The Panther wrestling team fell short from their goal of a victory once again after suffering yet another loss Sunday – this time at the hands of No.14 Purdue.

The now 14-4 Boilermakers locked up with the Panthers and defeated them 28 – 16 to give the Panthers a 2-10 record on this season with just one meet left this season.

“We were within range again, but just not there,” Eastern head wrestling coach Ralph McCausland said.

The meet started with Jim Kessner defeating his opponent 6-5 at 197-pounds to give Eastern a quick 3-0 lead in the match.

The excitement soon died down when senior Joe Gleissner was defeated 22-4 to his No.6 nationally ranked competitor for heavyweights.

Things did not improve during the next match when freshman Brandon Murphy was also defeated by technical fall 10-3 in 5:31 by his opponent, who was also a ranked wrestler at No.3 in the nation.

“Competition was at a very very high level,” McCausland said.

The tables turned for a short time at 133-pound weight class when Pat Dowty won his match in 44 seconds by pin fall. This was the second consecutive match that Dowty has won by pin fall.

By this point in the match the Panthers trailed the Boilermakers 10-9, but it soon changed back in favor of Purdue during the next match when Nick Cirrincione lost by pin fall to give the Boilermakers 16-9 lead in the match.

Next at 149-pounds, Chris Stevens fell to his counterpart 14-7, however, Frank DeFilippis came back to win the next match to keep Eastern in the running at 157 after he won his match 14-7.

“Frank had some other opportunities,” McCausland said. “He could have blown things wide open.”

At 165-pounds, Sam Smith lost the match 6-3, giving the Boilermakers a 22-12 lead with two matches remaining in the competition.

The last run for the Panthers came when Panther Louis Taylor charged in and defeated his opposition 13-5 to close a little bit of the gap between the teams.

Unfortunately the match ended at 184-pounds when Eastern had to forfeit because of injury problems.

“We needed not to get pinned and win the close matches,” McCausland said. “That are the key components to win matches. We just have to make it happen.”