CHARLESTON, Ill. - Preston Bernardi scored twice in the first half to lift Western Illinois to a 3-0 victory at Eastern Illinois.

In a rain soaked contest, Bernardi (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) broke 40 minutes of scoreless soccer when he connected for a goal on a pass from Cosimo Patano (Franklyn Park, Ill./East Leyden). The assist was the first of Patano's career.

Three minutes later, Chris Russo (Batavia,Ill./Batavia) registered his first career assist, when he found Bernardi to give the Leathernecks (4-4-1) a 2-0 lead over the Panthers (6-2-1) into the break. The shot came off the right flank and rose into the top right corner of the net. It was the third goal of the season for Bernardi.

Western came out aggressive in the second half. Martin Browne, Jr. (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Osseo), Nathan Sanchez (Moline, Ill./Moline) and Bernardi all registered shots on goal in the first seven minutes of the period.

Eastern had a scoring opportunity in the 60th minute when Brad Earl received a penalty kick off a yellow card on Bernardi. Earl's shot sailed wide ending the best scoring threat of the contest for Eastern.

Browne put the game away in the 67th minute when he scored his third goal of the season off a rebound from an attempt by Jona Andrade (Miami, Fla./Sunset Senior).

"Our mentality the whole game was that we are going to play as hard as we can and worry about what the score is at the end," said men's soccer head coach Dr. Eric Johnson. "The guys knew the key today was that we had to play hard enough to shut them out because we haven't been a scoring machine. The hard defense led to some good chances. The commitment was there today and our effort was rewarded with a few good goals."

Charlie Sales (Farmersville, Ill./Lehigh) logged the first 45 minutes in net for Western. In the second half, Stephen Paterson (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) came on recording two saves to preserve the team shutout and end the Leathernecks four-game losing streak.

"We had a good effort by our guys defending," added Johnson of the shutout effort. "We had some good tight marking that helped to keep some of their players from getting into their game. Paterson and Sales did a nice job splitting the time tonight.

As a team, Western placed 10 of 14 shots on goal, while Eastern only managed the two attempts in the second half. The teams combined for seven yellow cards to go along with 35 total fouls for the game.

"We needed that result today. I think it gave us a little confidence back and more importantly gave us an idea of what we need to do in order to win games."

Western returns to Macomb to open up Summit League play with Oakland Saturday, 3 p.m.