LONDON, Ont. – Two first half goals proved to be the only markers on the day as the Western Mustangs men's soccer team recorded a 1-1 draw with the McMaster Marauders on Saturday afternoon at Mustangs Field.

"I'm very pleased with how the team performed [today]," said Mustangs head coach Rock Basacco. "We created some good chances, but they also created some good chances, you have to give credit to McMaster they're a good team. I thought the boys played really well, we held defensively, and we managed to get a goal."

With the draw the Mustangs unbeaten streak increases to five games with four wins and a tie over that span. Overall Western holds a 8-4-2 record, good for fourth in the OUA West Division standings, while McMaster moves to 8-2-3 and a tie with Guelph for second place in the West Division.

In an intense first half the Mustangs were the first side to hit the scoreboard as Chuka Ononye headed in a corner kick from Parker Seymour to give the home side a 1-0 lead just over five minutes into the game. The two teams would continue to trade attacks before the Marauders tied things up off of a strike from Aleksander Vincic in the 17th minute.

Despite a few chances for both sides throughout the remainder of the first half, neither team was able to solve the other as the score remained tied 1-1 at halftime.

The intensity and physicality picked up in the second half, with each team picking up a yellow card in the second. Both Western and McMaster would control the play for short periods of time, however neither side was able to gain a significant advantage for more than a few minutes in a row.

Although neither side took full control, both teams saw a couple of good scoring chances, and fittingly enough given the back and forth nature of Saturday's game, the teams traded chances in added time. Gersi Xhuti had a great chance for the Marauders, sending the ball toward the Mustangs net off of a corner kick, however netminder Ben Cowman punched the ball away. Not to be outdone by their opponents, the Mustangs made a final push of their own as Seymour fired a shot in the final seconds, however it sailed just high, leaving the game to finish tied at 1-1.

The tie leaves Western with 26 points in the standings, just one point out of second, heading into two games with the top two teams in the division in York and Guelph.

"We've got a whole week of sessions, so that's going to be a good opportunity to reflect back on the game against Mac and see where we need to put some more time, in terms of our attacking play, our defensive play," said Basacco.

The Mustangs now have seven days to rest and prepare for their final regular season games of the season as they host the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday, October 18 at 3:15 p.m. before finishing up with the York Lions on October 19.