THURSDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Illinois 1, Southern Indiana 0
Chicago State 0, @UIW 0
Liberty 1, @HCU 1
SIUE 1, @Lindenwood 0
EASTERN ILLNOIS 1, SOUTHERN INDIANA 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois men's soccer team celebrated its 2023 senior class defeating the Screaming Eagles of Southern Indiana 1-0 on Thursday afternoon at Lakeside Field. The Panthers improved to 4-8-4 overall and 3-4-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
To stay in the fight for a spot in the OVC tournament, Panthers and Screaming Eagles needed the victory in tonight's match. With that in mind, both teams did not hesitate to go after the goal from the first whistle. Within the first twenty minutes, six shots were fired, as five of them came from the Panther's offense. At halftime, EIU had the lead in shots 9-5 with sophomore and senior midfielders Adrian Lechuga and Julian Smith leading the attacking actions with three and four shots, respectively.
In the second half, both teams started to feel the pressure of clock ticking not in their favor, as a scoreless draw would not be beneficial to either. The Panthers tried to find the back of the net with shots from Kyle Kimberling, Anton van Efferink, Jared Cornejo, and Sam Eccles, but were unsuccessful in all of them. The Screaming Eagles responded with four shots on goal, but saw goalkeeper Chad Smith stopping all of them.
With four minutes left on the clock, Sam Eccles sent the ball into the penalty kick spot to find senior defender Maxwell Allen. Allen took the shot that was deflected by a couple of defenders before finding the net to give EIU the 1-0 lead. It was Allen's second goal of the season, as the senior was gifted to finish his last match at Lakeside Field with a winning goal.
Chad Smith posted four saves in net for the Panther to reach his fourth shutout of the season as well as the fourth clean sheet for EIU.
With the victory, the Panthers move up to fifth place and eleven points in the OVC standings to wait for the remainder of the matches taking place tonight for a chance of clinching a spot in the postseason tournament before Sunday's match.
UIW, 0 CHICAGO STATE 0
SAN ANTONIO - Recap coming soon.
LIBERTY 1, HCU 1
HOUSTON - Liberty’s Bryce Swinehart scored during the 86th minute as the Flames tied the Houston Christian Huskies 1-1 in an Ohio Valley Conference match Thursday evening at Sorrels Field.
Trailing 1-0, Liberty, which had controlled play and outshot host HCU 8-2 in the second half, had been held scoreless by the Huskies until Swinehart’s goal. Off a corner kick from the left side of the field, the defender headed the ball near the goal’s right post and scored to tie the contest for what ended up being the final score of 1-1.
The Flames move to 4-3-2 in OVC play and 9-5-2 overall. The Huskies move to 2-3-4 in the OVC and 4-7-6 overall.
SIUE 1, LINDENWOOD 0
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - SIUE men's soccer won its sixth consecutive game, shutting out Lindenwood 1-0 Thursday at Hunter Stadium.
The Cougars remained unbeaten at 13-0-3 and 8-0-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The 13 wins is the most in a single season for an SIUE team since returning to Division I play in 2008.
SIUE's 13 wins are the most in the country. The six-game winning streak also is the longest current streak in Division I.
The teams played scoreless to halftime. Stephan Moreira's successful penalty in the 58th minute was the only goal of the game. Moreira has now scored in three straight games and is tied for the team lead with five goals.
SIUE was outshot 10-8. Lindenwood put shots on goal.
The Cougars recorded their eighth shutout of the year, bolstered by the play of goalkeeper Sam Gomez who made four saves, some of which came at point blank range.