The Eastern men’s soccer team started the season with several unproven players and many others who were stepping into leadership roles for the first time.

But the Panthers have continued to fight as they split their weekend series, keeping their record above .500.

Eastern (4-3-1) fell behind early Friday , eventually falling to Wright State 4-1 at Lakeside Field while it kept Drury winless this season by stopping them 3-0 Sunday.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said he was unsure how things would go down this season, but has been pleased with his team’s performances overall.

“I’m happy to a degree, but I want to be happier,” Howarth said.

Howarth was much happier Sunday as one of his senior leaders stepped up to lead Eastern to its fourth win of the season.

Abraham Martinez scored two late goals securing the victory, tallying his third goal of the season.

“You always need seniors to step and he stepped up today,” Howarth said. “He’s coming back from his injury and getting more fit. He is getting back to where he needs to be.”

Freshman Jeff Diehl opened up the scoring for his first collegiate goal in the 17th minute. The game would remain that way until Martinez netted two goals in the final four minutes.

The Panthers’ first game of the weekend began evenly matched until freshman defender Mike Comiskey was forced to leave the game with a knee injury in the 16th minute.

Just a little more than two minutes later Wright State put its first of four goals on the board when Paul-Anthony Perez beat an Eastern defender down the right side and snuck the ball in the left corner of the net.

A few minutes later, the Raiders added their second goal of the game on an offside trap gone bad. Chris Riley found himself wide open in the middle of the box, beating Panther goalkeeper Casey DeCaluwe.

“As soon as Mike went down, we lost a little bit of our shape,” Howarth said. “You never want to make excuses but … we were just letting them turn too easily.”

Eastern made an attempt for a come back with a goal from junior Kurt Krupa in the first two minutes of the first half on a pass from Martinez.

But Wright State would pour on two more goals, improving to 4-1 on the season.

Eastern next travels to Butler at 4 p.m. Wednesday for its final game before Missouri Valley Conference play begins.