Eastern’s men’s soccer team will play its most important game of the season Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lakeside Field.

The Panthers must win this game to be in contention for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

They also need Evansville to lose to Central Arkansas.

Eastern has not played well recently, going 0-4-1 in their last five games. Its most recent lost came against Valparaiso 2-0.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said the team did not play as well as he thought they would.

“It was a poor performance,” Howarth said. “At times we did OK. The two goals were weak goals, we know we have to play a heck of a lot better on Saturday.”

Howarth said he told the team that they need to get back to the basics if they are going to have a chance against Drake.

“We need to focus on the little things, we have gotten away from the last couple of games and it cost us,” Howarth said.

The last time the Panthers beat Drake was in 2007.

They beat the Bulldogs 1-0 in the first round of the MVC tournament. Since 2007 the Panthers are 0-3 against Drake scoring just two goals, while giving up 10 goals.

Drake has a record of 7-7-2 on the year and 3-2-1 in the MVC. Eastern is 4-11-1 overall and 1-4-1 in the MVC.

Junior forward Ryan Child has led the Panthers this season with eight points.

Howarth said he is expecting big performances out of the team’s best players, especially the seniors as this could possibly be their last game.

“The seniors have to step up and juniors that need to step up are Graham Lynch and Mike Picinich, these are the guys that have to do the job for us,” Howarth said.

Junior defenseman Graham Lynch said earlier this season the Panthers play well when both sides of the ball are playing well.

The Panther have not scored a goal in three games, which has resulted in three straight losses.

The biggest loss was against Evansville.

If Eastern won that game it would have secured a spot in the MVC tournament.

However, the Panthers did not win and now find themselves in desperation mode.

No longer is their fate in their own hands.

They need to beat Drake and Central Arkansas to beat Evansville.

Howarth said the team’s focus in practice has been finding a spark offensively and working on fundamentals.

“We are focusing on getting the little things right,” Howarth said. “We need to make sure we come out with energy. We will have to show our character.”

Rob Mortell can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected]