After beginning their season with three straight draws, the Eastern men’s soccer team secured their first win of the year Sunday on the road 1-0 against University of Illinois- Chicago.

In the 18th minute of Sunday’s contest, sophomore Frederico Verlicchi scored from within 10 yards to give Eastern its first and only goal of the game. After the goal by Verlicchi, the Eastern defense took over and held UIC to zero goals for their second shutout of the season.

UIC had 17 shots in the game (seven on goal), but like all of Eastern’s other games, very few of the shots were met without strong contention from the Panther defense.

Eastern sophomore goalkeeper Mike Novotny left his mark on the game once again as he tallied seven saves in the game including two saves in the final two minutes of play that kept UIC at bay.

On offense, Eastern put just one shot on goal (five total), but it was the only shot that mattered as it gave Eastern its lead.

On Friday, Eastern had its third draw in three games at home against Western Michigan in a 0-0 result.

A team that received five preseason top 25 votes, Western Michigan is no easy task to face, as the Broncos beat the Panthers 3-2 last season. That is exactly why Eastern head coach Kiki Lara was not disappointed in the outcome of the game.

“We have been working on this for two and a half years,” Lara said. “It feels great. It was a great result against a very good team, one of the best teams in the country and one of the best offenses in the country and we shut them out.”

Western Michigan was able to fire 28 shots (17 on goal), however, a small number of the shots actually had a chance at turning into a goal thanks to tight defense by Eastern all game.

“We are a defensive team. We are just very good at defending and manipulating the game defensively and we give a lot of credit and take a lot of pride in defending well,” Lara said.

After the Western Michigan draw, Lara was confident his team would break the mold and finally get a win, which they did on Sunday.

“(We have to) just keep hitting on the rocks, just keep working on the offensive side of things and the offense side of the half and just keep plugging away and we have to get ready for conference,” Lara said.

Eastern will play tomorrow at home against Northern Kentucky. Northern is currently 2-1, beating Oakland City and Fort Wayne and losing to UC-Irvine. The game will begin at 1 p.m. at Lakeside Field.

JJ Bullock can be reached at  581-2812 or [email protected]