Eastern loses 4-1 in St. Louis

The Eastern men’s soccer record may be 0-1, but they still feel season opener against Saint Louis was successful.

“The 4-1 score was a lot closer than it looked,” Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said. “We outshot them 14-12 and we definitely outplayed them for periods of the game.”

While the opener has positive aspects, the loss resulted from the Panthers’ failure to capitalize on three scoring opportunities early in the game. Sophomore Jason Thompson made a steal in Billiken territory, but his shot from ten yards out found its way to the side of the net.

Later in the game, senior Derrick Perry’s shot tipped over the cross bar and the Panthers missed a third opportunity when freshman Casey Rasul sent his shot just over the cross bar.

Saint Louis was the first to break onto the scoreboard in the 29th minute and repeated again in the 33rd minute of the game. Eastern drew one closer just six minutes later when junior Aaron Aguirre netted a goal on an assist from Thompson.

The Billikens answered back one minute later to take a 3-1 lead at the half.

Saint Louis sophomore and Harmonn Trophy candidate Brad Davis capped of the scoring with his third goal of the game with just over one minute to play.

Despite the loss, Howarth remains positive about the team’s performance.

“Our kids saw that they are as good as any team in the country,” Howarth said. “We will be able to win a lot of games if we play like we did against Saint Louis.”

The Panthers will look build upon this weekend’s game when they travel to Chicago to take on Loyola University today at 7 p.m.

Eastern defeated the Ramblers 2-0 in its meeting last season. This year Loyola tied its season opener with Northwestern 2-2.