The men’s soccer team has not lost a game in the last three contests and hopes to protect its home field undefeated record against Oral Roberts Saturday.

Against IUPUI on Tuesday the Panthers saw huge contributions from two freshmen on different sides of the field for a 1-0 home win to improve the season’s record to 4-4-1.

Freshman Quinn Rechner played the role of a defensive anchor for the Panthers.

Rechner went through discomfort early in the game and it was visible.

At one point, head coach Kiki Lara was about to warm someone up and Rechner replied, “Coach, I am good.” Lara later described Rechner to be a warrior and said his mentality was needed for the shutout.

Despite discomfort, Rechner willed his way to get to every ball that came close to him and seized control of his area on defense.

In the last 20 seconds of the game, Rechner secured the win for the Panthers when he sped from the right side of the field to the left side to clear the ball on defense to help shut out IUPUI.

In the 75th minute, freshman Maxwell Allen scored his first goal of the season and the first of his Panther career when he received a pass from redshirt sophomore Cameron Behm and tipped it by the IUPUI goalkeeper. Allen scored the 10th goal of the season and became the ninth goal scorer for the Panthers this season.

The other eight goal scorers for the Panthers this season are: junior Davi Girardi, junior Shady Omar, redshirt senior Christian Sosnowski, senior Alex Castaneda, redshirt freshman Munir Sherali, senior Edgar Mesa, Behm and sophomore Nate Francke.

Omar is the leading goal scorer with two goals. Behm leads the Panthers in assists with three on the season. Behm’s assist total is in a four-way tie for second in the Summit League assist list.

Redshirt junior goalkeeper Jonathan Burke has four shutouts, 37 saves and a 1.29 goals against average so far this season. Burke is currently third in the Summit League in saves and goals against average, and second in save percentage.

Oral Roberts’ offense consists of four players with three or more assists. Tanguy Guerineau has six assists in 2019 and currently leads the Summit League.

Reed Berry is one of the three players with three assists, but he also leads the Summit League with seven goals in 2019.

On their defensive side goalkeeper Miles Motakef currently averages a Summit League leading 0. 82 goals against average. Oral Roberts is 6-0 on the season.

The Panthers will play their second conference match of the season Saturday at home against Oral Roberts. The game will begin at 3 p.m. at Lakeside Field.

Blake Faith can be reached at 581-2812 or bmfaith@eiu.edu.