Panthers come out with a 1-1 tie against the IUPUI Jaguars at Lakeside Field on Tuesday night. The tie brings Eastern’s record to 1-1-1.
Eastern’s only goal was scored by senior forward Sam Eccles in the 30th minute. Eccles received a pass from sophomore forward Casey Welage. He then tried to dribble around the defender and attempted a shot that deflected off the defender, but still crossed the goal line.
“I [saw] the ball from Casey, he played it nice and early, and I just knew that if I got around the backside of the defender, he had a chance of taking it into my path,” Eccles said. “[I] didn’t have a chance to shoot on my right so cut back and got a bit lucky with the deflection but they all count the same so I’m pretty happy with it.”
Freshman forward Kyle Ward started his first game for the Panthers today and was man of the match according to head coach Josh Oakley. Ward played the full 90 minutes in the match.
“I think I showcased my abilities pretty well,” Ward said. “I mean obviously I’d gotten a few minutes in the first few games. Being a freshman, I know you have to earn it and I wanted to go out there and prove that I could play with them, and I thought I did pretty well.”
Eastern’s defense held strong in the first half allowing zero shots, but in the second half they allowed 11 shots including a penalty shot. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Kyce Toutanji had four saves out of five shots on goal in the game.
“I think the defense did actually really well, especially Lance [Somerfield], [William] Bruce, Max [Allen], and Jake [McConnery],” Toutanji said. “We held it down for as long as we can. Unfortunately, the ball was on our defensive end the whole time, but me personally I think I did what I can, I think our defense did what we can, it was an unfortunate result that we didn’t get that win because I think we all wanted it very badly.”
IUPUI’s goal came from a corner kick in the 84th minute that was headed in by 5th year senior midfielder Kyle Healy.
The game was a tale of two halves with Eastern having nine shots to IUPUI’s zero in the first half, but in the second half IUPUI had 11 shots to Eastern’s one.
“We knew they were going to come us and that’s exactly what they did, we didn’t handle situations perfectly all the time and it’s always disappointing when you go inside ten minutes to give up a goal . . . but we’re non-conference and I do think it’s something we can build off of and clean up the small stuff and move forward,” Oakley said.
The Panther’s next game will be against the Bellarmine University Knights at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Lakeside Field.
Luther Yoder can be reached at 581-2812 or at densportsdesk@gmail.com.
