The Panthers allowed four goals in their third straight game in a 4-0 loss to the Liberty University Flames.
“We’re still stuck in Texas,” Head Coach Josh Oakley said. “Allow[ing] a goal on the first shot-on-goal is not a good thing and then we go again on the very routine corner kick. We’ve got to get that sorted out, doesn’t really matter the personnel in a game it’s got to be done. Those are routine plays from the guys, and we simply got to be better.”
Liberty scored the first goal of the game going into the fourth minute. It came off of a free kick that was passed to freshman forward Leo Conneh who was able to cross the ball to senior forward Michael Huss who tapped it in for a goal.
The next goal for the Flames came in the eighth minute off of an Olimpico from junior forward Gora Gora. An Olimpico is a goal that is scored from a corner kick with no one else touching it except for the person that took the corner.
Liberty scored their other two goals in the 37th minute off of a corner kick that was tapped in by senior defender Grayson Gardner, and in the 88th minute from freshman forward Matthew Torrel.
Liberty’s first three goals in the game came off of set pieces.
“We were just kind of caught not set up at some points and they were able to just capitalize on those opportunities,” sophomore midfielder Adrian Lechuga said.
Lechuga, normally a midfielder/left wing, played as an outside back to end off the game after sophomore midfielder Jude Spallinger went down with an injury to his right knee.
“I thought I wasn’t bad,” Lechuga said. “I’ve played there a couple times, so it’s not like anything I’m not really used to, but I’m just ready to go wherever I’m needed really.”
Eight players for Eastern had their most minutes in a game against Liberty including freshman forward Ashur Eshew, who also had his first start.
“I thought I did pretty well. They had a really good back line, so it was hard to get shots off, but I thought I did well holding the ball,” Eshew said.
Luther Yoder can be reached at 581-2812 or at lyoder@eiu.edu.
