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CHARLESTON, Ill. – As Eastern Illinois men's soccer closes out its home schedule with senior recognition day Saturday, the Panthers host second-ranked Creighton, the first Top Five opponent to visit Lakeside Field since 2004.
Kickoff at Lakeside Field is slated for 2 p.m. A tape-delayed telecast of the game will air Monday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. on Your 13, channel 13 on Consolidated cable in Coles County.
In 2004, former EIU player and coach Shellas Hyndman brought his third-ranked SMU team to Lakeside Field for the regular-season finale. That game also turned out to be the Mustangs' final regular-season game as an affiliate member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Along with the team success, the 2007 senior class has also posted some notable individual honors.
Gartner is the program's first three-time ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District honoree as well as the first Panther (in all sports) to be a finalist for the Lowe's Senior Class Award.
Hansen is the program's first four-year starting goalkeeper of the decade, compiling four of the Top 10 statistical seasons of EIU's Valley years (1996-present).
Lewis is the program's first CoSIDA-chosen Academic All-America honoree, joining Gartner on the All-District team each of the last two seasons.
Peters is the first Panther in the program's Valley years to post back-to-back double-figure goal seasons. He can make it three straight with one more score this season. Of his 32 career goals, 12 have been game-winners – an EIU record in the MVC era. Peters was named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List back in August.
Creighton (11-1-2, 3-0-1 MVC) features two Hermann Trophy candidates, Byron Dacy and Andrei Gotsmanov. Gotsmanov scored both goals in the Bluejays' 2-0 win against Drake Saturday, but also picked up his fifth yellow card of the season late in the contest. He'll have to sit out Saturday's game due to a yellow card accumulation suspension.
Creighton enters the weekend tied atop the conference standings with Missouri State, which completed MVC play with an overtime win against EIU (5-9-3, 0-4 MVC) Nov. 1. Drake is one-point behind both schools and plays at Evansville Saturday night. The Bluejays can win the league outright with a victory Saturday. It would be CU's ninth MVC regular-season crown and third in as many years.
Last season Creighton won its 12th straight game against EIU, scoring with four-tenths of a second left in double overtime. Peters gave the Panthers a halftime lead with EIU's first goal against the Jays since 2002.
The only draw in the all-time series came 10 years ago in a game at Lakeside Field. Dating back to the early 80s, the Panthers won each of the first four meetings with CU, the last victory coming in September 1985 in a game played on the campus of Bowling Green State.
Creighton entered the week leading the nation with a 0.27 goals against average, surrendering only four scores in 1,315 minutes of game action. The Jays' lone loss was in 1-0 fashion (vs. UMKC) and even both of their draws – at Saint Louis and at Missouri State – were scoreless affairs. Remarkably, Bob Warming's team has done it with redshirt-freshman Brian Holt in net, after two-time MVC Defensive Player of the Year Matt Allen exhausted his eligibility last season.
The Panthers are locked into the number No. 6 seed for next week's Valley Tournament in Evansville. Eastern defeated Missouri State in the 3-6 game of the opening round in 2006. The Panthers could play MSU, Drake or Evansville in Wednesday's opening round game. The start time is contingent on the opponent.
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Ben Turner, Asst. SID
