Eastern Illinois (1-4-1) at Western Illinois (2-7)
Saturday, September 27
2 pm at Macomb, Ill. (John MacKenzie Alumni Field)
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ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois opens Ohio Valley Conference play on Saturday afternoon facing in-state rival Western Illinois.  The Panthers posted a 1-1 record in their road matches last week with the first win of the year at Northern Illinois (W, 3-2) before a Sunday night 1-0 loss at Central Arkansas.  EIU enters OVC play at 1-4-1.  Western Illinois opens OVC play at 2-7 overall after a road loss at Kansas City on Sunday.  The Leathernecks have lost four straight entering the weekend.

NEXT UP: After opening Ohio Valley Conference play on the road and spending the first six weeks of the season on the road, EIU finally returns home on Thursday, October 2 to host Lindenwood at Lakeside Field for the Panthers home opener.  EIU is currently the only team in NCAA Division I soccer that has not played a home match this season.   Entering the week seven schools had played just one home match this season including Central Arkansas which hosted EIU on Sunday night.  The other six are Gonzaga, North Florida, Oakland, Siena, Green Bay and New Haven.
 
WELAGE EARNS OVC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Casey Welage was named the OVC Offensive Player of the Week following his efforts in games last week against Northern Illinois and Central Arkansas.  He scored the first goal of the night at NIU 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.  Welage 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.
 
OVC OPENERS: Eastern Illinois is 1-1 in previous Ohio Valley Conference openers with this being the third year that the conference has sponsored the sport.   The Panthers lost at Southern Indiana to open OVC play last year after beating Lindenwood in 2023 in their inaugural OVC match. 
 
OVC PREDICTIONS: Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois were both picked to finish at the bottom half of the Ohio Valley Conference race in the preseason poll.  WIU was tabbed to finish in sixth place while the Panthers were selected to finish in seventh.   SIUE was the preseason OVC favorite. 
 
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)
 
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 43 saves with a 1.83 goals against average.  His 7.17 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. 

SERIES HISTORY: Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois have met on the pitch more than any other opponent for the Panthers as they meet for the 64th time on Saturday in Macomb.  This will be the first of two OVC meetings this season between the programs with the Leathernecks set to return to Charleston on Saturday, October 25.  EIU holds a 36-20-7 all-time lead in the series including a 2-1 conference win last season.  Western Illinois won a non-conference match between the schools in 2023, and they played to a 1-1 draw in their last meeting as members of The Summit League in 2022.

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.