🆚 Eastern Illinois University
📆 Sunday, October 18, 2026
⏰ 2 pm CT
🏟️ Lakeside Field – Charleston, Illinois
📺
WATCH
📈 LIVE STATS
🗒️GAME NOTES
Houston Christian University hits the back leg of its trip to the Land of Lincoln when it faces Eastern Illinois University in a Sunday matinee. The second stop on a four-match stretch away from home for the Huskies is scheduled for 2 pm at Lakeside Field.
HCU, is led by Head Coach
Ryan Pratt, now in his 10th season at the helm. The Huskies are now 4-5-4 overall and 2-1-2 in conference play after racing past Western Illinois University in a misty matinee in Macomb on Thursday to earn a big three points on the road.
After a scoreless first half, the Huskies came out aggressively to start the second frame, peppering the posts with four shots in the first seven minutes. The final of those shots came after a fine centering pass from
Andrew Dillett found
Marcos Moore racing to the box, with his neat toe poke slipping past the keeper to break the ice and give HCU a one-nil advantage with just over 52 minutes gone.
The Huskies doubled their lead on an own goal in the 86th minute. Heeps played a long goal kick down the field where it found
Clarenns Sainrimat racing down the channel. Sainrimat's shot would bounce off the post but then was clipped home by a defender to put HCU up 2-0.
An extra bit of insurance was added just three moments later. Again it was Heeps with a long punt downfield where
Ryan Okerayi won possession and outdueled the defense towards the box. He laid off a nice feed to Aiden Lopez, who slotted home the third goal of the afternoon for the Huskies that finished things off.
Marcos Moore corralled his third goal of the season to tie
Ryan Okerayi for the team lead.
Aidan Lopez put home his second goal of the campaign and led HCU with four shots, two on goal coming off the pine. Okerayi registered his team-best fifth assist of the season with Dillett getting his second in his last three outings.
Harvey Heeps made four saves in claiming his third clean sheet of the season.
This Huskies, coming off a back-to-back runner-up finishes in the league, currently sit in fourth place in the league with eight points with one game in hand yet to be completed. Defending champion Lindenwood currently resides atop the table with 12 points with SIUE and UIW sitting tied for second at 10 points.
Through 13 matches,
Ryan Okerayi leads the club with three goals and five assists. He is tied for first in the conference in assists and fifth in total points. Okerayi's goal against UIW on September 26 was the 24th of his career and he ranks seventh all-time. His assist versus WIU moved him into a tie for sixth place all-time in that category and he also ranks seventh in all-time points.
Marcos Moore tied Okerayi for the team lead in goals with his score at Western.
Callum Niven and
Aidan Lopez each have a pair of goals while
Clarenns Sainrimat,
Leo Makatta and
Nico Kross chip in a goal apiece.
Senior defender
Hans Leza, a mainstay on the backline for HCU for four seasons, has passed the 5,000 minutes-played mark for his career. He now ranks fourth all-time at HCU in minutes played with 5,340 which is just 139 short of third place. He has now appeared in 64 matches for the Huskies with 62 starts, with his next start placing him in the 10 all-time in each category.
Harvey Heeps has been solid in his debut season in the pipes after taking over from OVC Goalkeeper of the Year
Alex Aitken. The redshirt freshman has 45 saves through 13 matches, including a career-high nine against then No. 5 and now No. 1 SMU. He has been named Keeper of the Week twice and has three clean sheets on the season. He ranks first in the OVC in saves (45), second in saves per game (3.46) and goals against (1.55) and third in save percentage (.692).
The Huskies continue their season-long four-match road stretch with the second leg of a two-game trip to the Land of Lincoln as they face Eastern Illinois University in Sunday matinee.
HCU and EIU have met six times in total, with the Huskies holding a 4-2 lead in the all-time series. The Huskies took a 3-0 win in Houston last year behind a brace from
Ryan Okerayi.
The Panthers come into Sunday's action at 3-7-3 overall and 2-3-1 in conference play following Thursday's heartbreaking defeat at the hands of UIW. The Panthers led 1-0 but the visiting Cardinals scored twice in the final four minutes, including the game-winner with nine seconds remaining to steal the win at Lakeside Field.
Vaz Ruy is in his second season with EIU, and sees his club second in OVC in total goals and first in goals per game (1.85).
Eastern has had eight different players dent the scoring column, led by senior forward Sergei Misic, who has seven goals and three assists. Junior forward Keidin Green has six goals while junior midfielder Bernardo Hanel has three goals and three assists.
Junior keeper Kai Odagiri is 3-4-1 overall in the pipes this season. He has made 33 saves while allowing 14 goals on 107 shots.
Following Sunday's match, the Huskies will continue the road stretch on Wednesday when they travel back down to the Valley to conclude the October 1 suspended match with UTRGV. That game will restart with 23:18 left in the first half and the Vaqueros holding a 1-0 lead. Kick-off is scheduled for 6 pm.
#DawgsUp
