Two days after a tough loss to Northern Illinois, Oakland men’s soccer team took to the pitch again to face the Butler Bulldogs.

Despite dominating much of the afternoon, Oakland notched the first eight shots of the match; Butler tallied an equalizer in the 88 minute to force overtime. Neither team could capitalize in the two overtime periods.

The Golden Grizzlies out-shot the Butler Bulldogs 23-14 in the game. Andrew Barrett, who lead the team with five shots, and Josh Bennett, with four shots respectively, paced the OU team offensively. Oakland also received strong defensive efforts from Konner McNamara, Lucas Diener and Nick Kristock, which tightened up to limit Butler’s scoring opportunities.

“It was a total team effort today; it started in the back really, with good communication. We manned up well and prevented a lot free space from opening up for them to work with,” senior defender John Timm said.

Jeff Cheslik scored the game’s first goal in the 80 minute off a corner kick from Jonathon Evans. Butler quickly responded in the 88 minute with a goal from Adam Glazner. Scott Messer, subbing for an injured Mitch Hildebrandt, made the initial two saves, but Glazner found the rebound and buried it. Messer turned in a very strong performance in net, making huge saves down the stretch in the second half and both overtime periods.

“I told the team after the game [that] I was proud of their efforts, but disappointed in the results,” head coach Eric Pogue said. ” We have to do a better job of holding the lead, we have to keep playing hard and limiting the mistakes.”

After a couple days off, Oakland will head to Tulsa, Oklahoma to take on seventeenth ranked Southern Methodist and host Tulsa in the Hurricane Classic.

With each game, the Golden Grizzlies seem to be improving in each aspect of the game. Defensively, Oakland is playing tough, limiting the free space in which opponents have to work with, and the goalkeeping has also been solid to start the season.

Offensively, the Grizzlies seem to be on the very of a breakthrough. They are starting to generate a lot of great chances, which in time will start to find the back of the net. This team is very capable of making another run at the Summit League championship, and a return to the NCAA tournament.

“We play to train Tuesday, but rest our legs as well [in preparation for Hurricane Classic]. We have two strong opponents in Southern Methodist and Tulsa coming up,” Pogue said. “This will give us the opportunity to work on the attacking end, but maintain the defense we’ve been playing.”