The Eastern men’s soccer team will open its season against Bradley, which it has had a tough history against, losing eight of its last 12 match-ups.

Bradley and Eastern are in different situations this season. Bradley will be without its top two scorers from last year, including Bryan Gaul, who scored 11 goals.

Eastern has its top players back this season in sophomores Will Butler and Jake Brillhart.

Eastern lost in overtime last season to Bradley after both teams scored in the first period of the game to go into the half 1-1. After a stalemate second half, Bradley scored five minutes into overtime.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said the Panthers are familiar with Bradley, having been in the Missouri Valley Conference for the last 14 years; however, he said the team’s goal is to worry about itself, not the opponent.

“Our job is to worry about ourselves and play simple, safe soccer,” Howarth said.

Senior goalkeeper Evan Turner played in last year’s contest although he had a season-long position battle with Tyler Kelley. Turner made seven saves in the game.

Bradley’s top returning player is Jochen Graf, who finished last season with 11 points.

Also, Bradley returns its top goalkeeper who played 22 games last season and allowed only 0.94 goals per game.

In Turner’s eight games last season, he gave up 1.63 goals per game.

Bradley also returns players like Keegan Balle and Wojciech Wojcik, who were some of the team’s top performers.

Howarth said Bradley is a tough team to play in the season-opening game, but said the team is confident it can cause Bradley match-up problems in the game.

Bradley played one exhibition game this season, against Dayton, and lost 3-1.

Eastern will also play Lipscomb this weekend at 7 p.m. Sunday in Nashville, Tenn.

Lipscomb was 4-12-3 last season, including a loss to Eastern on Sept. 22.

Lipscomb, like Bradley, lost its two top scorers last season.

Last year, Eastern won, 2-1, against Lipscomb off of goals by Butler and Jonathan Hinds.

The only goal the Panthers gave up was an own goal.

Eastern’s game against Bradley is at 6 p.m. Friday in Peoria.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].