The women’s soccer team’s offense carried the Panthers to a weekend sweep, increasing the team’s win streak to three games.

Eastern’s offense, which has been playing at a high level so far this season, scored five goals in its two weekend games against Fort Wayne Friday and Western Illinois Sunday.

“We are a completely different team than last year,” sophomore forward Sarah DeWolf said. “We have really been working hard on our offense and are finally seeing results.”

In both games, both Eastern and its opponents started the game slow, but the Panther offense started to take over and get multiple scoring chances in the middle of the first half.

“It’s very typical of a soccer game just to be kind of hectic and crazy for 10-15 minutes, so when the game naturally slows down and the tactic starts to take over, there’s a little bit more room for us to do what we want to do,” assistant coach Jake Plant said.

Both Fort Wayne and Western Illinois’ defenses, which had not been stellar leading up to the weekend matches with Eastern, were able to hold the streaking Panther offense in the first minutes of both the games.

But in both matches, a few chances to score, followed by an Eastern goal, gave the Panthers the momentum to start its control of the game.

Against the Mastodons Friday, Eastern broke a scoreless tie with nine and a half minutes left before halftime. Senior defender Ali Carlson crossed the ball into the box to sophomore Henar Urteaga, who battled with a defender for the ball and scored. The goal was her second on the season, and a minute and a half later, junior defender Kayla Stolfa, who set the Eastern record for most assists in a game (four) last weekend against Chicago State, assisted sophomore Hannah Heinz who scored her third goal of the season. The assist was Stolfa’s fifth on the year.

In what seemed to be a sure win for Eastern, the task of winning became harder when Mastodon players Chloee Foor and Schoenfeldt scored within 28 seconds of each other in the 79th minute, tying the match 2-2.

In the second overtime of the match, freshman forward Itxaso Aguero shot a free kick on goal, which bounced off the post to Olson who was there to tap it in for the 3-2 Eastern win.

In Sunday’s match, a scoreless tie dangled over both Eastern and Western for 29 minutes of the first half, until redshirt senior Emma Scaro assisted DeWolf for her third goal on the season.

“It’s always a great feeling to score for the team,” DeWolf said.

Early in the second half, Olson headed in a loose ball for her third goal of the season, which turned to be an important goal because Western player Stacie Wolfgram scored the Leatherneck’s first goal of the season in the 77th minute. Eastern held on to win the game 2-1.

The Panthers, now 5-2-1, have an away game Friday against Marian University, then host their first OVC match of the season against SIUE.

Dillan Schorfheide can be reached at 581-2812 or dtschorfheide@eiu.edu