Eastern men’s soccer conceded four goals in 20 minutes, losing 4-1 to the Incarnate Word Cardinals Thursday at Lakeside Field.
The game was scoreless for about an hour. Incarnate Word (4-5-1, 2-2) had created a few chances but was unable to beat Eastern’s (1-8-1, 0-4) defense and redshirt senior goalkeeper Kyce Toutanji.
“I think the performance was good [for] the first 60 minutes,” Eastern head coach Josh Oakley said. “The guys came to play.”
The scoreless deadlock was broken in the 60th minute, when Cardinal grad forward Fransisco Segura accelerated past redshirt freshman defender Patrick Osilaja, who went sliding in to take the ball off Segura’s feet. Segura raced down the out of bounds line and passed the ball across the goal, picking out freshman defender William Fagerberg.
Four minutes later, Incarnate Word doubled its lead with a high-speed shot from junior midfielder Timothy Ospina that was placed perfectly into the side of the goal and out of reach of Toutanji.
“One became two real quick,” Oakley said. “Right after we conceded they came down the same side and made another goal happen.”
Sophomore defender Kyle Ward scored his first collegiate goal to cut the deficit to 3-1 in the 78th minute. Ward, who usually stays back when Eastern has a corner kick, dashed into the penalty area at the last second right before the corner was delivered, and headed the ball into the net.
“I’ve never been in on corners [during] my two years here,” Ward said. “The other day at practice we trained, and I was in, and I scored two goals, so coach put me in there.”
Ward had a good performance throughout the game. Incarnate Word relies on runs behind the defense from its wingers, and nearly every time the Cardinals tested him and tried to move the ball on his side of the field at right back, Ward would find a way to take the ball away or at least disrupt the attack.
“Kyle is a fantastic player,” Oakley said. “He’s always on the toughest winger, he was great in all facets from the start of the game.”
Oakley’s message to the team ahead of the game was to survive. Eastern continues to have issues with injuries, particularly to its defenders. Three Eastern players, according to Oakley, have suffered season ending injuries. Osilaja was dealing with a nagging groin injury that he was able to play through.
The Panthers have conceded 13 goals in three games, dating back to their 3-0 loss to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville last Thursday and a 6-0 loss to Lindenwood on Sunday.
“[Before the game} we talked about fear and we talked about surviving,” Oakley said. “You look at our bench, you look at their bench, it’s a little bit deeper. You look at the talent level of true talent, we’re going to come up short all the time just because we don’t have the resources of other schools. However, I do think we did a really good job of digging our heels in and surviving.”
It was a special day for Incarnate Word head coach Kiki Lara, who used to coach both men’s and women’s soccer at Eastern. Lara was coaching in Charleston for the first time since leaving in 2019. He said consistency was how the Cardinals were able to break through in the second half.
“I just think we have to stay steady,” Lara said. “[Eastern] had a good performance. I thought they played very strong in the first half defensively and caused some problems on the counterattack.”
Eastern remains at home to face Houston Christian University on Sunday at Lakeside Field. That game is scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at ghnewman@eiu.edu.