Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Sports

Red-shirt freshman defender Austin Andrekus and senior defender Nick Bonacker collide with Drake junior forward Evan Harrison Wednesday afternoon at Lakeside Field. Drake went on to win the match 4-1. Eastern's season finale is Saturday against Missouri State at Lakeside Field.(Amir Prellberg/The Daily Eastern News)

Mistakes were again the downfall for the Eastern men's soccer team Wednesday against Drake. The Panthers surrendered one first-half goal, and three in the second as Eastern (6-7-3, 2-5-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference) lost to Drake 4-1 (10-6-1, 5-3-0 MVC)

The loss guaranteed a below-.500 finish for the Panthers this season.

"The game boiled down to mistakes in the goalkeeping," Howarth said. "I thought we played well in spells and had plenty of chances because we were able to get behind them, but mistakes killed us."

In the 44th minute, right before halftime, sophomore forward Hunter Kennedy opened the scoring for Drake as he took advantage of a turnover. Eastern junior goalkeeper Sean Molony tripped on a kick and Kennedy got the ball and touched it in to put the Bulldogs up 1-0.

The Bulldogs made the score 2-0 in the 53rd minute when senior forward Garrett Webb shot the ball across the box. Webb was on the right side of the goal and as Molony came out, he was able to find the back of the net to the left post.

Three minutes later, Webb scored his second goal of the match when Molony fell down and Webb took the ball in for the score tapping it into the left post.

Eastern finally got on the scoreboard in the 68th minute when Jerry Maddi scored his second goal of the season. 

"We were down and I knew we needed some momentum," Maddi said. "We were able to slip it out to the top of the box where I was standing and I put it to the left side."

Senior midfielder Evan Philpott and freshman forward Ian McCausland assisted the goal.

The Bulldogs capped off scoring in the 85th minute when red-shirt sophomore Charles Schwartz was able to beat freshman goalkeeper Shailer Thomas.

Thomas was out of position as the ball bounced around the box. Schwartz was able to get a clean look and blast it in at the right post.

Molony played for 54:27 minutes and stopped five shots with three goals allowed. Thomas made two saves with one goal allowed in 35:33 minutes of work.

Drake red-shirt junior goalkeeper Michael Drozd finished with six saves with one goal allowed. Maddi said silly mistakes have killed the team all season long.

"We have some time and we can look at some film and work on things in practice for our next game," Maddi said. "Saturday is the last game of the season and that is what we will remember for the entire offseason. We have some recruits coming to the next game and we want them to remember a win."

Eastern's final match of the season will be at 2 p.m. Saturday against Missouri State. The Bears clinched the regular season Missouri Valley Conference title Wednesday with a 1-0 win against Evansville.

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

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