After splitting against silver division Northwestern last year, Eastern’s RSO hockey team were there to take care of business.

Eastern handily took care of game one, embarrassing Northwestern 15-3. In game two, it was more of a match, but Eastern still doubled Northwestern’s score, 8-4.

“We got to see what everyone has to offer at game time,” said Dave Fitz, team captain.

Cameron Estes, coach and president of the team has said the games served as a real confidence builder for his team who are entered in the gold division this year and beating silver teams such as Northwestern is key.

“[Last] Friday night’s game was a great confidence builder,” Estes said. “We jumped out to an early lead and got Northwestern down on themselves. Our guys played hard and that’s what you have to do to win.”

On Saturday, Northwestern was coming to regain last year’s split, and even got the lead early and held it for a while. It wasn’t until the second period that Eastern finally came through with some crucial goals. It was then that Estes said his team “never looked back.”

Eastern has a solid start with the two wins on the ice, but now has another silver division team, Purdue, to concentrate on for this weekend.

The boys beat Purdue twice last season, but Estes has said this team is a lot stronger since then.

“They are definitely looking to beat us as we are looking to beat them,” Estes said. “You have to take it one game at a time; if you try to look past anyone it will nip you in the rear every time. Purdue will be tough, but we have to play our game to have a chance.”

Following the team’s match-up with Purdue, they’ll head to Fairview Heights Arena to play silver division McKendree College. After that, the gold teams come into effect, so this Purdue weekend can prove very costly or very beneficial for EIU hockey.