The season came to a close for the Eastern men’s soccer team Saturday afternoon as the Panthers lost their season finale 1-0 against Oral Roberts. 

Eastern hosted the Golden Eagles at Lakeside, a setting which also featured the Panthers honorong their nine seniors after the match. 

The loss dropped Eastern’s record to 2-12-1 overall and 1-5 in conference play. 

In the match itself the Panthers were able to limit the top offense in the Summit League to only one goal, which came just over four minutes before halftime. 

The Golden Eagles outshot Eastern 13-2 in the opening half, but only managed the one goal from Nathan Ndomba on an assist from Eugene Quaynor. 

Oral Roberts had just 2 shots in the second half while Eastern got off 5 shots, but were unable to get anything behind goalkeeper Miles Motakef, who had 2 saves in the match. 

The Golden Eagles were led by Felipe D’Agostini with 4 shots and 2 shots on goal. 

Eastern had 7 shots in the match, three of which came from senior defender Peter Allen Jr.

Eastern’s shots on goal came from junior midfielder Felipe Kerr Lourenco and freshman defender Micah McReynolds. 

Eastern goalkeeper Jonathan Burke recorded 5 saves in his final match as a Panther. 

Burke was one of the nine seniors honored after the game, and he will leave Eastern as one of the top goalkeepers in program history. 

Burke made 249 saves in his 55 matches as a Panther, ranking fourth in program history in saves. He was also named second team All-Summit League in 2019, a season in which he led the conference in save percentage and shutouts. 

Also honored were goalkeeper Landon Dove, midfielder Jonas Castelhano, midfielder Hector Martinez, midfielder Gorka Delgado, midfielder Alejandro Lurbe, forward Davi Girardi and forward Shady Omar, whose 63 matches are the most by any Eastern player honored Saturday. 

With Oral Roberts’ win and Denver’s tie against Kansas City, Oral Roberts and Denver both finish the season with a 4-1-1 conference record. 

Both teams will compete in the Summit League Championship starting Nov. 11. Also competing in the championship will be 4-2 Omaha and 2-2-2 Kansas City. 

Eastern, Western Illinois and St. Thomas are now finished for the season. 

Adam Tumino can be reached at 581-2812 or ajtumino@eiu.edu.