MACOMB, Ill.  - Freshman Arthur Paszkowski (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Lord Beavercreek) scored his third goal of the season in the 70th minute as Western Illinois tied Eastern Illinois in one overtime, 2-2, on Oct. 8 at John MacKenzie Alumni Field.

"We gave up two (goals), we found two (goals) and came back twice from being down," said Western Illinois head coach Dr. Eric Johnson. "That shows the character of our team and I am happy about that today."

The Panthers (5-4-2) scored in the sixth minute of the match when sophomore Darby Kehoe found teammate Brad Peters from 10 yards on the right to make the score, 1-0, in favor of Eastern.

Only ten minutes later, Western's Cosimo Patano (Franklin Park, Ill./East Leyden) found the back of the net for the second time this season when he kicked the ball from just inside the top of the goalkeeper's box on an assist from teammate Nikola Katic (Mikarska, Croatia/Illinois Central College).

Before the half, Eastern would score another goal as Peters scored his second goal of the game when he kicked the ball over the head Western goalkeeper Stephen Paterson (Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada/Sir Winston Churchill) on the left side of the field from 15 yards away.

Western would make a goalkeeper change to start the second half, putting redshirt-freshman Andrew Ryan (Rolling Meadows, Ill./Rolling Meadows) in the net, who eventually made two saves in the second half.

"Andy is a good goalkeeper," said Johnson. "Randy (Moate) and I told him we were going to give him a chance, he deserved a shot to play tonight and he performed well. It's good for us to have two great goalkeepers, and we are thankful for it."

The Leathernecks (7-3-2) would tie the match in the 70th minute when Paszkowski scored from 10 yards away on the right side of the field off a pass from teammate James Raabe (Jacksonville, Ill./Jacksonville) who stole the ball from the Panther defender to record his first career assist.

"I think offensively we ran without the ball more tonight making us more dangerous," said Johnson. "That is something we worked on all week. We changed our formation late in the game when (Luke) Greenwell came out, and that might have helped us out with five midfielders on the field instead of three."

The end of regulation ended with a score of 2-2 as the match headed to overtime. At the conclusion of the first overtime, the referees and coaches both agreed to not play the second overtime since it was too dark outside to continue playing.

"The keys for them (UMKC) are (Brian) Harris and (Bryan) Perez, who are hard nosed, active and skillful guys," said Johnson about playing the Summit League's highest scoring team. "We have a plan on stopping both of those guys. If the plan works and we make plays, we will be okay. It's a great match up and we can't wait to play them on Saturday."

Up Next
The Leathernecks will host their first home conference match when the Kangaroos of UMKC visit John MacKenzie Alumni Field on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 1 p.m. This match up will showcase The Summit League's No. 1 scoring offense in UMKC, who averages 2.40 goals per game (fifth in the nation), and the league's No. 1 defense in Western, who only allows 0.64 goals per game (19th in the nation).

Scouting the Kangaroos
The Kangaroos (5-3-2) are led offensively by junior Bryan Perez and senior Brian Harris, who both have scored seven goals on the season to rank first and second in the league in goals per game. In the net for UMKC is sophomore Ken Cooper, who is allowing 1.44 goals per game.

The Series
In the overall series, Western holds the record over UMKC with a mark of 12-10-2. The last meeting between these two teams came on Oct. 13, 2007 when the match ended in a 0-0 tie after playing two overtime's at Bourke Field.