MACOMB, Ill. ? Dwain Barker and Nebojsa Opacic each scored second half goals to lift the Western Illinois men's soccer team over Centenary 2-0 at John MacKenzie Alumni Field, Saturday.

Barker (Barbados/Illinois Central College) found open space on the left side of the box off a pass from Opacic (Katy, Texas/Illinois Central College) and drilled home a shot in the 71st minute to give the Leathernecks (5-8-3, 1-2-1) a 1-0 lead. Nathan Sanchez (Moline, Ill./Moline) also picked up an assist on the play. The goal was the first on the season for Barker, and the assists were the first for Opacic and Sanchez.

“We could tell in the first half that it was going to happen,” stated Western Illinois head coach Dr. Eric Johnson of his teams scoring chances. “The chance was there and we were running for each other. We kept that going in the second half and were able to get the two goals.”

Four minutes later, the Leathernecks added another goal to take a 2-0 lead over the Gents (3-11-0, 2-3-0). Martin Browne, Jr. (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Osseo) got free with a ball wide on the right side from 40-yards out and sent a cross towards the box and found Opacic, who headed the pass in for the goal. It was the first career goal for Opacic, while the assist was the second on the year for Browne.

“That was the Nebojsa that I recruited,” added Johnson. “For whatever reason, he took ownership today. That's the best effort we've had out of him, as well as Nikola Katic and Dwain Barker. They have proven themselves now as guys that can help win games and my hat's off to them today for their effort.”

The first half saw the teams trade scoring opportunities. Sophomore keeper Stephen Paterson (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) made both of his saves for the game in the opening frame. Paterson was also able to knock several crosses out of the box, preventing Centenary from other scoring chances.

“We asked Paterson to control the balls in the air today because we thought that Centenary would try to drive balls into the box,” said Johnson of his keeper's effort. “Early on with the wind, he made some very difficult saves on crosses. He's good in the air and you can see the athlete that he is. He was a presence today and did exactly what we thought he could do.”

Going into the break, Western held an edge in shots, six to four, with half of those shots coming on goal. The Leathernecks continued to be the aggressors into the second half, holding an advantage of eight to three.

“There's a big sigh of relief to get a home win and a conference win,” added Johnson. “We got a tremendous effort from the group today and some guys stepped up big.”

Western has a short turnaround this week, as they travel to Evanston, Ill. to battle No. 9 Northwestern, Wednesday, October 31.

“We have proven that we can win away from home,” said Johnson. “Obviously Northwestern is a great challenge with them being ranked and it will be the same with IPFW because of it being a conference game on the road.”