Eastern Illinois (1-6-2, 0-2-1 OVC) at Houston Christian (6-3-1, 1-1-1 OVC)
Thursday, October 9
7 pm at Houston, Texas (Sorrels Field)
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Eastern Illinois at Incarnate Word (4-3-4, 0-1-2 OVC)
Sunday, October 12
12 pm at San Antonio, Texas (Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium)
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ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois wrapped up its second week of Ohio Valley Conference play with a pair of setbacks at home to Lindenwood and then on the road at SIUE.   EIU is now 1-6-2 overall, 0-2-1 in the OVC.  The Panthers travel to Texas this week with matches on Thursday at Houston Christian and Sunday at Incarnate Word.  HCU enters at 6-3-1 overall, 1-1-1 in the OVC.   Incarnate Word is currently 4-3-4 on the year, 0-1-2 in the OVC.

NEXT UP: Following the Texas swing of the Panthers OVC schedule this week, EIU returns home to Lakeside Field to host the two other crossover teams in OVC play on Thursday and Sunday.   The Panthers host Liberty on Thursday afternoon followed by a Sunday afternoon match with Southern Indiana.
 
HOME OPENER: Eastern Illinois played its home opener last Thursday hosting Lindenwood on October 2.  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 makes the Texas swing of the OVC schedule this week.
 
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.
 
DEFENSIVE MINUTES:  Yuki Nakamura has come off the pitch for just five minutes this season leading all players with 805 minutes played this season  He is followed by Shuntaro Endo with 694 minutes on the field.  Five other players – Manuel Cordeiro, Shion Hayashi, Casey Welage, Fabricio Roberti, Cland Iwasaki  - all have logged between 540 and 580 minutes for the Panthers this season of a possible 810 minutes played.
 
SHOTS LEADERS: Eastern Illinois was held off the scoreboard in both of its OVC matches last week as four players have scored goals this season.  Casey Welage is the team leader with two goals while Adam Boykin, Gui Gragnano, Shion Hayashi have all found the back of the net this season.  On the year Welage is the team's shot leader with 19 total shots followed by Ben Griffis with 14 and Boykin with ten.  Welage and Boykin each have seven shots on goal.
 
ORTIZ IN THE NET: Lucas Ortiz made his first start of the season in goal in the Panthers match at SIUE on Sunday.  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 last season against Bowling Green making seven saves. 
 
OVC OPENERS: Eastern Illinois is now 1-1-1 all-time in OVC openers after Saturday's 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 the two Texas members of the OVC men's soccer group this week as the Panthers play Houston Christian and Incarnate Word.  HCU leads the all-time series 3-2 over EIU with wins in both of the OVC meetings and three straight overall victories over the Panthers.  EIU's wins in the series came in 1983 and 1985 with both matches in Charleston.    Incarnate Word holds a 3-0 all-time series lead over the Panthers with all three contests coming with the schools members of the OVC.  UIW won twice in the regular season and then beat EIU in the OVC Tournament semifinals in 2023.

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.