Live Stats vs. Eastern Illinois | Live Stats vs. SIUE | Live Video vs. SIUE

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State soccer team will embark on its longest road trip of the season this weekend with a trek to the state of Illinois for a pair of pivotal Ohio Valley Conference matches.

The Gamecocks, looking for that elusive first conference win of the season, will take on OVC frontrunner, Eastern Illinois on Friday at 3 p.m. in Charleston, Ill. before continuing on to Edwardsville, Ill. for a Sunday matinee match with SIU Edwardsville.  Live stats will be available for both matches, while the match at SIUE will be streamed live on the OVC Digital Network.

EIU, who dropped the first nine matches of the season, kicked it in gear once OVC play began by winning five of the last six matches and enters the weekend atop the OVC standings with a 5-1 conference mark.  The lone loss in league play came against Austin Peay.  The Cougars of SIUE remain in the thick of the conference chase as it heads down the final stretch.  SIUE starts the weekend at 9-3-3 overall and 3-2-1 in the OVC.  SIUE will be idle Friday night and is coming off a 1-0 shutout of Austin Peay, who sits in second place in the 11-team standings. 

The Panthers of EIU hold a 7-3-1 lead on Jax State, but dropped a 2-1 decision in Jacksonville last season.  The Gamecocks will be looking for their first win in Charleston over the Blue and White.  JSU has tallied a pair of wins over SIUE in the first two meetings between the two sides.  The Red and White posted a 1-0 win in 2011 over SIUE on its home pitch and topped the Cougars, 3-2, a season ago in Jacksonville.

Sunday's affair with SIUE pits the top-two shooting teams in the OVC against each other.  JSU enters the weekend as the OVC leader in total shots with 239 on the season and leads by 15 over SIUE.  Both squads average over 15 shots per game, but average just over one goal per match.

Individually, JSU features two of the top-four shooters in the OVC.  Junior Jackie Rush has turned in 67 shots and averaging 4.47 per match.  Sophomore Kelsey Bright maintains the fourth spot with 56 shot attempts.

Following the last road trip of the regular season, the Gamecocks return home on Friday, Oct. 25 and 27, hosting Murray State and Austin Peay respectively.