Just days after its best offensive performance of the season, Eastern’s men’s soccer team had one of its lowest shooting performances of the season.

Against Oral Roberts on Saturday, the Panthers fired off 19 total shots, with 14 of them being shot on target.

Fast forward to Tuesday, Eastern only had three shots in the match, but two of them were shots on goal, including Eastern’s goal.

Kris Luke supplied Eastern’s lone goal of the match, which came in the 56th minute. Alex Castaneda took a free kick for Eastern, which Luke headed in. Luke’s goal tied the match for Eastern, after Milwaukee scored early in the 18th minute.

Milwaukee ended up taking the victory five and a half minutes into overtime off a header goal.

But the significance of Luke’s goal goes beyond tying the match temporarily.

In all of last season, Eastern scored 10 goals. With Luke’s goal, his second this season, the Panthers eclipsed last season’s total with its 11th goal scored.

Luke’s goal also ties him for the second-leading scorer on the team with Shady Omar, while Christian Sosnowski leads Eastern with three goals.

Now at 3-8-4, Eastern’s remaining two matches are conference battles against Fort Wayne and Omaha, and to secure a spot in the conference tournament, the Panthers will need to score goals.

The first of the Panthers’ final two conference matchups is against Fort Wayne Saturday, which is Eastern’s last home match of the year.

Fort Wayne is Eastern’s most immediate threat in the conference standings, as the Mastodons (three points) are two points behind Eastern and currently occupy the final postseason spot.

The Mastodons have given up the most goals in the conference, and they give up an average of 15 shots per match, and 1.75 goals per game.

While Fort Wayne is at the bottom of the conference in goals allowed, it is only one goal behind conference-leading Denver (34) in goals scored on the season.

The Mastodons also average 12.1 shots per game, and they average 2.06 goals scored per game.

Eastern’s match is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Saturday at Lakeside Field.

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