The men’s soccer team opens their season this year against a familiar early season foe in Butler.

Only two exhibition games this year have preceded the opening game, which will occur Wednesday at Lakeside Field.

But the opener does give the chance for Eastern to gauge themselves against solid competition as well as take a better look at their own team.

“We will certainly gain a better idea of how our team lines up for the long haul,” head coach Adam Howarth said. “But that is also the purpose of the exhibition games, because we now have a rough idea of who we can play where and for how much.”

Another advantage Eastern has is the familiarity they have with the team from Butler.

“Considering we saw them early on last year we do have a certain degree of familiarity,” Howarth said. “They pretty much are the same team we saw last year with only a few changes that could form a couple differences.”

Those changes on the Butler roster took place through the transfer process as they welcomed in two different transfers from University of Illinois at Chicago.

The players who were added are midfielders junior Roberto Gallo and junior Jason Kieffer.

Gallo, a season ago, provided the Flames with a solid presence as a starter in all 19 of their matches and also was named to the second team All-Horizon League. He compiled five goals and three assists. Two of the goals either tied up the game for his former team or won the game.

Kieffer also played in all 19 games and posted three assists for the Flames.

Both of those players, according to Howarth, may change the way Bulldogs play against Eastern, and that factor is something that the coach is not forgetting about.

“We know that they have changed a little and we know that we now have to look at a few more players as options for them,” Howarth said. “But more than that we need to concern ourselves more with our own play more so than what may have changed with them.”

The game is at 4 p.m. at Lakeside Field.