all season.

“I was really pleased with our effort,” he said. “We played really inspired. We played really well as a team. Unfortunately we didn’t get a result. I thought Friday we were the better team.”

Western Illinois scored the overtime goal at the 106 minute mark of the second overtime in Friday’s game.

Senior Molly Hawkins, who scored two goals in the game Friday, felt her team played hard for all 106 minutes.

“It really showed that everyone wanted it,” she said. “Unfortunately that’s just how games turn out sometimes. You can’t just look at the stats. We showed more passion in the game than I’ve seen thus far this season, and I’m really happy to see it all starting to come together.”

After going down 1-0 two minutes into the game Friday, Hawkins was able to score her first goal of the season about four minutes later with an assist from red-shirt senior Kathleen Mackinnon.

Hawkins then gave Eastern the lead right out of the break in the second half with her second goal of the game.

She said it was very important to bounce back quickly after a rough start to the game for the team.

“We started the game a bit shaky at first,” she said. “Then once they scored, I think we realized that we needed to step it up and show much we want it. It was really important for us to bounce back right away and once we did, we set the tone for the game.”

Eastern was able to muster four shots on goal against Western and did have more corner kicks than Western, which Cherry wanted to see out of his team over the weekend.

The Panthers were shut out by Northern Iowa Sunday 3-0 and did have two new goalkeepers in net.

Freshman Liz Carmody and Erin Morgan each played a half against Northern Iowa.

Morgan had three saves, and Carmody was not able to save either of the two shots she faced, but Cherry felt his two freshman goalkeepers played well in their first collegiate games.

“They managed the game really well,” he said. “They did their best.”

The Panthers will be back at home at Lakeside Field Friday against Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne at 3 p.m.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu