Frustration. No word can describe Eastern’s losses better.

Losing a game in any sport is tough for a team to go through. Losing by one goal is even tougher.

That has been the story with the Eastern men’s soccer team so far this season. Through eight games this year, the Panthers are 3-5 after ending a five-game losing streak on Sunday.

In the five losses, three have been by one goal, and the other two games have had a margin of only two goals, proving that they have kept themselves in every game.

Head Coach Adam Howarth believes his team can play good enough to compete with any team they play, and many of the games they have lost they had led at some point in the game.

“We’ve been in every game this year,” Howarth said. “We know we can play with anybody.”

Against Memphis in the Vanderbilt Tournament, Eastern had two separate leads in the game only to lose in double overtime 3-2.

In a game last Wednesday against Western Illinois, Eastern led the game 1-0 at half-time. But Western came back and scored three straight unanswered goals in the second half as Eastern couldn’t get anything going to answer the offensive onslaught.

“It seems like every time we score we break down a little bit,” freshman forward Joel Del Toro said. “We know we are better than every team we have played.

“We know we should beat these teams.”

The Panthers knew they needed to get something out of playing three games in six days last week. Their win on Sunday may not have been as solid as they have wanted, but it was still what the team needed.

“Coach (Howarth) told us that we needed to win this game to boost our morale,” midfielder Jimmy Klatter said.

Klatter says the team unity is strong right now, and every player knows his role on the team.

“Every player is valuable and contributes to the team,” Klatter said. “On the field we keep each other positive; nobody takes criticism too harsh.”

While their record might not indicate how well they are playing, the Panthers are keeping themselves in every game; something the team hopes is a sign they will start to win more often.

Staying positive as a team will help themselves when they start conference play on Friday.

Looking forward to putting these games and the losses that occurred behind them, the Panthers feel they are going into conference play on a bit of a role despite only winning one game.

“If I had to pick games to lose I would rather them be the non-conference games,” Klatter said. “We know we haven’t been outplayed, we have just had some mental lapses that we are working on to get better.”

The tough non-conference schedule should benefit Eastern in the long run as the games don’t get any easier for them.

“Now that we start games in conference,” Del Toro said, “it’s like a whole new season. We need to get those games behind us and start fresh.”