Since red-shirt sophomore forward Garet Christianson made his return to the lineup Sept. 20, the Eastern men’s soccer team has doubled its previous goal total for the year.  

Through the first four matches of the season, Eastern had scored one goal per game. With Christianson back in the lineup, the Panthers have netted nine goals in three matches.

The Iowa native has already attributed three goals himself and added an assist to put Eastern ahead in the dying minutes of its 5-4 loss to Evansville.

Christianson collected the Summit League Offensive Player of the Week award for his performance in the tournament. He also jumped into a tie for the league lead in goals scored.

Christianson suffered an ankle sprain just a couple weeks before the team reported for preseason training. The injury kept him out of the lineup for the first month of the regular season.

In his return to the field against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Christianson found himself on the end of one of Eastern junior right-winger Will Butler’s crosses and he fitted it into the net from inside the penalty area.

He had been on the field for little more than a half-hour and he had already pulled a goal back for Eastern to make the score 3-2 in favor of Green Bay.

But he was not done yet.  

With the score tied at three goals apiece, Christianson got on the end of a pass from senior midfielder Jake Plant a scored to put the Panthers up 4-3.  

An 85th minute goal from Green bay would leave the match at 4-4 for the remainder of the game, but it was a break out performance for Christianson.

“I mean really, I couldn’t have imagined it any better,” Christianson said.  “It’s really the ideal comeback for me. Hopefully I can keep this up for the rest of the season.”

Christianson said he felt like he could keep up the pace for the entire season but that the team, now 0-5-1, would need to do more in order to notch its first victory.

“I definitely want to keep scoring goals and getting assists but above all we need team results,” Christianson said.  “We need wins.”

Head coach Adam Howarth did not speculate as to whether Christianson would be able to maintain his output, but acknowledged the early quality shown from his striker.

“You can never make bold predictions about how many goals you can score but I think he started off on a very good tear,” Howarth said.

Eastern has now returned all its players from injury ahead of the first match of conference play against IUPUI, and Howarth thinks that his team is nearly at full strength.

“We’re getting close,” Howarth said. “I think we are still making sure that these guys get more minutes.  You can be fit but not necessarily soccer-fit. They’re still finding their feet in terms of their fitness on the soccer field but we’re getting closer for sure.”

Michael Spencer can be reached at 581-2812 or at tmspecner2@eiu.edu.