Eastern Illinois men's soccer opened the 2025 season on Thursday evening falling 2-0 at Big Ten member Northwestern.
 
The Panthers played even with the Wildcats a majority of the match with Northwestern finally breaking through in the 68th minute with a goal by Peter Reisz.
 
Reisz would find the back of the net a second time in the 80th minute as part of his five shot evening.
 
EIU goalkeeper Franco Barba turned away nine Northwestern shots on goal.
 
The Panthers were kept out of the attack zone much of the evening finishing with two total shots and no official shots on goal.
 
Casey Welage and Shion Hayashi both recorded shots for EIU.