LIVE STATS
Game 10 – Oct. 9, 2010 at 2 p.m. (Lakeside Field)
Eastern Illinois (3-6-0, 0-1-0 MVC) hosts Missouri State (3-5-1, 1-0-0 MVC)
Eastern Illinois returns home to face Missouri State on Saturday afternoon at Lakeside Field. It will be the Panthers lone match of the week after they played a weekend set at No. 13 Creighton and UMKC. EIU is 3-6-0 overall this season but has a 2-1-0 mark in limited action at Lakeside Field. This will mark the first time that Missouri State has come to Charleston since the 2007 season. Last year EIU won in Springfield, Mo., handing the Bears their only MVC loss. The return match at EIU was cancelled in early November due to a death on the EIU athletic staff.
Head coach Adam Howarth is in his 11th season as the head coach for the Eastern Illinois men's soccer program. A former EIU player, Howarth has compiled a 78-98-19 career mark with the Panthers. Howarth has compiled a 19-54-8 record in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Panthers are 5-15-0 all-time against Missouri State.
Eastern Illinois is coming off three straight 1-0 losses as the Panthers fell in weekend action at No. 13 Creighton and UMKC. The Panthers have now played in seven 1-0 matches with two wins and five losses. Both 1-0 wins for the Panthers came at Lakeside Field as EIU picked up 1-0 victories over Western Illinois and IUPUI. The Panthers season has been filled with a series of threes as they opened with three shutout losses, picked up three straight shutout wins and now have three shutout losses.
EIU will open a key home stretch of games at Lakeside Field this Saturday against Missouri State. The Panthers will play three of their next four Missouri Valley contests at home. After hosting Missouri State on Saturday, the Panthers will play at Central Arkansas next Wednesday. Following that match the Panthers host SIU Edwardsville (Oct. 16) and Bradley (Oct. 20). Those two home matches will be important as those two teams were picked directly above EIU in the preseason MVC soccer poll. This season the MVC Tournament will return to a six-team format hosted by Bradley on Nov. 10-14.
On Sunday Eastern Illinois played at UMKC ending a four-match schedule against Summit League schools for the 2010 season. Next season EIU will return to play in the Summit League having posted a 2-2 mark in those four matches this season.
Alex Harrison went his ninth straight match this season without a point as the senior continues to sit at 50 points for his career. Harrison needs one more assist this season to move into seventh place on the EIU career assists list.
Senior goalkeeper Sean Molony continues to have a solid season in net for the Panthers. Molony currently ranks third in the MVC in goals against average with a 0.88 GAA. Molony ranks just above his counterpart in this week's MVC match with Missouri State's Alex Riggs ranking fourth with a 0.93 GAA.
Junior midfielder Ryan Child continues to be the lone EIU player to have an assist for the season. Child leads the Panthers with four points as he has one goal and two assists on the year.
