Eastern Illinois (2-7-2, 1-3-1 OVC) vs. Liberty (7-3-3, 3-1-1 OVC)
Thursday, October 16
3 pm at Charleston, Ill. (Lakeside Field)
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Eastern Illinois vs. Southern Indiana (2-7-3, 1-1-3 OVC)
Sunday, October 9
3 pm at Charleston, Ill. (Lakeside Field)
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ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois returns home to Lakeside Field to host a pair of matches following the Panthers Texas swing of the OVC schedule.   EIU picked up its first OVC win of the season on Sunday with a 2-0 shutout at Incarnate Word as the Panthers are now 2-7-2 overall, 1-3-1 in the OVC.  EIU hosts OVC co-leader Liberty on Thursday afternoon.  The Flames are 7-3-3 overall, 3-1-1 in the OVC with their 10 points in the conference standings placing them in a three-way tie for the league lead.   Southern Indiana enters at 2-7-3 overall, 1-1-3 in the OVC.

NEXT UP: Eastern Illinois remains at home following the two matches this week against OVC crossover opponents Liberty and Southern Indiana as the Panthers will host Western Illinois next week for a third straight contest at Lakeside Field.
 
ROAD OVC WIN: Eastern Illinois picked up a road win in OVC play on Sunday for the Panthers first conference victory of the year.   EIU has collected all three of its OVC points this year away from home including the season opening 1-1 tie at Western Illinois.   EIU's last OVC road win was a 2-1 victory at Western Illinois last year for the Panthers only conference win of the season.  
 
ORTIZ IN THE NET: Lucas Ortiz made his first start of the season in goal in the Panthers match at SIUE.  Ortiz made three saves in the match with the lone goal of the contest coming on a penalty kick in the 8th minute.  It was the second career match for the redshirt sophomore who took the redshirt season in 2023 and played just one half of a match last season against Bowling Green making seven saves.  Ortiz picked up both starts this past weekend in Texas with the Panthers falling on Thursday at Houston Christian before a 2-0 shutout win over Incarnate Word on Sunday.   It was the Panthers first shutout since blanking the University of Chicago, 3-0, in last year's season opener (25 matches).  EIU's last shutout against an NCAA Division I opponent was a 0-0 draw with Liberty in the 2023 OVC Tournament quarterfinals, a match EIU eventually won 3-1 on penalty kicks.
 
DEFENSIVE MINUTES:  Yuki Nakamura has come off the pitch for just five minutes this season leading all players with 985 minutes played this season  He is followed by Shuntaro Endo with 829 minutes on the field.  Two other players –  Manuel Cordeiro (729) and Cland Iwasaki (709)  have both logged over 700 minutes for the Panthers this season of a possible 990 minutes played.
 
POINTS LEADERS: Eastern Illinois was shutout last Thursday at Houston Christian but rebounded on Sunday with a 2-0 win over Incarnate Word.  It was the Panthers second multiple goal match this season following the 3-2 win at Northern Illinois.  EIU had goals in the match by Fabricio Roberti and Ben Griffis as six different players have scored this year.   Casey Welage is the Panthers leader with two goals and five total points.  Ben Griffis is second on the team with three points (one goal, one assist).  Shion Hayashi, Adam Boykin and Gui Gragnano have also found the back of the net this season.
 
HOME OPENER: Eastern Illinois played its home opener Thursday, October 2nd hosting Lindenwood.  The Panthers were the last NCAA Division I team to play a regular season match at home this season.    Following the one-match return to Charleston, EIU played at SIUE on Sunday and made the Texas swing of the OVC schedule last week.  The Panthers will end the regular season at home with four of their final five regular season matches at Lakeside Field.
 
WELAGE WITH ANOTHER GOAL FOR EIU: Senior forward Casey Welage scored his second goal of the season in the 1-1 draw at Western Illinois to open Ohio Valley Conference action.  Welage had been named the OVC Offensive Player of the Week the previous week as EIU played at Northern Illinois and Central Arkansas.  It was the fourth career goal for Welage who is the first EIU player to win OVC Offensive Player of the Week honors as the league is now in its third year of sponsoring men's soccer.   Chad Smith is the only other EIU player to win a weekly OVC award earning Goalkeeper of the Week late in the 2023 season.
  
OVC OPENERS: Eastern Illinois is now 1-1-1 all-time in OVC openers after the conference opening 1-1 draw at Western Illinois.  EIU lost at Southern Indiana last year to open OVC play after winning its inaugural OVC match in 2023 beating Lindenwood.  
FIRST WIN FOR VAZ: Eastern Illinois picked up the first win of the Ruy Vaz era at Eastern Illinois on Tuesday, Sept. 16 with a 3-2 road win at Northern Illinois.   The Panthers led 2-0 at the break and added a vital insurance goal midway through the second half.  NIU scored its second goal of the match with just under 30 seconds remaining in the match.  
 
GOALS COME AT NIU: Eastern Illinois had scored just one goal through its opening four matches of the season heading into the road contest at Northern Illinois.   The Panthers doubled that season total by halftime and added a third goal midway through the second half.  Casey Welage, Shion Hayashi and Gui Gragnano all scored for the Panthers in the match.    EIU scored three goals in the season opening win last year against University of Chicago.  The last time EIU scored three or more goals against a Division I opponent was in 2019 against Belmont (W, 3-2 OT)

BOYKIN SCORES FIRST: Adam Boykin was the first Eastern Illinois player to find the back of the net as he scored in the match at Milwaukee.  It was the second career goal for Boykin who scored last season with the game winner against Western Illinois.

RETURNING FACES: Eastern Illinois has eight players returning from last year's roster with Casey Welage the lone veteran in the group.  Welage has been a three-year member of the Panthers soccer program appearing in 38 matches during his time.  Last season Welage played in ten matches.   The other seven faces are either sophomores or redshirt sophomores with a combined 69 matches played at EIU.

NEW FACES: You will need a score card to follow the 2025 Eastern Illinois Panthers early in the season as they feature 24 new players with a mixture of freshmen (9), junior college (6) and four-year (9) transfer players.  The new roster also has an international flair with players on the EIU roster hailing from Brazil, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay.

OVC PLAYER TO WATCH: With just eight returning faces from last year's team transfer midfielder Yukia Nakamura was named the OVC preseason player to watch for Eastern Illinois this season. Nakamura played two seasons at Cowley College for current EIU head coach Ruy Vaz before playing the 2024 campaign at Georgia State.  At GSU, Nakamura started 17 matches notching one assist against Marshall. 

SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois faces a pair of OVC foes this week with matches against Liberty and Southern Indiana.  This will be the fourth match between EIU and Liberty.   The Flames hold a 2-0-1 all-time series lead with all three matches played as members of the OVC.  Liberty has won both regular season contests.  The one tie was in the 2023 OVC quarterfinals which EIU eventually won 3-1 on penalty kicks.   EIU and USI will be meeting for the 15th time on the pitch with EIU holding a 10-3-1 all-time series lead.  In the two years as OVC rivals, EIU has a slight 2-1-1 edge with the teams playing to a USI win and 2-2 draw during the 2024 season.

HEAD COACH:  Ruy Vaz was hired in February 2025 and became the 12th head coach in Eastern Illinois men's soccer history.  Vaz was a successful coach at the junior college level winning 110 matches with six NJCAA National Tournament appearances during seven seasons leading the Cowley College program in Kansas from 2018-24.  He coached 10-plus JUCO All-Americans with numerous players going on to play at the four-year collegiate level.  Of his six NJCAA National Tournament finishes he had two final four appearances and one championship game appearance.  His collegiate coaching record is 110-21-6 at Cowley College.  Vaz is a 2015 graduate of Oklahoma City University where he played soccer.  He picked up his first Eastern Illinois win on Sept. 16 with a 3-2 win at Northern Illinois.