Both games of the Eastern men’s soccer team’s opening weekend ended in a 1-1 tie, after both contests were sent into double overtime against Green Bay and Milwaukee on the road. 

On Friday, the Panthers tied Green Bay 1-1 in a defensive shootout and finished the weekend with the same result against Milwaukee on Sunday.

Green Bay struck first on Friday, scoring in the 39th minute off an unassisted goal by Ian Smith.

It took until the 83rd minute of the game before Eastern would even up the score and send the game into overtime, when sophomore Alessandro Corti scored on assist from senior Zach Medawattage.

In overtime, both teams sent only one shot a piece, the most crucial coming when Green Bay goalkeeper Nikola Kahvedzic blocked a shot by Eastern’s Christian Sosnowski in the 99th minute of the game.

In the second overtime period, Eastern fired no shots and Green Bay had two shots from Tomer Zloczower and Marcos Bautista, both missing the net.

Neither team budged much on defense throughout the game, but it was Green Bay that came out on top in the shots category, shooting 14 total (four on goal) against Eastern’s eight shots (three on goal).

On Sunday, the Panthers were given a career performance from senior goalkeeper Mike Novotny who had 10 saves in a game where Eastern was outshot on goal 11-4.

“I thought I played well personally,” Novotny said. “As a team, we defended well too. Erik (Isaksson) and (Alessandro) Corti had themselves very good matches.”

The scoring on Sunday started very early for Eastern when sophomore Alex Castaneda made a goal 14 seconds into the game, assisted by redshirt sophomore Christian Sosnowski and junior Brendan McDonough.

The assist was Sosnowki’s second of the season.

Milwaukee tied the score in the 12th minute of the game when the team’s leading scorer from last season Evan Conway scored off an assist from Jamie Colin.

Novotny was kept busy in the net, as Milwaukee let loose 28 shots total in the game.

“It was (an unusual amount of shots),” Novotny said. “It was just one of those games where I had to step up to do my job to help the team get the result.”

Offensively, Eastern had only six shots (four on goal). Offense was something Eastern was looking to continue to develop this season.

Eastern plays next in their home opener against Western Michigan Friday, Sept. 1 at Lakeside Field.

Check out the full story online at dailyeasternnews.com

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or jpbullock@eiu.edu