At the full time whistle of EIU men’s soccer’s game against Liberty, many Eastern players collapsed to the ground out of both exhaustion and sadness.
A few Liberty players, including junior forward Leo Conneh, comforted senior midfielder Yuki Nakamura.
Nakamura was one of the many Panthers reduced to tears after the Panthers’ 1-0 loss Sunday afternoon in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference men’s soccer championships at Hunter Stadium in St. Charles, Missouri.
“I’m very sad for the seniors,” head coach Ruy Vaz said. “They left everything on the field, so obviously, a lot of emotions right now, but ultimately a well-deserved game for Liberty.”
Eastern (4-9-4, 3-4-3) conceded seven shots on target and only mustered one shot that required a save from the Liberty goalkeeper.
Flames senior forward Sam Farner scored the lone goal in the 19th minute for Liberty after running up to a ball that had been cleared following a corner kick and taking a low first-time right-footed shot that squirted through heavy traffic and into the bottom corner of the goal.
“That’s just a tough shot to be able to predict when you can’t see the ball,” redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Ortiz said.
Eastern had produced a few chances but was unable to turn them into on-target shots and find an equalizer.
“We tried to push forward as much as we could, but we were not able to capitalize in the final third,” Vaz said. “At this level, that’s what you have to do.”
In the 85th minute, Ortiz came charging off the goal line trying to sweep away a ball in behind the Panther defense. Farner was able to touch it away from him, and right as he was about to put it into an empty net, redshirt sophomore defender Patrick Osilaja tripped him up and conceded a penalty kick.
Junior midfielder Elijah John stepped up to take it for the Flames (9-4-6, 4-2-4), but Ortiz dove to his right and palmed the shot away for his second saved penalty kick in as many games.
Ortiz had saved a penalty kick leading up to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s equalizer last Sunday which was scored off the rebound.
“We’ve been practicing penalties this whole week, just getting familiar with those environments,” Ortiz said. “I feel like as my goalkeeper career has developed, I’ve done really well in penalty environments.”
Despite the temperature being only a couple degrees above freezing, and multiple players opting for another layer underneath, the on-field product wasn’t disrupted.
Vaz said the cold weather like Eastern played in today is ideal.
“Obviously, for those that are not playing it’s not very good,” Vaz said. “But, for those who are playing it’s good.”
The Panthers’ season is over after finding a way to get back into the OVC tournament after missing it last year. After Eastern brought in 25 new players and only won one of its first 10 games, the Panthers went on a five-game unbeaten run before losing their final two games of the season.
“I definitely think we’ve grown as a group so much since the start of August,” Ortiz said. “Just to see this team from different cultures and different playing environments come together and make a playoff push is very incredible.”
Eastern’s focus will shift to replacing the gaps left by outgoing seniors, including both captains.
Despite the eight-point improvement in the OVC standings from last season, Vaz isn’t satisfied with how year one of his tenure panned out.
“[The season was] very bad,” Vaz said. “We want Eastern Illinois to have a winning season. We want to be perceived as a winning team, so not a good season.”
Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
