Friday, September 2 – Green Bay at Lakeside Field 12 pm [Live Stats]

Sunday, September 4 - Marshall at Lakeside Field 3 pm [Live Stats]

Early Results: The Eastern Illinois men's soccer team continues their four-match home stand this weekend as they welcome Green Bay to Lakeside Field Friday at 12 p.m. followed by Marshall on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Panthers head into these matches with a 0-1-1 overall record after opening the 2016 season with a 1-1 tie at Northern Kentucky before dropping their most recent match to Milwaukee 2-1. The tie at NKU marked the first time the EIU men's team has opened a season with a tie. The last time the Panthers tied a match was during the 2014 season against Denver.

The Penalty Spot: So far this season EIU has recorded two goals in as many matches with both goals earned from penalty kicks. Before this season the last time the Panthers scored a PK goal was in 2012 when Jake Brillhart scored from the spot against Canisius. The EIU men's team has not scored two penalty kicks in a season since going 2-for-2 in penalty attempts throughout the 2008 season.  

Offensive Production: Both Davis Wegmann and Justin Oliver earned their fourth career goals at EIU after netting their respective penalty kicks. The penalty kick goals were the first career PK goals for Wegmann and Oliver. Wegmann leads the team in shots so far this season with four total and three on goal placing him fourth in the Summit League for shots. Julian Montoya is just behind Wegmann with three shots and two on goal. Oliver is perfect on the season thus far with one shot to his name resulting in a goal.   

In Novotny We Trust: Goalkeeper Mike Novotny continues to be a steady constant for EIU between the posts going into his junior season. The St. Charles, Ill. native started both matches so far this season playing in all 210 minutes and recording three saves. Although early in the season, Novotny leads the Summit League in minutes played. Throughout his career at EIU Novotny has accumulated 2,925 minutes in the net leaving him just 25 minutes shy of cracking the top-5 all-time at EIU for career minutes played with the rest of the season still to come.  

Making Their Mark: Although still early in the season, the Panther freshman are doing their best to earn a spot amongst the starting 11. Alessandro Corti is the only freshman to start both matches for the Panthers recording two shots while establishing himself as a presence on the backline for EIU. Anton Olsson is also trying to earn a spot on the defensive backline for EIU with one start under his belt. In the midfield for the Panthers, freshmen Marcus Menniti and Jonathan Huerta have each earned one start. Huerta has also recorded two shots so far this season while Menniti earned one of his own.

Scouting Report: The Panthers welcome their third straight Horizon League opponent this Friday as Green Bay takes on EIU for the fourth year in a row. The Phoenix head to Charleston 0-2-0 on the season having lost to Missouri State and Central Arkansas. Green Bay is still searching for their first goal of the season after being shut out in each of their opening matches. EIU holds a 12-8-3 series record over the Phoenix, but have not beaten Green Bay the past three seasons losing in 2015 and 2014 while recording a 4-4 tie in 2013. Senior goalkeeper Kyle Ihn highlights the Phoenix roster tallying 11 saves throughout two matches ranking him third in the Horizon League.

Marshall comes to Lakeside Field Sunday currently 1-1-0 overall with a match against Bowling Green still to play this Friday. This Sunday's match will be the first ever meeting between the Thundering Herd and EIU. Marshall opened the season dropping a 2-0 contest against Western Michigan before downing Detroit 3-1 two days later. The Thundering Herd is led by two midfielders, Trevor Starcher and Paul Whitener. Each have one goal on the season so far while Whitener has recorded two assists and Starcher one.

Up Next: Following this weekend's matches, the men's soccer team has over a week off before they close out their four-match home stand against Saint Ambrose (Iowa) Wednesday (Sept. 14) at 4 p.m.