After a hard-fought game, the Panthers beat the UIS Prairie Stars 3-1 Sunday afternoon at Lakeside Field. Here are some important numbers to remember from the intense game.
3: Three freshmen scored all three goals for the Panthers: forwards Alex Tetteh, Katiebeth May and Abby Reinl. These three make up half of the six freshmen with the Panthers this season.
“We got a great group of freshmen,” Panthers’ head coach Dirk Bennett said. “The team has absorbed them well, and because of that, they have confidence, and the confidence helps us when we’re down.”
1: Sunday’s game marks the first win of the regular season for the Panthers. This also marks the first win for the Panthers under Bennett, the new head coach.
Bennett has been an assistant coach for the Panthers since July 2019. Bennett is currently the seventh head coach in program history.
“Some days you have to learn to win ugly,” Bennett said. Bennett said that an aspect that helped the team was the passion that the team came in with. “Once that happened, the ball settled down. We did normal soccer things. We got out of our heads.”
0: Zero goals were scored by both teams in the second half of the game. Redshirt freshmen goalkeeper Ashlyn Hoover saved three shots late in the second half to help secure the win for the Panthers.
13: 13 shots were taken by Eastern throughout the game. Seven Panthers attempted shots throughout the game: midfielders Kylie Mahoney (1) and Kate Germano (1) and forwards Carys Grieve (2), Serra Pizano (2), Tetteh (2), Reinl (2) and May (3).
3:05: In three minutes and five seconds, the first goal of the game was scored by freshman forward Tetteh.
Panthers’ forward Zenaya Barnes passed the ball back to Tetteh. Tetteh dribbled the ball until she was close enough to kick a goal to help the Panthers have an early lead.
“We played down to our forward Z, and we played it back,” Tetteh said about what she called her “perfect shot.”
7:29: In the 36th minute, Reinl passed the ball up the field to May. May had a one-on-one situation with Prairie Star goalie Allison Mirimanian. May kicked the ball into the left side of the goal as the ball passed Mirimanian’s arms.
Seven minutes and twenty-nine seconds later, May found an open Reinl as the two were in a two-on-one situation with Mirimanian. This was Reinl’s second goal of the season.
2: This is the second time that the Panthers have competed against the Prairie Stars. In the last meeting the two teams had, the Panthers beat the Prairie Stars 3-0 on Aug. 22, 2021.
Currently, the Panthers are currently 1-1 for the regular season. Their next game will be against the Northern Illinois Huskies on Thursday, Aug. 24, and the game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex. Eastern is 1-6-1 against NIU. Their last meeting resulted in a 2-1 loss for the Panthers on Sep. 4, 2022.
Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].
