The Panthers will begin a four-day stretch of staying in Texas that starts on Thursday when they play the University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals at 7 p.m. at Gayle and Tom Benson Stadium and ends on Sunday when they play the Houston Christian University Huskies on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at Sorrels Field.

“It’s always fun and a good experience to travel especially for a lot of the new guys because they’ve never been away from school for this long,” senior defender William Bruce said, “so it’s going to be a new environment especially for the first game.”

“You got to love away games,” junior defender Whelan Joseph said, “new atmosphere, we’re going out to face a new opponent and I think it’s going to be a good challenge for us to really show what the team has and what we are about.”

Eastern is 2-5-2, including 1-1 in conference play, going into this game while Incarnate Word is 3-4-3, 1-0-1 in conference play.

“I know our goal is to come back with plural points,” Head Coach Josh Oakley said, “soccer being a different game right, three for a win, one for a tie. If we can come back with points, with an s on the end, no matter what that looks like, two points, three points, four, six, if we get something plural in the points category, we’ll be really happy with that.”

In the Panthers last two games against SIUE and Lindenwood they allowed two goals. One against Lindenwood on a free kick and one against SIUE on a penalty kick.

“I think that we are starting to hit our stride, our last three games have definitely been our best three, so I’m excited and hopefully we come home with six points,” said freshman forward/midfielder Kyle Kimberling.

Incarnate Word plays on a turf field compared to Eastern’s Lakeside Field which is grass. Eastern has played on turf once this season against the University of Detroit Mercy.

“I think we’re very good on turf, we’re very good, we like let the ball run flat, we like to move the ball on the ground for the most part and that bodes well, like we were very good at Detroit [Mercy]. Perhaps one of our better games in terms of getting the ball down and moving it quickly. So, I think the guys actually look forward to turf.”

Luther Yoder can be reached at 581-2812 or at lyoder@eiu.edu.