Kyce Toutanji finally got his shot at redemption.

On Oct. 12 of last year, the redshirt senior goalkeeper out of Portage, Michigan started in goal against Liberty University. By halftime, Eastern was down 3-0, and Toutanji was subbed off. He didn’t see any game action since.

Fast forward to Wednesday, and Toutanji would finally be given a start and another opportunity to prove himself.

Toutanji made a career high 10 saves against the University of Evansville in Eastern’s 1-0 road loss to the Purple Aces.

Eastern (1-3) faced an onslaught of shots. Evansville recorded 29 shots, with 11 of them being on target. Toutanji said the high shot total is a result of Evansville’s quality.

“They’re just a really good program,” Toutanji said. “Honestly it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get a tie because I think our defense really locked it down.”

Toutanji said that it meant a lot to him to have a bounce back performance.

“For me it felt like it was a good opportunity, and you never know how many opportunities you get,” Toutanji said.

Head coach Josh Oakley was elated with his goalkeeper’s performance, saying it was one of the reasons why Eastern was able to stay in the game throughout.

“We know Kyce [Toutanji] is a quality goalkeeper,” Oakley said.

Oakley was happy with the overall team performance, despite the loss. He stated that the team needs to be a little bit smarter with the ball. On multiple occasions, Evansville turned an Eastern turnover into a quality scoring opportunity.

On one occasion near the end of the game, Evansville had a fast break trying to double its lead. With Ben Martin sprinting to catch back up to the play, already on a yellow card due to an earlier foul, he committed a foul to stop the counterattack.

Martin paid the price for his attempt at stopping the goal, as he was shown a second yellow card and sent off. Martin’s red card is just the second time an Eastern player has seen red since 2019.

“That was a fair sending off,” Oakley said. “That was the best called game we’ve had officiating wise.”

Martin’s red card means he will be suspended for the team’s next game, on Sept. 17 at Wright State. Martin is one of four defenders who could be unavailable for the game, with the other three out due to injury.

The game against Wright State will kickoff at 6 p.m.

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.