Soccer: Panthers win home opener
Dan Cusack/Assistant Sports Editor
Issue date: 9/2/08 Section: Sports
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The St. Charles, Mo., native stood on the far right sideline as he tried to cross the ball into the box to give teammate senior forward Brad Peters a chance to break a 1-1 tie.
However, after Lewis struck the ball towards the box, the ball hit the top crossbar, ricocheted to the far crossbar and found the back of the net for Lewis' first goal of the season.
Lewis turned to the fans at Lakeside Field with his hands facing outward at his hips, trying to figure out what had just happened.
"I was in shock," Lewis said. "I did not know what happened."
Five minutes later, Eastern senior forward Brad Peters stole a pass back to the Kangaroos' goalkeeper and added an insurance goal in the 80th minute to give Eastern (1-1-0) a 3-2 victory against UMKC (0-1-1).
Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said his team showed great effort in their first win of the season.
"One thing about these guys is I can never complain about their effort," Howarth said. "We still need to clean up our defending."
Eastern got on the scoreboard first in the 17th minute when junior midfielder Jim Adee took a pass from senior defender Adam Gartner and was able to beat Kangaroos' sophomore goalkeeper Ken Cooper to the near post. Gartner received a clear out pass from Peters and raced down the near sideline before delivering a pass to Adee, who had beaten his defender down the field.
"What happened was we got the ball in the counter," Adee said. "Gartner happened to get it and I made a quick run through. They pretty much left me unmarked. It was a pretty good ball by Gartner and an easy finish."
The goal was the first for career goal for Adee at Eastern.
UMKC tied the game just after halftime in the 46th minute when senior forward Brian Harris delivered a strike from 15 feet, beating Eastern senior goalkeeper Mark Hansen to the far post.
The Kangaroos added one more goal in the 90th, when the outcome was almost certain, as junior midfielder Bryan Perez dribbled through the entire Eastern defense and scored point blank to the near post.
"Playing a second game on a weekend against a team like Eastern Illinois is always tough," UMKC assistant coach Fred Schlichting said. "I think we gave a good effort, but we came out on the short end."
Schlichting said he thought the difference in the game was Lewis' goal.
On Friday, the Panthers allowed Valparaiso to score two second half goals en route to the Panthers' 2-1 loss in their season opener. Gartner scored the Panthers' lone goal in the third minute. Gartner was able to punch in a goal after a scramble on a Harrison corner kick.
Adee said the Panthers' performance Sunday was much better than the season opening loss.
"It was a more complete effort," Adee said. "Today we played a full 90 minutes. (Against Valparaiso) we played well here and there, but today was a more complete effort.
Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu .
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