Sunday Eastern looked to extend its dominance over the Northern Illinois Huskies. Eastern won last year’s season opener against Northern Illinois 3-1 and has not lost against the Huskies in Charleston since 1977.

Nothing changed for the Panthers as they made a second half surge to beat Northern 2-1.

Northern jumped out to a quick lead on a goal by Steve Polkowski courtesy of an assist from Andy Champion in the third minute.

Eastern then spent the rest of the first half trying to even up the score with 11 first half shots, but solid play from the Northern back line allowed Northern to go into halftime up 1-0.

“We came out flat in the first half and did not have good communication between our backs,” head coach Adam Howarth said.

In the second half, it looked like Northern might come away with its first win in Charleston in 28 years behind solid goalkeeping from Joe Carrero. Eastern finally broke through against Carrero in the 64th minute on a goal by Mike Rizzo, on a pass from Jimmy Klatter.

A little more than seven minutes later, freshman Matt Galanes scored unassisted, beating Carrero to the lower right corner of the goal. Eastern was then able to make that goal stand up, winning 2-1.

Galanes was excited about his game-winning goal. “It was a great feeling, I was pushing for it the whole game,” he said.

Coach Howarth singled out Galanes’ game play as a factor in the win.

“He had a good game and it was nice to see him get his first goal,” Howarth said. “We played pretty well in the second half after a flat first half.”

On Friday, the Panthers played another in-state team, but fell to Western Illinois 2-1, snapping a five-game winning streak against their in-state rival.

After a scoreless first half, Western Illinois jumped on top on an unassisted goal by Justin Zignago in the 58th minute.

Just over a minute later, Eastern tied up the game on forward Jimmy Klatter’s fourth goal of the season off an assist by Vik Kaushal.

Eastern then appeared to take a 2-1 lead on a goal by Jeff Stewardson, but the goal was nullified by referee Rich Huber after he ruled Stewardson had committed a foul before the goal went in.

Western then went on to score in the 71st minute on a goal by Daniel Bustons off an assist from Elton Fernandes.

Despite getting outstanding goalkeeping from red-shirt freshman Casey DeCaluwe, who stopped three shots including two breakaway saves in the second half, Eastern could not come out on top.

Eastern’s record is now 2-2 and the team is off until Saturday when it travels to play in-state rival Northwestern.