LONDON, Ont. - An injury time header from Alex Lewis lifted the Western Mustangs men's soccer team to a 1-0 first round playoff victory over the Windsor Lancers on Wednesday evening at Mustangs Field.

Wednesday's match would seem familiar to some – just last year the Mustangs and Lancers faced off in the first round of the OUA Playoffs, with Windsor edging out the Mustangs 1-0 to put them out of championship contention. Now in his fifth year of eligibility, Lewis, along with the rest of the squad looked to make sure they did not meet the same fate again.

Despite the dramatic ending, the majority of the game had not followed suit. From the opening whistle, both the Mustangs and Lancers appeared to be having trouble gaining momentum. With only three shots in the first half, all of which came from the Mustangs, the match would go into halftime with the scoreboard sitting at 0-0 and both teams appearing frustrated.

With a place in the OUA Quarterfinals on the line, the Mustangs would return to the second half determined to quicken the pace and gain themselves the advantage. As the half played out, Western would increase their offensive attack, however despite multiple opportunities on net the purple and white were not able to break through the scoring wall. With the clock slowly running out, it looked as though the game would be heading into overtime – but the Mustangs proved they would not need that.

With four minutes of injury time added and a corner kick for Western, the Mustangs had one last opportunity to try to end the game then and there.  As the fans got ready for 30 minutes of added time, Lewis would seize the opportunity connecting with the ball to fire a header into the back of the Lancers' net. With injury time almost out Western would shift to complete defence, holding on until the final whistle sounded to come away with the victory and a pass to the next round of the playoffs.

"You just gotta keep on taking your chances, and hopefully eventually one that pays off and it did on that corner kick," said head coach Rock Basacco on the Mustangs dramatic finish.  "You practice set pieces all the time, and it finally came into play and gave us a goal."

The Mustangs now advance to the OUA Quarterfinals, where they will face the McMaster Maurauders after Laurier edged Guelph 3-2 on Wednesday evening to advance to a quarterfinal matchup against the York Lions. The last time the Mustangs made the Quarterfinals was in 2012, when they were put out of contention by a 3-2 defeat to Laurier.

On their upcoming match, Basacco noted "McMaster is a quick, quick team and they've got some exceptional players too.  We tied them last time we played them, and so if I had an option I would prefer to play them than York, so we got what we wanted."

Playoff action for the Mustangs continues on Sunday, October 26 when they travel to Hamilton to battle the Marauders for a place in the OUA semifinals; game time is set for 7 p.m.