Eastern Illinois (0-2) at Purdue Fort Wayne (0-0-2)
Friday, August 29
1 pm at Fort Wayne, Ind. (Hefner Soccer Complex)
Live Stats  |  
 
 
ON-TAP:  Eastern Illinois opened the Ruy Vaz era with a pair of tough road matches last weekend as EIU lost at Big Ten member Northwestern and then at UIC.   EIU now heads to Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday afternoon looking for the Panthers first win of the season.  This will be EIU's lone match of the week.  Purdue Fort Wayne was also in the Windy City to open the 2025 season as the Mastodons picked up a pair of draws at DePaul and at Loyola Chicago.

NEXT UP: This is the first of two consecutive weeks with the Panthers playing just one contest.   Following the Friday trip to Purdue Fort Wayne, EIU makes a trip the following Friday to Milwaukee.   EIU will not play two matches in the same week until they get into October hosting Lindenwood on Oct. 2 and playing at SIUE on Oct. 5.
 
EARLY SEASON SHOTS LEADER: Eastern Illinois has had four players record shots in a match early in the season with only two players credited with shots on goal this season.   Transfer Ben Griffis is the team leader with four total shots including three shots on goal.  Rafael Lara is tied for second on the team with three shots with two of those being on net.   Casey Welage has three shots this season and Shion Hayashi was credited with other Panthers shot attempt. 
 
HOME OPENER: Eastern Illinois opens the first month of the 2025 season on the road with seven matches away from Lakeside Field in September.   EIU's home opener will be on Thursday, October 2 hosting Lindenwood in Ohio Valley Conference action. 
 
RETURNING IN THE NET: Eastern Illinois roster features three goalkeepers for the Panthers with sophomore Lucas Ortiz, transfer Franco Barba and incoming freshman Samuel Toruno.  Ortiz played in just one match last fall seeing 45 minutes in goal against Bowling Green while making seven saves.  Barba was an All-Region performer last season at San Joaquin Delta College in California. 
 
RETURNING OFFENSE: Eastern Illinois has just three players returning from last year that scored during the 2024 season.  Senior Casey Welage, sophomore David Brown and sophomore Adam Boykin all found the back of the net last season.  Welage scored his goal in the 2024 season opener against University of Chicago.  Brown had his goal against Southern Indiana in OVC play adding an assist in that contest.  Boykin scored his goal with a 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. 
 
EXHIBITION GOALS: Eastern Illinois played three exhibition matches at home prior the start of the 2025 season.   EIU opened with a exhibition stretch against Parkland College followed by contests against Evansville and Greenville College.  In the two matches against NCAA four-year schools, EIU posted seven goals with scores coming from Saneyuki Yamagata (2), Nate Hagemann, Gui Gragnano, Max Sudor, Casey Welage and Shutaro Endo.
 
OVC PRESEASON PREDICTIONS: With only eight returning players from last season and a new coaching staff, Eastern Illinois was selected to finish seventh in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll.   SIUE was picked to finish first in the league race with Houston Christian second in the preseason voting. 

SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois and Purdue Fort Wayne meet on the pitch for the 22nd time on Friday afternoon with EIU holding a 13-8 all-time lead in the series.  The two schools were former rivals in The Summit League with both now playing in new conferences (EIU in the Ohio Valley Conference / Purdue Fort Wayne in the Horizon League).   Purdue Fort Wayne won the meeting last year in Charleston 3-0.  EIU won in 2022, 1-0, during its last trip to Purdue Fort Wayne.

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.