A late goal from Western Michigan downed Eastern 3-2 in the Sunday afternoon match.

With the loss, Eastern falls to 2-3-1 on the season, while Western Michigan improves to 6-1. The Panthers were able to answer when Western Michigan took the lead twice in the game.

Western Michigan opened up the scoring in the 23rd minute by Jay McIntosh. His second goal of the season started from a corner kick by teammate Edu Jimenez. The corner kick was sent to the penalty box and was handled by Connor McNulty who passed it back out to McIntosh for the score.

The Panthers answered back in the 35th minute with a goal by senior Miguel Carillo. Carillo shot the ball from 20 yards out and was able to beat the Broncos’ goalkeeper. The goal made the score 1-1 and it stayed that way going into halftime.

Junior goalkeeper Mike Novotny got the start for Eastern and made two saves and gave up one goal in the first half.

He was replaced in the second half by red-shirt freshman R.J. Hill. Hill had three saves in the second half, while giving up two goals.

Western Michigan took the lead again in the 54th minute from a penalty kick. Jimenez took the penalty kick for the Broncos and shot it past Hill for the 2-1 lead. Eastern quickly responded with a goal from sophomore Trevor Kerns. Kerns was set up by freshman Yann Nsoga, who forced a turnover and found Kerns, who was one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

His first goal of the season came in the 57th minute and helped Eastern tie the game up at two. Nsoga now has two assists so far on the season.

Western Michigan was on the attack for the majority of the second half as they had 14 shots.

Just as it looked like the game would be heading into overtime, Western Michigan found the game-winning goal from Cameron Sipple. His first goal of the season came in the 85th minute off of a pass from Jimenez to set Sipple up with a one-on-one with Hill.

Kerns led the Panthers with three total shots, and two of them were on goal.

Freshman Jonathan Huerta recorded a shot on goal with his only shot of the game. Western Michigan outshot Eastern 21-6 in the game and recorded nine shots on goal. Eastern had four shots on goal.

Eastern will continue its road trip at Wright State on Wednesday.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or mmshanahan@eiu.edu.