The Eastern men’s soccer team had its season end in dramatic fashion Sunday.

After defeating Vanderbilt (6-9-1, 3-6) 3-2 in double-overtime on Friday, the Panthers (6-10, 2-7) edged out Western Kentucky (7-9, 3-6) 2-1 in overtime. Unfortunately, immediately after their victory, the Panthers were told that Vanderbilt upset Bradley to claim the eighth and final seed in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

“It’s horrible to win a game like that and then find out you didn’t make the tournament,” senior forward Derrick Perry said. “It sucks.”

Perry scored the winning goal against Western Kentucky 3:21 into the overtime period. Immediately after scoring on the assist from sophomore midfielder Abraham Martinez, Perry ran down the western sideline of Lakeside field where his teammates joined him to celebrate in front of the home crowd of over 200.

“It was the best goal of the year,” said Perry, who finished the season with 14 goals. “That was the biggest and best goal right there.”

After dropping eight consecutive games, five of which were decided by one goal, the Panthers finally broke their slump against Vanderbilt.

Less than a minute into the game, Perry stole the ball off of a Commodore goal kick and put the ball in the right side of the net for an easy unassisted goal. Eastern had a series of opportunities to tack on an insurance goal including a open net shot by sophomore forward Jason Thompson that hit the left post.

The Commodores managed to answer back in the 24th minute. Vanderbilt took the lead 34 minutes into the second half on a goal by freshman midfielder Brendan Matthews that set the stage for a dramatic Eastern comeback.

With only 3:06 left on the clock, Junior defender Ryan Hunt assisted sophomore midfielder Julian Chang for the equalizer. Right after the scoring the goal, Chang was embraced by Thompson and the game went into sudden death.

In the first overtime period, the Panthers found themselves fending off a Commodore onslaught. The Panthers were outshot 4-1 in the period, but held off the Commodores with the help of a couple freshmen. Goalie Jacob Billingsley stopped three shots and defender Lee Burke made the game-saving block, heading a would be goal out of the net.

“Jake (Billingsley) told me to get behind him before play,” Burke said. “The save was just a reaction.”

The game went into the second overtime period and Panthers were just 15 minutes away from losing their MVC tournament hopes. The Panthers took the offensive right away and sophomore midfielder Chad Dumonceaux netted the the game-winner with his first goal of the season.

“It goes to show a little bit of luck goes a long way,” Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said. “It feels good, it was a huge win. We got the win and that’s all that matters.”

Eastern got the early lead against Western Kentucky too.

In the 36th minute, Perry stumbled past a series of defenders and drew the Hilltoppers goalie out of the net. Perry passed the ball to Thompson for the easy shot.

The Hilltoppers began to wear down Eastern late in the second half as a result of the two teams going back and forth all game. With only 14:30 left on the clock, Western Kentucky squeaked the equalizer past Billingsley who finished the game with seven saves.

Thanks to an outstanding effort by the defense, Perry went on to score the game-winning goal.

“We (the defense) played great all year,” Billingsley said. “We just did what we had to do.”

For the seniors who played their last game, the game was bittersweet.

“At least we went out winners,” senior midfielder Ben Cox said. “We went down fighting.”

With the end of their last season at Eastern, none of the senior have any regrets.

“I’ve no regrets,” senior midfielder Tim Frdin said. “As seniors we can say we won our last game.”

After the game Howarth had to see the irony of what had happened.

“Its frustrating, we put ourselves in a bad situation. We did got some luck,” Howarth said with a faint laugh.