Since the Panther’s last win on Sept. 28 against Lindenwood, they have allowed 13 goals and scored three in that five-game stretch. During this they have a record of 0-4-1. This has been their worst stretch of the season.

The other bad stretch for the Panthers was after their win against Governors State and before their win against Lindenwood. During that time, they went 0-4-2 and they allowed 10 goals while scoring five.

Eastern was able to bounce back in its last game against Chicago State where it came out with a 0-0 tie after allowing four goals in the three previous games.

“I want to see hunger,” Head Coach Josh Oakley said about his players. “Hunger in their eyes, in their body language, in their moves, just everything, the hunger to go get a win and that’s basically what we’re down to. [I want to see] mental toughness, mental strength, the ability to face adversity and go get a win.”

Going into their next game against the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles the Panthers are at 2-8-3 overall and 1-4-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

“[We] haven’t had a lot of winning seasons for 17 years, that’s going to be a tough one to change, Oakley said. “Sometimes that just changes with time. They have it in their hands right now to change it.”

The last time that the Panthers had a winning season was in 2007 where they went 12-6-3 and the last time they made it to a conference tournament was in 2008 when they were in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Right now, Eastern is seventh out of eight teams in the OVC. Only the top six teams are able to play in the conference tournament. The other team below Eastern is Southern Indiana who is 1-9-3 overall and 0-3-3 in the OVC.

“That’s the type of game we want to break lines, we want to be aggressive, we want to be very aggressive,” Oakley said. “We want to be on the front foot as much as possible. Be better on dead balls and just execute. We know that we’re a capable group and the next thing is just the execution piece.”

Eastern right now has four points in the OVC. Chicago State, who has five points, and Houston Christian, who has six points, are the two teams ahead of them.

A win against Southern Indiana would get Eastern three points. If Chicago State were to lose or tie, or Houston Christian were to lose the Panthers would move into the top six in the OVC with three games left.

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