Eastern Illinois (1-3-1) at Central Arkansas (0-5-1)
Sunday, September 21
7:30 pm at Conway, Ark. (Bill Stephens Soccer / Track Complex)
Live Stats  |  

Time updated to 7:30 pm start on Friday evening (Sept. 19)

ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois plays its second evening game of the week as the Panthers wrap up non-conference play on Sunday evening at Central Arkansas.  EIU has posted a points decision in each of its last two outings with a tie at Milwaukee and then a road win at Northern Illinois on Tuesday.   The Panthers are now 1-3-1 on the year.  Central Arkansas is 0-5-1 on the season after a loss on Wednesday night at Charlotte.  This will be the first home match of the season for UCA.

NEXT UP: EIU wraps up non-conference play on Sunday evening at Central Arkansas.  The remainder of the Panthers 2025 schedule will then be against Ohio Valley Conference opponents.   The league opener is on the road when EIU travels to in-state rival Western Illinois for Saturday, Sept. 27 kickoff.   
 
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.  
 
WELAGE WITH MULTIPLE POINTS: Casey Welage scored the first goal of the night at Northern Illinois and then added an assist to finish the evening with three points.   The goal was the third of Welage's four-year EIU career.   Last season EIU had two matches with a player scoring a goal and passing out an assist.   Sam Eccles did it against Wright State while David Brown did it in OVC play against Southern Indiana.
 
GOALS COME AT NIU: Eastern Illinois had scored just one goal through its opening four matches of the season heading into Tuesday night's 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)
 
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. 

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.

BARBA IN THE NET: Eastern Illinois has three goalkeepers on its roster that all saw time during the preseason exhibition schedule.  For the regular season transfer goalkeeper Franco Barba has won the job and played all four matches to date.  Barba posted a tie against Milwaukee and then was in net for the Panthers win over Northern Illinois.  For the year he has made 38 saves with a 2.00 goals against average.  His 7.6 saves per game currently leads the OVC.

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. 

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 Central Arkansas meet for the eighth time on the pitch on Sunday evening with EIU holding a 5-2 all-time series lead.   The two schools were briefly members of the Missouri Valley Conference together before EIU moved back to The Summit League and eventually to the Ohio Valley Conference.   UCA now plays as a member of the A-Sun Conference.  The last meeting was in 2014 with a 2-0 UCA win.

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.