The Panthers game against the Wright State Raiders was a tale of two halves.

In the first half Eastern took seven total shots, five on goal, compared to five, one on goal, for Wright State. In the second half the roles were reversed. Eastern had two total shots, both on goal, compared to Wright State’s 11, five on goal.

Eastern also lost the possession battle, having just 39 percent compared to Wright State’s 61 percent.

“I told the guys at halftime we’re not going to sit back; we’re not going to do what other teams do because you really don’t look to win the game 1-0,” Head Coach Josh Oakley said. “You can, but I felt like we needed to get another goal and I was right. A couple of the moves we had were okay, but they’re just not crisp enough and sharp enough going forward.”

Eastern scored their only goal going into the 30^th minute on a shot from outside the box by senior forward Sam Eccles. Eccles took a pass from sophomore forward Casey Welage, then dribbled forward to the right and hit a shot that made it past the goalkeeper.

“I just opened up because I knew [Welage] was coming across the field,” Eccles said. “He played me a perfect ball and I just thought why not, you may as well. It just sat nicely, and I had a go.”

Eccles had a great chance earlier in the game around the 15^th minute where he had a one-on-one with the keeper but couldn’t convert. Eccles also had the most shots on the team with four and all of them were on goal.

Wright State scored their goal in the 57^th minute when redshirt senior midfielder Jacob Adams took a pass on his right from freshman forward Felix Ezekwuka. He then turned to his left and was able to get the ball past the goalkeeper.

Junior goalkeeper Whelan Joseph got his first Division One start today. He made several great saves including one where he had to come out of the box in a one-one. He was able to stop a potential score by tackling the attacker and sending the ball out of bounds.

“I just treat it like every other game,” Joseph said. “Go into it knowing that I don’t want any balls going in the back of my net. Treated it like that and just put the effort in on the field.”

Even though the Panther’s defense allowed 16 total shots in this game, only six of them were shots on goal.

“I’m proud of my defense today,” Joseph said. “They did very well compared to last game, shape was perfect, we talked a lot, and it was good.”

The Panther’s next game will be against the Western Illinois University Leathernecks on Saturday in Macomb, Illinois at 1 p.m.

Luther Yoder can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].