Eastern Illinois (4-7-3, 3-3-2 OVC) at Lindenwood (13-1-2, 6-1-1 OVC)
Thursday, October 30
7 pm at St. Charles, Mo. (Hunter Stadium)
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Eastern Illinois vs. SIUE (4-9-2, 3-3-2 OVC)
Sunday, November 2
2:30 pm at Charleston, Ill. (Lakeside Field)
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ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois rans its current unbeaten streak to four straight matches (3-0-1) as the Panthers picked up a 3-1 win on Saturday over Western Illinois.   The Panthers head into the final weekend of regular season play currently tied for fourth in the OVC standings with the top six teams advancing to the OVC Tournament.   EIU improved to 4-7-3 overall, 3-3-2 in the OVC.  EIU will play league leading Lindenwood on Thursday with the Lions having already beaten EIU earlier this season in Charleston.  The Lions are 13-1-2 overall, 6-1-1 in the OVC.   On Sunday, EIU faces SIUE as both teams enter the week tied for fourth in the conference race.  The Cougars beat EIU in Edwardsville earlier this season and enter at 4-9-2 overall, 3-3-2 in the OVC.

NEXT UP: If Eastern Illinois qualifies for the upcoming Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, the Panthers would play a quarterfinal match on Sunday November 9 in St. Charles, Mo., as Lindenwood will serve as the host for this year's OVC men's soccer tournament.
 
GRAGNANO WINS AWARD: Junior Gui Gragnano was named the Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday after he scored a pair of goals in Saturday's win over Western Illinois.   Gragnano picked up his second and third goals of the season in the final 13 minutes of action accounting for the match winner and an insurance goal.  He is the second EIU player to win OVC Offensive Player of the Week honors this season and is now tied for the team lead in goals scored.  He was the first player since Sam Eccles in October 2022 to score two goals in a match.
 
UNBEATEN STREAK: Eastern Illinois ran its current unbeaten streak to four straight matches with Saturday's 3-1 win over Western Illinois.  EIU is now 3-0-1 over its last four matches with wins over Incarnate Word, Southern Indiana and Western Illinois with a draw against Liberty.  The last time EIU posted an unbeaten streak of four or more matches was 2017.  EIU opened that season unbeaten in its first six matches going 2-0-4.  The school record at the NCAA Division I level is 15 straight unbeaten matches to close out the 1981 season, the Panthers had that streak ended in the NCAA Championship semifinals.
 
GOALS FOR THE WEEK: Eastern Illinois added to its multiple goals in consecutive matches streak with a 3-1 win over Western Illinois giving the Panthers four straight matches with two or more goals.  Eastern Illinois scored two goals in both of its matches playing to a 2-2 tie with Liberty and posting a 2-0 win over Southern Indiana.  EIU started the multiple goal run with a 2-0 win at Incarnate Word.  The last time EIU scored two or more goals in four or more consecutive matches was the middle portion of the 2007 season when the Panthers had two goals against Fort Wayne, two goals against UAB, four goals against Valparaiso and two goals against Drake going 2-0-2 in that run.
 
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 3-0-1 record in his last four matches with a pair of shutout wins over Incarnate Word and Southern Indiana.  In six matches started this season he has posted a 1.17 goals against average making 16 saves.
 
WELAGE WITH ANOTHER GOAL FOR EIU: Senior forward Casey Welage scored his third goal of the season in the 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 the week EIU hosted Liberty and Southern Indiana as he leads all players with 1240 minutes played this season  He is followed by Shuntaro Endo who is just under the 1,100 minutes played mark with 1,099.  Two other players –  Cland Iwasaki (979)  and Manuel Cordeiro (902)  have both logged over 900 minutes for the Panthers this season of a possible 1260 minutes played.
 
POINTS LEADERS: Eastern Illinois scored multiple goals for the fourth straight match with its 3-1 win over Western Illinois.  EIU had scored two goals in each of its two matches playing to a 2-2 draw with Liberty and 2-0 win over Southern Indiana.  The previous week EIU ended its Texas swing with a 2-0 win at Incarnate Word.  Gui Gragnano had two goals against Western Illinois to tie Casey Welage for the team lead as both players now have three goals.  Ben Griffis knocked home his second goal of the season joining Adam Boykin, Shion Hayashi and Fabricio Roberti (2) with multiple goals this season.  EIU has four players tied for the team lead with two assists each in Cland Iwasaki, Manuel Cordeiro, Fabricio Roberti and Yuki Nakamura.
 
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 Lindenwood have had five of their six meetings as Ohio Valley Conference rivals with the Lions holding a 4-1-1 all-time lead in the series.   EIU did win the inaugural OVC contest between the two schools back in 2023.  EIU and SIUE will be meeting for the 35th time with the Cougars holding a 22-8-4 all-time lead in the series.  SIUE has won seven straight over EIU with the Panthers last win in September 1997 when SIUE was still a NCAA Division II member.   The Cougars have won all seven meetings at the NCAA Division I level as conference members first in the Missouri Valley Conference for two seasons and now in the Ohio Valley Conference.

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.