Eastern Illinois (3-7-3, 2-3-2 OVC) vs. Western Illinois (3-9-4, 1-2-4 OVC)
Saturday, October 25
3 pm at Charleston, Ill. (Lakeside Field)
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ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois picked up points for the third straight match with a tie against Liberty last Thursday and a home win over Southern Indiana on Sunday.  The Panthers enter the second to last weekend of the  regular season sitting in fifth place in the OVC standings as the top six teams make the OVC Tournament field.  EIU enters the match at 3-7-3 overall, 2-3-2 in the OVC.  Western Illinois has played to two straight draws and is one point behind EIU in the league race.  The Leathernecks are 3-9-4 overall, 1-2-4 in the OVC.  The two schools played to a 1-1 draw back in September in Macomb.

NEXT UP: Eastern Illinois wraps up the regular season with a pair of matches next week.  EIU travels to OVC leader Lindenwood on Thursday and then hosts SIUE on Sunday, November 2 for the final regular season match.
 
SENIOR DAY: Eastern Illinois is set to honor seven members of the Panthers 2025 senior class.  Leading the group will be four-year senior Casey Welage.  He is joined by senior transfers Shuntaro Endo, Yuki Nakamura, Manuel Cordeiro, Ben Griffis, Fabricio Roberti and Kento Tani.
 
GOALS FOR THE WEEK: Eastern Illinois scored two goals in both of its matches last week playing to a 2-2 tie with Liberty and posting a 2-0 win over Southern Indiana.  EIU entered the week with a 2-0 win at Incarnate Word.  The last time EIU scored two or more goals in three or more consecutive matches was the early portion of the 2008 season when EIU scored three against Kansas City, two against Western Michigan and five against Fort Wayne in matches 2-3-4 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.  He has since taken over as the starting goalkeeper posting a 2-0-1 record in his last three matches with a pair of shutout wins over Incarnate Word and Southern Indiana.  In five matches started this season he has posted a 1.20 goals against average making 16 saves.
 
WELAGE WITH ANOTHER GOAL FOR EIU: Senior forward Casey Welage scored his third goal of the season in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Liberty.  It was his second OVC goal this season after scoring 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 fifth career goal for Welage who was 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.
 
DEFENSIVE MINUTES:  Yuki Nakamura  came off the pitch for just the second time this season as he leads all players with 1150 minutes played this season  He is followed by Shuntaro Endo who just passed the 1,000 minutes played mark with 1,009.  Two other players –  Cland Iwasaki (889)  and Manuel Cordeiro (874)  have both logged over 850 minutes for the Panthers this season of a possible 1170 minutes played.
 
POINTS LEADERS: Eastern Illinois scored two goals in each of its matches last week playing to a 2-2 draw with Liberty and 2-0 win over Southern Indiana.  EIU had four different goal scorers for the weekend as they have been balanced in scoring this season.  Casey Welage (3), Adam Boykin (2), Shion Hayashi (2) and Fabricio Roberti (2) all have multiple goals this season with Ben Griffis and Gui Gragnano adding one goal each.  Cland Iwasaki and Manuel Cordeiro are both tied for the team lead with two assists.
 
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.
  
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 and Western Illinois have met on the pitch more than any other opponent for the Panthers as they meet for the 65th time on Saturday in Charleston.  This will be the second of two OVC meetings this season between the programs as they played to a 1-1 draw at Western Illinois in September.  EIU holds a 36-20-8 all-time lead in the series including a 2-1 conference win last season.  Western Illinois won a non-conference match between the schools in 2023, and they played to a 1-1 draw in their last meeting as members of The Summit League in 2022.

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.