Eastern’s men’s soccer team lost its second-straight home game Tuesday in a 2-0 shutout loss to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee’s offense made Eastern alert early. Milwaukee shot two times on goal within the opening minutes, which forced redshirt goalkeeper Jonathan Burke to save them.

In the 32nd minute Milwaukee broke the scoreboard open when Josh Kaye crossed the ball in to Evan Conway inside the box, and Conway headed the ball into the back of the net.

Milwaukee took 10 shots in the first half with four of those going on goal. Eastern got off four shots with none going on goal.

In the second half, Eastern’s defense kept getting attacked. The defensive presence of freshmen Delphy Sabu, Quinn Rechner, Dario Kurmann and senior Edgar Mesa, kept Eastern in the match toward the end.

Milwaukee’s offense scored another goal in the 64th minute. Andreas Sorensen took a shot that deflected off of Burke’s hands, which Josh Kaye rebounded and scored from inside the six-yard box.

Eastern’s defense faced 20 shots total in the game with seven of those shots on goal. Burke recorded five saves in the game. The defense as a whole throughout the game kept their composure despite being down 2-0 and facing 20 shots.

“Our guys are built to play good defense,” said head coach Kika Lara. “We’re built to do well defensively.”

Eastern’s offense took two shots in the second half.

Eastern’s lone shot on goal came from freshman Maxwell Allen who took the ball inside of the six-yard box and took a shot while being brought down by a Milwaukee defender. The ball was caught and saved by Milwaukee goalkeeper Nick Chiappa.

“We should’ve had a penalty today and I honestly think that would’ve made the last 11 minutes interesting,” Lara said. “Sometimes you get them sometimes you don’t and hopefully we get them Saturday. The reality is that we play the next play and we stay focused on the next play.”

With the loss the Panther’s record drops to 4-7-1 on the season with two of those losses now being at home on Lakeside Field. Burke’s saves total increased to 51 saves in 2019 with his five saves Tuesday.

The Panthers’ next match is against Omaha Saturday at home at noon. In 2018, Omaha defeated Eastern 1-0 in Omaha in the last game of the season.

This season Omaha is 3-6-2 and currently sits at second place in the Summit League standings. Omaha’s leading scorer, Aaron Uribe, has three goals this season.

“We played stronger and better, and that’s the kind of style and tempo we need to play with on Saturday,” Lara said. “We need to execute on the final third better. Ultimately that was the missing thing today, and if we do that better on Saturday, we will be fine.”

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