It took two overtimes, but Southern Illinois-Edwardsville was able to go on the road and defeat Eastern 4-3.

Eastern falls to 3-12-1 on the year, while Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is improves to 5-7-4 this season.

In the waterlogged game, Eastern was able to jump out to an early lead when senior captain Jake Brillhart netted his fifth goal of the season in the 15^th minute. Senior Will Butler and freshman Dominic Recca were credited with assists on the goal.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville answered in the 22^nd with Brett Lane’s first goal of the game. Christian Volesky sent Lane the pass that he was able to header in and was given the assist. Justin Oliver for Eastern gave them the lead going into halftime when he scored in the 39^th minute. He was sent a breakaway pass from Brillhart who was given the assist.

Lane scored his second goal for Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in the 58^th minute when he was able to header in a goal off a corner kick from Justin Bilyeu. Southern Illinos-Edwardsville scored again 10 minutes later in the 68^th minute with a goal from Travis Hoguet who flicked it over the goalkeeper with an assist from Drew Merideth.

Trailing by one with just six minutes remaining, Victor Kroggman was able to find the equalizer for Eastern. His goal was a one-touch kick past the keeper and Butler and Zach Medawattage assisted it. This was Krogmann’s second goal of the season.

Eastern head coach Mark Hansen said that Eastern was very resilient in going up twice and then trailing and able to still tie it up in the final minutes of the game.

The game winner for Southern Illinois-Edwardsville came in the second half of overtime from Sean Baumann. His goal came from a deflection off the goalie that he sent back in for the win. The first shot and the assist came from Paul Scheipeter.

Hansen liked his team’s resiliency against a good Southern Illinois-Edwardsville team.

“The overall record doesn’t show how good of a side they are,” he said. “For us to put three on them is something for us to hang our hats on.”

Brillhart now has team high five goals and four assist for Eastern. Recca improved his assist total to three assist, which is tied for second best on the team. Butler with his two assists today, now also has three assists this season. Medawattage record his first point of the year with an assist today.

Freshman goalkeeper Mike Novotny started for Eastern and made six saves and gave up four goals. Four goals given up is a career high for Novotny. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville outshot Eastern 12-6 in the game. Kent Kobrus was in net for Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and he faced six shots, giving up three goals and making three saves.

This was the last home game for seniors Jake Brillhart, Spencer Filosa, Will Butler, Chris Boswell, and Colin Rook who did not play this season. Eastern plays their season finale on the road against Oral Roberts on Saturday night with conference tournament hopes on the line.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].