In both matches of the Evansville Classic, the Eastern men’s soccer team held a one goal advantage going into the last six minutes of the match but failed to hold on for a victory in either game.

Eastern drew its first match of the tournament with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay 4-4 and lost against the University of Evansville, 5-4.

The Panthers come away from the outing with a record of 0-5-1, a total that still leaves them in the cellar of the seven-team The Summit League with just one match to be played before conference games begin.

The weekend of mixed results was highlighted by the return of red-shirt sophomore forward Garet Christianson, who netted two goals in his debut against Green Bay and followed up the effort with one goal and one assist against Evansville.

“He’s scoring goals, and that’s what goal scorers do,” head coach Adam Howarth said. “Three goals in two games isn’t a bad output.”

Christianson injured his ankle during the summer before reporting for preseason training. The sprain kept him out of the lineup for the first month of the season.

Eastern red-shirt freshman goalkeeper Ben Feltes started both matches this weekend, making it three straight matches in goal while sophomore Garrett Creasor watched from the sidelines.

Feltes recorded a total of 20 saves on the weekend but allowed nine goals.

While Feltes has allowed two times as many goals as Creasor, he has also faced offenses of higher caliber and the numbers bear that out.

In Creasor’s two matches in goal, he faced 10 shots and gave up six goals while Feltes has been shot on 37 times in three matches and let in 12 goals.

“It’s always frustrating to give up so many goals, but he made a lot of good saves and did well in a lot of cases,” Howarth said. “But, ultimately, he still conceded nine goals in two games. That’s a lot of goals.”

Against Green Bay, senior forward Jake Plant opened the scoring just 37 seconds into the match on a header that was directed to him from junior right wing Will Butler.

However, the Panthers allowed the Phoenix to score three straight goals before halftime.

“When you go up so early, 30 seconds in, you want to hold on to that for a little while,” Howarth said. “It’s a great way to start momentum. We unfortunately made a couple mistakes to let (Green Bay) back in the game. I give the guys a lot of credit.”

Howarth said the credit is due because later in the first half, Christianson stormed into the box and finished another one of Butler’s crosses to pull a goal back for Eastern.

Plant would add another goal nine minutes after half time to even the score at 3-3.

Plant also set up Christianson for his second goal of the day in the 66th minute to give Eastern the lead.

But Green Bay was not done as they grabbed the final goal with just five minutes to play in regulation. two teams played to a stalemate in overtime that left the match even at four goals apiece.

The game with Evansville followed a similar story line with the teams trading goals through the first half before Christianson put the ball on the foot of junior midfielder Jake Brillhart’s who scored his second goal of the season.

Eastern lead 4-3 with less than four minutes to play when Evansville’s sophomore forward Faik Hajderovic took over.

He had an assist in the 88th minute and then added the match-winning goal just a minute and half later, as he took the ball past a couple of defenders and slotted the ball in the goal from the top of the penalty area. The Purple Aces won the match 5-4.

Michael Spencer can be reached at 581-2812 or at tmspencer2@eiu.edu.