Omar scores, helps give men’s soccer team a draw against Oral Roberts

Dillan Schorfheide, Assistant Sports Editor

The Eastern men’s soccer team fired off a flurry of shots Saturday against Oral Roberts, but the Golden Eagles took the Panthers to a double-overtime 1-1 draw.

Eastern had its most efficient offensive match of the year, and the Panthers took the most shots Saturday than any other single match this season.

The Panthers attacked Oral Roberts’ goalkeeper with 19 shots in the match, which is 10 more shots than Oral Roberts’ total.

Out of the 19 shots, 14 of the Panthers’ shots were on goal, to give Eastern a 74 percent shot on goal percentage and their best shot on goal percentage in a match this season.

Oral Roberts also had an efficient shot on goal percentage, having five of its nine shots on goal (56 percent).

Despite being outshot, Oral Roberts struck first Saturday, and early on.

Tanguy Guerineau started the scoring in the match just six minutes after the opening whistle.

He gave Oral Roberts a 1-0 lead after scoring on a corner kick, when Max Roetcisoender kicked the corner to him and he scored inside the 18-yard box.

The Golden Eagles held their lead for almost the rest of the match, but Shady Omar changed that in the 76th minute for Eastern.

Alex Castaneda took the corner kick for Eastern, and his kick was received by Toby Andrews. Andrews then crossed the ball to the center of the box, were Omar received it and tied the match for Eastern.

Omar’s goal is his second of the season, making him the second-leading scorer for Eastern. The goal is also the team’s 10th of the season, which is tied for last year’s season total. The Panthers still have three regular season matches left to eclipse last season’s total.

With Saturday’s draw, Eastern remains in third place in the Summit League standings. Also, the draw helped Eastern to get one step closer to securing a postseason spot.

Denver leads the Summit League with 10 points, and Omaha is just ahead of Eastern (5 points) with six conference points.

With Western Illinois eliminated from any chance of making the postseason tournament, only Oral Roberts and Fort Wayne, the other two teams behind Eastern, have a chance to take Eastern’s spot.

Both teams have two conference matches left, so if Eastern loses out and if those two teams can win out, the Panthers will miss the postseason.

That makes the last two conference matches that much more important, and Eastern will have no cake-walk to secure a playoff spot. The Panthers still face Fort Wayne, who is barely behind them in third, and Omaha.

Dillan Schorfheide can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].