The Eastern hockey club fell 10-2 on Saturday to the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign Division I team at the Illinois Ice Arena in Champaign.

It was the first meeting between the two teams since December of 1975, when the Illini beat Eastern 10-0.

Senior forward John Scully had three goals for the Illini, with his first coming in the first five minutes of the game. Scully’s wrist shot found the back of the net behind Eastern’s senior goalie Andrew Teske.

Freshman defenseman Robert Kokoszka and senior forward Eddie Quagliata picked up assists on the goal.

A little more than a minute later, junior forward Jacob Matysiak scored on an assist from junior forward Mario Pacheco and freshman defenseman Cody von Rueden.

The Illini found the back of the net three more times in the first period within two minutes. Quagliata scored on an assist from Yoshi Shibata, followed by Scully’s second goal of the game, and then a goal from freshman forward Jonathan Gauger. Leading 5-0 at the end of the first period, the Illini were in control of the game, holding the shots advantage 20-6.

Scully added his third of the game 96 seconds into the second period, giving him the hat trick. Scully, a native of Arlington Heights, has a career high 10 goals so far this season in his fourth year with the Illini.

Also in the second, sophomore forward Josh Baker and freshman forward Zach Morrison added goals to increase the lead. Quagliata added his second goal of the game, pushing the score to 9-0 entering the third. The Panthers trailed again in shots, with the Illini having a 20-3 advantage in the second period.

Senior forward Matt Welch scored the Illini’s 10th goal of the game, coming at about 14 minutes into the third period.

The Panthers were finally able to find their way onto the scoreboard, when freshman Steve Kinnison scored on Illini goalie Zev Grument-Morris. Freshman Andy Insalaco and senior Chris Gallagher were credited with assists for Eastern.

Then with 35 seconds left, Eastern’s Glenn Oskvarek scored to give the Panthers their second goal of the game, but it was too little too late, as the club dropped its sixth straight game. Seniors Joe Salazar and Tim Shannon were in on the assists.

Gallagher said the team knew what to expect going in.

“Well, going into the game, we definitely knew it was going to be a challenge,” he said. “We got to score on a DI team twice in the last two minutes of the game. The one thing we never do in a game is give up, no matter who it is. It just showed real character from our team to even play in that game.”

The Panthers were one of two last minute replacement games for the Illini, who were originally scheduled to take on DePaul. After DePaul dropped out, Eastern and the Chicago Jr. Bulldogs were added to the schedule.

The Illini beat the Chicago Jr. Bulldogs of the North American Tier III Hockey League by a score of 6-1 on Friday. Despite the loss, Gallagher said the team enjoyed the experience, especially being able to play in front of a large crowd.

“It was definitely a lot of fun playing in front of a big crowd like that,” he said. “That may of been the last time we will ever play in front of a crowd like that, especially for us seniors graduating. When the crowd is against you, you just have to feed off that in a positive way, which I think we did a good job doing that.”

The 10 goals in the win for Illinois were the team’s most since the Dec. 14 17-3 win over Northern Illinois.

Eastern will take on the Illinois Division II team on Tuesday Feb. 4 at the David S. Palmer Arena in Danville. The Panthers had previously lost 11-6 in their first meeting with the Illini’s Division II team on Sept. 20.

The Panthers will hit the road next weekend, heading south to Springdale, Ark., to take on the University of Arkansas. Gallagher said that facing Illinois would be good practice for Arkansas, which has won some tough games this season as well, including an overtime win over Division I Central Oklahoma.

“Well, Arkansas has beat a couple DI teams as well, so this game just showed us how the rest of our season will be like,” Gallagher said. “We have to just shoot the puck more and not allow as many shots on goal. Our defense was not that bad in that game, even with the end result, but we have to fix a couple things at practice and just go out there and play hard like we always do.”

The Panthers take on Arkansas Jan 24 and 25 at the Jones Center in Springdale, Ark.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].