For two men’s soccer players, Southern Methodist means a little more to them than just another opponent in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Instead of sporting the royal blue and white colors of Eastern last year, sophomores Vik Kaushal and Justin Ongaro put on a different shade of blue with a little Mustang emblem on the front last season.

Kaushal and Ongaro want nothing more than to beat their former team and get a much-needed win in the MVC standings.

“I’d love to beat them,” Ongaro said. “I’ve got lots of friends there so it will be fun to go back. We need to win right now and we will see what happens.”

Southern Methodist has not played to its normal potential in the beginning of the conference schedule, dropping its first two games.

Prior to their conference games, the Mustangs were ranked sixth in the country and many coaches made them out to be the team to beat.

Eastern (5-4-2, 0-1-1) coach Adam Howarth hopes to get SMU while they are down and come back to Charleston with a big win.

“I think we can do a lot and catch them on their heels a little bit,” Howarth said. “I feel pretty good about our team.”

Kaushal thinks his coach’s goal is obtainable.

“They are 0-2 so they are definitely beatable,” Kaushal said. “Coach has been stressing we can get results this weekend.”

And like his teammate and fellow Canadian, Kaushal is excited to go back to Dallas.

“I’m excited to play the old team,” Kaushal said. “It would feel good to win, but winning is always good.”

The Mustangs are led by junior Ryan Latham who is tied for third in the MVC in goals with six.

They have also seen solid efforts in the net from goalkeeper T.J. Tomasso who has four shutouts on the season.

Before Eastern goes to SMU, it must first travel to play No. 12 Tulsa, giving the Panthers two ranked opponents for the weekend.

Tulsa has been more than impressive thus far with a 2-0 conference record and MVC lead with 27 goals scored.

Howarth said the main thing Eastern has to worry about is Tulsa’s offensive duo of sophomore Ryan Pore and junior Kyle Brown.

Pore leads the MVC in both goals (11) and points (26) while Brown is first in assists (7) and third in goals (7).

“They have two key players in their strikers,” Howarth said. “We have to pinpoint those guys.”

The idea of playing two ranked opponents doesn’t bother Howarth and is something Eastern has gotten used to. The Panthers hosted both SMU and Bradley last season when the two teams were ranked.

“The guys can do it,” Howarth said. “The fact (these teams) have this ranking is good for us to go in there and be excited about knocking them off.”

To be successful, Howarth said his team has to continue to keep taking shots, but make sure they get them on goal.

“I think we are near first in shots taken in the MVC,” Howarth said.

“Getting them on target is another issue. We definitely went out there and did some shooting this week.”