Twenty-six seconds is all it took for Albert Lea’s Ariel Christensen to find the back of the net Thursday against Winona as the Tigers rolled to a 3-1 victory.

Christensen is finding goals quicker than government bailouts this season. She went on to add another goal, her sixth of the four-game old season, in the second half and Albert Lea (3-1, 1-1 Big Nine) responded well after a sloppy effort Tuesday against Stewartville.

The new formation head coach Rick Barnhill installed this season has suited Christensen well and she already has three multigoal games and has tallied half as many goals as she scored last season as a sophomore.

“I think with a little change to the triangle offense, it’s creating slightly more chances for us,” Barnhill said. “It’s given her opportunities to get more deliveries from our players.”

Christensen is what Barnhill calls, the “target” forward in his 2-1-2-1-3-1 formation, which creates triangles of passing lanes throughout the field. With balls being served behind the defense, Christensen’s speed has allowed her more opportunities to score, but she’s also finishing better than before.

“Ariel’s put in some good work over the summer months and she has gotten stronger and her sense of awareness of how to break down defenders like how to accelerate, how to change speeds and fight for position up front has helped her tremendously,” Barnhill said.

Her scoring has helped keep the team going through the early season as it adjusts to playing with a young defense put in a tight spot because of injuries.

The defense, which has an eighth-grader, a ninth-grader and a seventh-grader seeing a majority of minutes, responded well after giving up four goals against Stewartville Tuesday in a 5-4 win.

“Tonight I thought we did a better job defensively, collectively,” Barnhill said. “It’s good when you play good team defense because that creates a solidarity within the team. There’s a solidarity that emerges when you play good, collective team defense because all of you have the same objective.”

The Tigers allowed just one goal late in the game and Winona only had 13 shots in the game.

Taylor Friehl put Albert Lea up 2-0 with 2 minutes and change to go in the first half on a beautiful shot into the upper corner of the far post and Christensen scored less than six minutes into the second half to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers will likely get two players back from injury Tuesday as senior captain Sophie Miller and Ari Guerra will return from injury in time for a big conference game against Mayo in Rochester. Miller practiced with the team Wednesday and was on the field during warmups before Thursday’s game. Her hip injury appears to be healed as there wasn’t any tear in the muscle.