The Eastern men’s soccer team enters this weekend’s Evansville Classic tournament with a record of 0-4 and will be forced to search for its first win against two talented squads.

“Trying to find easy games is not easy to do in Division I soccer,” Eastern coach Adam Howarth said.

However, the matches this weekend are winnable, Howarth said.

The University of Evansville and Wisconsin-Green Bay are each 3-2-1 and both have notched results against talented teams.

Eastern will play Green Bay at 5 p.m. Friday in Evansville. Green Bay has taken on Western Illinois and won, 2-1. Western is currently four spots ahead of Eastern in The Summit League standings.

The Phoenix also tied Marquette 3-3. The Golden Eagles were ranked in the top-15 in the country when they met in Milwaukee for the matchup.

Senior forward Sam Krenzien had a quiet match by his standards, setting up the equalizing goal off a cross into the six-yard box. The Phoenix would hold on for a draw with Marquette through two overtime periods.

Krenzien facilitates the offense for Green Bay and frequently produces goals for himself. The Wisconsin native was named to the first team All-Horizon League squad in 2012.

When Eastern meets Evansville Sunday, the Panthers will be up against a Purple Ace side that had a talented 2012 recruiting class. A couple of those players, now in their sophomore season with the team, are midfielder Mark Gonzalez and forward Faik Hajderovic. Both lead the team in scoring.

Gonzalez made a name for himself by winning several domestic competitions in his native Canada while Hajderovic was named to the 2011 ESPN Missouri State Starting Eleven for his play at the high school level.

Regardless of who is on the field for the opposition this weekend, Howarth said red-shirt forward Garet Christianson will finally make his return for the Panthers.

Christianson will join red-shirt junior forward Chris Boswell and red-shirt sophomore midfielder Spencer Filosa, each of whom made their returns from injury in last weekend’s 50-years of Men’s Soccer tournament.

“I think a lot of the guys who were injured are probably going to be able to give us some minutes,” Howarth said.

Howarth also said that the returning players probably will not be in the starting lineup until later in the season.

Senior midfielder and captain Jake Plant missed the second half of the match against Loyola on Friday because of an apparent knee injury. He returned to the field Sunday against Western Michigan but wore a brace. Plant was still wearing it in practice Thursday.

Howarth does not plan to make a lot of changes to his approach this weekend. He said the team does not need to change its tactical posture it just needs to execute.

“We’re going to kind of do the same things we’ve been doing,” Howarth said. “We just need to do them better.”

Michael Spencer can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].