Eastern Illinois (1-4-2, 0-0-1 OVC) vs. Lindenwood (8-0-1, 1-0 OVC)
Thursday, October 2
3 pm at Charleston, Ill. (Lakeside Field)
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Eastern Illinois at SIUE (1-7, 0-1 OVC)
Sunday, October 5
1 pm at Edwardsville, Ill. (Ralph Korte Stadium)
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ON-TAP: Eastern Illinois opened Ohio Valley Conference play on the road last weekend with the Panthers playing to a 1-1 draw at Western Illinois.   EIU makes its regular season home debut this week hosting Lindenwood on Thursday before a Sunday afternoon match at SIUE.  Lindenwood is off to a hot start this year at 8-0-1 overall, 1-0 in the OVC.  SIUE is 1-7 to open the season including 0-1 in the OVC.  Lindenwood beat SIUE 2-0 in the league opener for both schools.

NEXT UP: Eastern Illinois moves into the weekly cycle of playing Ohio Valley Conference matches for the remainder of the season.  After hosting Lindenwood and traveling to SIUE this week, EIU travels to Texas next week for OVC road matches at Houston Christian and Incarnate Word.
 
HOME OPENER: Eastern Illinois opened the first month of the 2025 season on the road with seven matches away from Lakeside Field in September.   EIU's home opener is this Thursday, October 2 hosting Lindenwood in Ohio Valley Conference action.  EIU has the latest home opener in the NCAA this season.
 
WELAGE WITH ANOTHER GOAL FOR EIU: Senior forward Casey Welage scored his second goal of the season in Saturday's 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: Eastern Illinois has had several players racking up defensive minutes this season through seven matches.   Yuki Nakamura has come off the pitch for just five minutes this season leading all field players with 625 minutes played.  He is followed by Shuntaro Endo with 524 minutes on the field.  Five other players – Manuel Cordeiro, Shion Hayashi, Casey Welage, Fabricio Roberti, Cland Iwasaki  - all have logged between 420 and 450 minutes for the Panthers this season.
 
SHOTS LEADERS: In addition to being the current goal scoring leader for Eastern Illinois, Casey Welage is also the Panthers current leader in both shots and shots on goal.  Welage has 19 total shots this season with seven on target.  Ben Griffis is second on the team with 13 shots with five on goal.  Adam Boykin is third on the team with five shots on goal on six total shots including the Panthers other goal this season.  Fabricio Roberti is tied with Boykin for third with six total shots.
 
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 regular season matches to date.  Barba was in net for the Panthers win over Northern Illinois and their 1-1 OVC opening draw at Western Illinois.  For the year he has made 45 saves with a 1.71 goals against average.  His 6.43 saves per game currently leads the OVC.
 
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 and Lindenwood have had four of their five meetings as Ohio Valley Conference rivals with the Lions holding a 3-1-1 all-time lead in the series.   EIU did win the inaugural OVC contest between the two schools back in 2023.  EIU and SIUE will be meeting for the 34th time with the Cougars holding a 21-8-4 all-time lead in the series.  SIUE has won six straight over EIU with the Panthers last win in September 1997 when SIUE was still a NCAA Division II member.   The Cougars have won all six meetings at the NCAA Division I level as conference members first in the Missouri Valley Conference for two seasons and now in the Ohio Valley Conference.

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.