The EIU Panthers lost in their conference opener to the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) Cougars 2-1 at Lakeside Field on Thursday afternoon.
The Panthers started off on top with a goal by fifth-year senior Zenaya Barnes at the 15:30 mark.
This game also happens to back-to-back games with a goal for Barnes.
“I give a lot of credit to our coach Deanna [Hecht],” Barnes said. “She’s been holding a lot of extra finishing sessions which means just working on scoring basically and showing up to those helps a lot.”
SIUE responded with a goal at the 31-minute mark by Cougar Aleah Minehart, and the Cougars took the lead at the 72-minute mark with a goal from Macie Begley.
SIUE ended the game with 17 shots while EIU recorded five.
“We made ourselves defend too much,” Panthers’ Head Coach Dirk Bennett said. “They had too many shots in too many dangerous areas.”
With the loss, EIU dropped to 1-5-2. This game was the start of the Ohio Valley Conference play this season.
“Conference is a different type of game, and everyone knows it’s going to be gritty,” Barnes said. “Everything is on the line here, and having the mindset of every minute counts, we have to come out and get one early and move on to the next to try and put them away.”
This game also turned out to be a physical game with a combined 19 fouls between both teams which included two yellow cards and four injury timeouts throughout the game.
“Everyone just works hard for each other,” Bennett said about the defensive plays.
The Panthers’ defense was working hard today with the Cougars having 60% of the possession time in this game, with freshman goalkeeper Ella Kratochvil finishing the game with 10 saves.
“Tonight, everyone needs to decompress and think about the game,” Barnes said. “We’re really good at bouncing back and showing up for practice.”
Bennett believes they need to keep doing what they are doing and keeping faith in what they do.
Eastern is back in action this coming Sunday with a road conference game against the Southeast Missouri Redhawks.
The team hopes to bounce back and get their first conference win. The game will begin at 1 p.m.
Elijah Harden can be reached at 581-2812 or at densportsdesk@gmail.com.
