CHARLESTON, Ill. – SIUE scored a pair of unanswered goals Sunday to score a come-from-behind 2-1 win at Eastern Illinois in the regular season finale.
SIUE finishes the regular season 4-4-2 in Ohio Valley Conference play and secured the No. 4 seed in next week's OVC Championship. The Cougars will match up with fifth-seeded Western Illinois Sunday at noon at Lindenwood. The Cougars finished 5-10-2 overall.
Eastern Illinois finished 3-4-3 in the OVC and 4-8-4 overall. The Panthers will have the sixth seed at the OVC Tournament.
The Cougars have now won 10 straight in the series with the Panthers.
Ryley Gibbs scored his first career goal for the game winner in the 64th minute. Wes Gibson flighted a ball into the box where Gibbs headed home over Eastern Illinois goalkeeper Luis Ortiz.
Fabricio Roberti opened the scoring for the Panthers in the 31st minute when he got a pass from the end line and scored from 15 yards out.
Gibson scored a goal of his own to level the score in the 39th minute, scoring on a second rebound off a penalty kick. Gibson took the kick, which was saved by Ortiz. Ortiz then turned away Gibson's first attempt off the initial rebound.
The Panthers outshot the Cougars 15-9 overall, but SIUE put seven shots on goal to EIU's five.
Gibson finished with a game-high four shots on goal.
