In a span of just two minutes, the Eastern men’s soccer team lost both its starting goalkeeper and one of its starting defenders to unrelated ejection incidents and suddenly, the team was forced to play with just nine players on the field.

Goalkeeper Mike Novotny was ejected in the 51st minute of the game for getting a penalty in the box. Defender Erik Isaksson was ejected after a scuffle broke out between Belmont and Eastern and the ref witnessed Isaksson allegedly throw a punch.

Belmont scored its first goal of the game on the penalty kick that came as a result of the Novotny ejection. Itzik Bel Efraim scored the goal for Belmont.

With Novotny ejected and backup goalkeeper Jonathan Burke out with a broken arm, senior defender Ben Stone had to step in at goal and it was up to him and a short-staffed Eastern team to hold their own against Belmont down 1-0 in the second half.

Eastern head coach Kiki Lara looked to the leaders on the team to get the team through the commotion.

“Leadership has been there before, they know how to handle themselves and they did a really good job of keeping themselves composed in what we feel is a difficult situation and a tough situation,” Lara said.

Being outmatched 11 players to nine did not hamper the Panthers as much as their opponent probably hoped it would has the Panthers tied the game in the 61^st minute thanks to a goal by Federico Verlicchi, assisted by Kris Luke.

Despite being outnumbered, the Eastern defense held Belmont to less shots in the second half (three) than they did in the first half (five). Overall in the game Belmont outshot Eastern 10 to six as the Panthers were able to get off just one shot while playing with nine players.

“The coaching approach (with nine players) is the same. Stay steady, stay calm and keep rotating the ball,” Lara said. “The last three games we have played super well and we have gotten one great result out of it in conference and two losses, we played excellent against Bradley and we played excellent today and we were put in a difficult situation.”

Lara took notice of the effort his players out in while outnumbered, leaving a sour taste in his mouth when his team fell just short in overtime.

“Yeah, I am very pissed for them,” Lara said. “ They played very hard and they deserved more than a loss.”

Belmont ended the game in overtime when Nick Kramer scored assisted by Matt Vuylsteke five minutes into the extra period.

Lara credited Belmont’s winning goal to a mix of execution by Belmont and fatigue from his own players.

“Just tired legs and not doing a good job of getting it wide and coming underneath it,” Lara said. “Just some missed marks in the box and some tired legs and some guys that put in a very good shift and ultimately they were good too.”

JJ Bullock can be reached at

581-2821 or [email protected]