Men’s soccer team extends losing streak to 7
October 9, 2016
The Eastern men’s soccer team was held scoreless for the fourth game in a row and was handed its seventh loss in a row on Saturday against Omaha.
The loss puts the Panthers at 2-9-1 and 0-3 in conference play while Omaha improved to 5-4-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play.
Eastern lost 2-0 on a pair of first half goals from Omaha.
The first goal came 11 minutes into the game by Fazlo Alihodzic for his sixth goal of the year. The goal was assisted by Seth Rinderknecht.
Junior goalkeeper Mike Novotny was kept busy recording five saves in the game for the Panthers.
The second goal came in the final minutes of the first half from Emmanuel Hazmat for his third goal of the year. The 41st-minute goal was assisted by Ethan Bowman and was sent past Novotny’s left side.
The Panthers were unable to find a goal on Saturday despite outshooting Omaha 8-4 in the first half.
Freshman Alex Castaneda led the Panthers with four shots, three on goal for a new season high.
Both teams finished the game with 11 shots each, but Omaha outshot Eastern, 7-4, with shots on goal. Senior Miguel Carillo had the other shot on goal for Eastern in the game.
Sophomores Kris Luke, Trevor Kerns and Christian Sosnowski each had shots in the game along with senior Davis Wegmann.
Elvir Ibisevic led Omaha in shots with four and two of them were on goal.
Alihodzic and Mark Moulton each had two shots on goal at well. Alihodzic has a Summit League-leading 16 points on the year that ties him with two others.
Omaha goalkeeper Joseph Ghitis had four saves in the game. Ghitis was forced to make two saves in the first half and two in the second half.
Castaneda put the pressure on with shots in the 55th and 56th minute but was unable to get it past Ghitis.
Omaha now joins Western Illinois and Denver as the unbeaten teams in conference play, while Eastern joins IUPUI as the only 0-3 teams in the Summit League.
Eastern will remain on the road to face Mid-American Conference opponent Northern Illinois this Tuesday.
Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or mmshanahan@eiu.edu.
