Issue date: 8/28/09 Section: Sports

Junior defender Matt Crowley goes to pass the ball during Eastern's match against Butler Tuesday night at Lakeside Field. (Audrey Sawyer/The Daily Eastern News)

The Eastern men's soccer team came into the season with lots of uncertainty with 10 new players joining the roster, but performed well winning both exhibition matches.

Eastern beat St. Xavier (Chicago) 3-2 in Effingham on Aug. 18 and defeated Butler 1-0 Tuesday at Lakeside Field.

Two freshmen contributed to the action as midfielder Kendal Spurgin scored the eventual game-winning goal against the Cougars, while midfielder Jerry Maddi scored the lone goal against Butler.

Spurgin notched his first assist in a Panther uniform, setting up Maddi with a cross from the far right corner.

Match, overtime and shootout?
In the exhibition match against Butler, Eastern led 1-0 after two halves of play, but the two teams proceeded to play a 10-minute overtime period and a shootout.

Eastern head coach Adam Howarth said he and Butler head coach Kelly Findley talked about playing the extra time and shootout before the match regardless of the score.

Findley wanted to do a 20-minute overtime period, but Howarth talked him down to 10 minutes.

"It was a fitness thing," Howarth said. "The biggest thing is you have to be fit, and it is not uncommon to do in college soccer during the preseason."

Around the league
The rest of the Missouri Valley Conference is in full swing in its exhibition season with three teams coming into today having played two matches.

Bradley split its exhibition season, beating Western Illinois 1-0 and falling 1-0 to Louisville -No. 25 in the nation according to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Creighton also split its preseason schedule, but it had some lofty competition.

The Bluejays defeated the Red Fury Latin All-Stars 7-0 Aug. 22, at home, and played an impressive match against Major League Soccer's Kansas City Wizards, losing 4-2 at Swope Park on Aug. 24.

Creighton took the lead midway through the first half with the first of sophomore midfielder Ethan Findley's two goals.

The Wizards responded with two goals to take a 2-1 halftime lead.

Findley scored again early in the second, but Kansas City scored two straight goals to win.

"We wanted to have a preseason with a match where we'd have a lot of possession and a match where we'd be under attack," said head coach Bob Warming following the exhibition with the MLS team in a press release on Creighton's athletic Web site. "I think we got out of today what we needed to get out of it."

Missouri State beat Missouri University S&T 1-0 Aug. 18 at home, but could not take down No. 21 St. Louis at the STL Aug. 22.

The Bilikens scored in the 8th and 73rd minutes as Missouri State could only generate 11 shots.

Drake had not finished its exhibition season as of Thursday afternoon with a Thursday night match in Fort Wayne, Ind. Evansville is competing against No. 20 Michigan State in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.

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