After five straight one-goal games, games in which Eastern (4-8, 0-3) won two of the five games, Creighton (9-2, 3-1) came into Charleston and ended the trend and expanded the margin of victory in the game.

The Panthers could not get their offense off the ground against the third ranked team in the heralded Missouri Valley Conference.

When Creighton kept the majority of their starters on the field, which was mainly in the first half, the Blue Jays were able to control the tempo and score both of their goals.

It wasn’t really until the second half that Eastern started to have some substantial opportunities to score, but the team could not convert.

“You can tell from the shots, since both teams had 12, that we were never out of the game,” Eastern coach Adam Howarth said. “But we came out flat in the first half and they controlled the game pretty well.”

Creighton scored both of their goals in the first half, when they were able to take advantage of the opportunities that were thrown their way.

For the Blue Jays, junior forward Brian Biggerstaff was an instrumental part on both plays when goals were tallied.

In the first goal of the game, Biggerstaff never gave up on a play that had come under an Eastern defender’s control. He was able to strip the defender of the ball and set up fellow Blue Jay Jarod Tarver for the goal.

On the goal, Tarver was able to elude one defender to his left and then got the shot off with the left foot, putting it in the far corner of the net and past Eastern goal keeper Mike Sims.

The second goal, Biggerstaff took credit for himself when he made a run down the right side of the field and was able to put a shot off the far post. Sims dove for the ball, but couldn’t deflect it, and Eastern defenders were left to watch as the ball trickled off the far post and into the back of the net.

“When we came into the season, we thought that Brian (Biggerstaff) could have been the best player on the team,” Creighton head coach Bob Warming said. “He came out this year a little slow, mostly because he was putting too much pressure on himself.

“But I think we are all seeing what he can do, and he’s performing the way he’s capable now.”

Strengthened by this victory, Creighton is putting their first and only conference loss behind them. The loss came to Southern Methodist a week ago, in which the Blue Jays were shut out 1-0.

Creighton, at one point this year, was ranked as high as number four in the nation. But Warming feels content with this year’s Blue Jay squad, which is younger than some teams in the past, will still make a major impact in the MVC this year.

“We have a very young team this year,” Warming said. “Primarily we are a freshmen and sophomore team this year.

“But still we are a fast team that is learning about ourselves and we are doing a better job of being consistent in both halves.”

The Panthers have now lost their first three MVC match-ups this season extending their winless streak within the conference to 12 matches.

“We know we are getting better and improving, but certainly getting shut out here today was frustrating for the team,” Howarth said. “We know that it is going to take some time but we only have two starters not coming back next year, so this is a team looking to improve.”

The Panthers lost 2-1 to Drake on Friday as well.

The lone goal scored by the Panthers came from freshman forward Joel Del Toro. It was his fourth goal of the year.