The Eastern men’s soccer team will finish up their non-conference schedule Wednesday when they play Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Panthers hope to not fall into the trap of looking ahead to their first game with a familiar opponent when they open their conference schedule against Western Kentucky.

Eastern is also trying to fill holes in its defensive play, which has been somewhat inconsistent through the first eight games of the year.

The Panthers hope to capitalize on their defensive effort against Drury,which Eastern shut out 3-0.

Eastern hangs its hopes for beating Butler on a defense that has been inconsistent at the beginning of this year, but has its coach, Adam Howarth, thinking about improvement as time has gone by this year.

“They need to do what they did against Drury on a more consistent basis,” Howarth said. “The defense has been solid but there has been times when we have let in a few goals that were too easy for the opponents.”

The defense needs to fill their holes before they play a Butler team that has quickly become experienced by playing quite a few good teams this year.

Playing in the UK Invitational, hosted by University of Kentucky, and Creighton’s early season tournament, the Bulldogs have played teams who are consistently high-ranking in the nation.

Butler managed a victory over Kentucky in the UK Invitational, and stayed with Maryland, who was ranked second in the country at the time of the game.

The Panthers also need to be wary of overlooking the game against Butler and looking to the Missouri Valley Conference opening game against Western Kentucky.

“It’s especially tough because the team has a long lay-off after the Butler game; their next game nine days after Wednesday,” Howarth said. “But hopefully they will look at this long period of rest as a situation in which they can leave it all on the field against Butler because they don’t play for a while after that.”

The Panthers’ offensive focus will be to continue to get the ball to sophomore forward Jimmy Klatter.

Klatter has started off strong this year with three goals and a pair of assists, which has made his total amount of points scored this year the highest on the team.

The sophomore’s performance is needed for an Eastern team that no longer has Jason Thompson, who led the team in scoring a year ago.

“I think Jimmy (Klatter) has gotten off to a solid start this year,” Howarth said. “But I’m greedy, and I want him to score more goals. I hope he can keep his stride because the entire team has seemingly managed to catch a cold, but I think they will overcome it.”