LONDON, Ont.- After a hard-fought 90 minutes of play and a playing in their third game in a week, the Western Mustangs played to a 0-0 draw with the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday afternoon at Mustang Field.
 
"They played a really tight defensive game, they gave us a challenge, and this afternoon we had difficulty breaking through that challenge," said Mustangs' head coach Rock Basacco. "I don't think the schedule has anything to do with it. It's just that we tried to find a way to break them down and we couldn't. That's unfortunately what happened."
 
With the draw, Western's record sits at 4-0-2 and the team is in third place in the OUA West standings. The draw is the second in two consecutive games for Waterloo, and gives the Warriors a 1-3-2 record.
 
It was a quiet first half for both teams early on, as the defence from both sides dominated the game. Western was able to maintain ball possession throughout the majority of the opening half, as the Mustangs created ample scoring opportunities, but were unable to get the best of Waterloo keeper Damian Kruschat. 
 
Both the Mustangs and the Warriors found themselves earning scoring chances in front of the net, but were unable to capitalize in a physical contest. It was not until the final ball of the game that Western's Mark Serjeant nearly put the game away for the purple and white off a free kick, but once again, the defence prevailed.
 
"We were playing in their end for the entire second half, but we just couldn't get the final ball. We had a couple chances, the keeper made a good save, but at the end of the day we just couldn't finish," said Mustangs' defender Kareem El Menyawi.
 
"I think we had a lot more urgency in the second half. I think we weren't playing with the same intensity in the opening half, but the second we created more chances and played with more urgency, we just couldn't put it away."
 
The tight schedule will continue for the Mustangs as they travel to Waterloo to face off against the Laurier Golden Hawks this Sunday, September 17. The game is set to begin at 3:15 p.m.
 
"We'll just have to try and re-group from this game. We struggled a little bit today but hopefully we'll find a solution for that tomorrow," said Basacco.
 
"It's tough. I mean, tomorrow will be our fourth game in seven days, but you know what? That's not an excuse. We've got one more game to go tomorrow and then we get a week to train and rest."