The Panthers were down 1-0 against the Lindenwood University Lions with 10 minutes remaining in the game.

That was until the 81^st minute when senior midfielder Felipe Kerr Lourenco kicked a shot that deflected off a defender to the bottom right of the goal where freshman forward Ashur Eshew was able to tap it in for a goal that tied the game 1-1.

“I play as a six, I don’t go forward a lot but we need a goal so I step a little bit up to try to score and I’m very happy that I could take a shot,” Lourenco said. “I think was going in, but whatever Ashur just took it, I’m happy for that, it’s a goal, that’s what matters.”

The Panthers scored their next goal just six minutes later when sophomore forward Casey Welage took a pass from Lourenco and took the ball up the right side, just outside of the box. Welage then crossed the ball inside to senior forward Sam Eccles who finished off his left foot.

“It was kind of a broken play there; the ball was bouncing out the top of the box,” Welage said. “I was able to get down, tap the ball to Felipe and I saw space out wide. I knew we needed a cross in those last moments, so I went outside and Felipe played me a good ball in. I looked up and I saw a little bit of space in there and I was like ‘I got to hit this spot,’ hit the spot and straight to the corner we went.”

“As soon I seen him; I’ve made eye contact and I’m just hoping he’s going to put it into an area that I can just run forward onto,” Eccles said. “. . . I thought I’m just going to think that he’s thinking the same as me, he’s going to cross it and I just got to hit the spot. He put in a perfect ball and then instinct kind of kicks in, don’t think about it too much and get a foot on it.”

This goal was Eccles’ third of the season and it takes him up to eight points on the season. He is already two goals away from his goal total last season (5) and three points away from his point total last season (8).

This is Eastern’s first win since Aug. 28^th against Governors State University.

“[The win] feels awesome,” Welage said. “We’ve been working really hard all season. We’ve all had a goal to play in November and the chance to play in November is finally here and we capitalized on the opportunity. It came late but we were able to scratch out a dub.”

The last time that Eastern scored more than one goal in game was 15 games ago on Oct. 1^st of last year against the University of Southern Indiana.

“Obviously it feels huge for the guys, but we’ve been telling them all the time . . . that those things are possible if you keep working at it.,” Head Coach Josh Oakley said. “I don’t think we were at our best today, it was obvious in the game, we were nervous. . . but when you get a win like that in the last 10 minutes both goals are scored and you win the game 2-1, it’s well deserved from the guys because they didn’t quit.”