LONDON, Ont. – A pair of goals from Reza Nafar and Christian Devia helped the Western Mustangs close out their opening weekend with a 2-2 draw against the Guelph Gryphons on Sunday afternoon at Mustangs Field.

"I don't think we played as well as we could have played,"said Mustangs head coach Rock Basacco. "There were parts of the game that we did play very, very well and created a couple of goals, but it just wasn't consistent enough. The momentum changed back and forth."

Guelph started off the scoring at the beginning of the first half, with a quick goal by forward Jace Kotsopoulos only five minutes into the contest. Nafar had two chances to tie the game for the Mustangs and buried the ball on his second attempt in at the 22nd minute mark. The goal is Nafar's second in as many games, after scoring the lone goal in Friday's 1-0 win over York.

The close game continued throughout the second half. Midway through the frame Devia capitalized on a corner kick from fellow teammate Connor Wilson to make it 2-1 for the home side.

"It was a brilliant ball from Connor Wilson near post and I saw that I was open and just jumped for it, connected well, and it went to the back of the net," said Devia on his second half goal.

The Gryphons tied the game in the 77th minute, as a Mustangs header ended up in the Western net to end the game in a 2-2 draw.

"It was a good game throughout the whole game,"said Devia. "We thought we had it in the last twenty minutes but [the Gryphons second goal] was unlucky. I think it was a good game. Overall, we battled hard."

With Sunday's contest now in the books, the Mustangs exit their season opening weekend with a 1-0-1 record, starting off their year by taking four points from two of the top teams in the nation. 

"Well, I'm really, really happy," said Basacco about his team's opening weekend. " I mean, we beat York on Friday, which is a very difficult team to play against. We just tied the third place team in U SPORTS [from last season]. So, I'm really happy with the four points out of six and then we just prepare for McMaster next week and we keep going."

Western will now turn their attention to the McMaster Marauders, who will make their way to Mustangs Field on Saturday, September 2, with game time set for 3:15 p.m.