MACOMB, Ill.  - Western Illinois goalkeeper Stephen Paterson (Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada/Sir Winston Churchill) made four saves in the match, but it was not enough as the University of Evansville slipped a goal past Paterson in the 65th minute to defeat Western, 1-0, in the first home match of the season at John MacKenzie Alumni Field on Oct. 3.

"For the first ten minutes of the match I thought we played a little sloppy because we nervous since it was our first home game," said Western head coach Dr. Eric Johnson. "We got control of the game after that and we were fine.  In terms of possession, passing and keeping the ball, we played as well as any game we have won this year."

In the first half, the Leathernecks (7-3-1) took four shots, but were unsuccessful in scoring a goal. Paterson was able to make two saves to keep the match tied, 0-0, going into halftime.

"We had some decent chances to score today," said Johnson. "They caught us on that great counter play, which was a result of our good play attempting to score, but we did not recover and they scored."

In the 65th minute of play, Evansville (7-3-0) forward Tyler Crawford passed the ball to teammate Mike Luttrull who slipped the ball past a Leatherneck defender to an open Tom Irvin who found the back of the net for the second time this season.

Both goalkeepers made two saves each in the first half and second half to record a total of four saves in the match. The Purple Aces outshot the Leathernecks 11-8 in the match and took five corner kicks to Western's three.

"I thought we played well today and had some momentum going forward, but you have to score goals and we didn't do that," said Johnson.

Up Next
Western will face the Panthers of Eastern Illinois in a mid-week match-up on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m.

Scouting the Panthers
The Panthers (5-3-1) are coming off a 1-0 loss to IUPUI on Oct. 1. Eastern is led by senior Brad Peters and sophomore Alex Harrison. Peters and Harrison have combined for 12 goals and eight assists on the season. The Panthers defense is allowing an average 1.30 goals per game.

Against Eastern
The record between Western and Eastern is 12-29-4, in favor of the Panthers. The last meeting between the two teams was on Sep. 25, 2007 when the Leathernecks defeated the Panthers, 3-0.