Eastern Illinois University lost 3-0 to the Northern Illinois Huskies Sunday afternoon at Lakeside Field.

The Huskies were the better team today for most of the game with them dominating possession. The Panthers also did not have a single corner kick in the game.

Eastern could not get their offense off the ground today shooting a total of five shots. This is in comparison to the Huskies’ nineteen shots today.

The Panthers had excellent looks at the start of both halves with them having multiple chances. The team’s best chance to score came from kickoff with a pass sent into the box.

Eastern also had a dangerous chance in a set piece later in the game but they still could not convert on any shots today.

The Panthers’ main weakness in the game today was their inability to transition. Every time the Panthers tried to push the ball upfield, the team seemed to be stopped before they could make it to the other half of the field.

Coach Dirk Bennet said transitions are something they work on every practice, and it is something they’re going to keep working on in their practices throughout the season.

Another weak spot in the Panthers game today was the defense. Eastern was on their back foot most of the game today with them almost always having the Huskies trying to score.

It felt as if Eastern’s defense was lacking some aggression throughout the rest of the game, letting the Huskies press as far as they could before they would make a move to try and take the ball away from them.

“We started to exploit spaces Eastern Illinois had left out, you know, especially in those wide areas with our speed and quality out there,” Northern Illinois’ coach Michael O’Neill said.

Eastern’s head coach Dirk Bennett said there were multiple mistakes made in the defensive aspect in the game today.

“We knew today that we were going to have to defend a lot,” Bennett said. “The hard part about having to defend a lot is it’s really hard to transition and stay on attack. Their goals probably came from more mistakes by us than by their creativity.”

Bennett said while Eastern had a weak first half, the team’s second half was better.

“In the second half despite them getting that goal, that there was a lot more mature defending and trying to transition better,” Bennett said.

This marks the women’s soccer team’s last non-conference game of the season; their record has now dropped to 2-4-2.

Today’s loss extends Eastern’s losing streak to Northern Illinois as Eastern has not beaten them in 28 years.

Eastern’s next game will be at Indiana State on Thursday, Sep. 12 where the team hopes to come back to secure another win.

The Panthers’ next home game will be against Lindenwood Lions on September 26 at Lakeside Field at 6 p.m.

Emerson Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or at etreynolds@eiu.edu.