MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee men's soccer team had the better of play all match long but ended up playing St. Thomas to a 1-1 draw Monday evening at Engelmann Stadium.
 
The Panthers (1-0-2) outshot the Tommies (1-1-2) by a count of 18-11 in the match – including 10-3 in shots on goal – but a career-high nine saves from Moritz Krenc in goal for the visitors kept MKE from finding the go-ahead strike.
 
"Our performance was pretty pleasing, to be honest," head coach Kris Kelderman said. "I thought we played well enough to get three points from the match. I think the guys are disappointed after the result with the tie but I thought we played good soccer and we created several chances. Hats off to their goalkeeper, but we have to be sharper in goal. The positive is that we put ourselves in a position where we could have and should have gotten a result and we have a lot of games to play moving forward. I feel good about the place where we are as a group. We are playing good soccer and creating enough chances to get results and now we just need that finishing touch."
 
A scoreless battle until late, the offense finally broke through in the 74^th minute in impressive fashion. Goalkeeper Daniel Ibarra launched a long goal kick and found Mesfin Roda on the right sideline. Roda took one touch and set up Bienvenu Djunga in stride, volleying a blast from the corner of the box to the far post for his second goal of the season at the 73:17 mark.
 
The assist for Ibarra was the first for a Panther keeper since Liam Anderson recorded one during a 3-0 victory Wright State back on Oct. 5, 2013.
 
St. Thomas took advantage of one of its few quality opportunities just a few minutes later, finding a goal through traffic off a free kick to make it a new game at 1-1 at the 75:33 mark.
 
"It was unfortunate because we were pressuring and pressuring and we finally got the goal," Kelderman said. "They responded on a redirected ball in the box that went right to a guy that happened to be open and he had a nice finish. But it kind of brings you down. We had to dig and find some energy again and we did."
 
The Panthers, however, had great looks all day long.
 
Just 2:36 in, Roda's service to Alejandro Martinez was on-point, but the one-timer went just wide of the far post.
 
At the 6:56 mark Djunga had a blast that was partially saved, went off a defender, only to see Krenc in the right place at the right time to corral the rebound.
 
The second half was even more impressive with the saves by the visitors, denying Martinez with three spectacular stops. The first came at 48:47, when he charged out, slid, and stopped the attempt one-handed.
 
Martinez had another great look off a Djunga feed in the 63^rd, but Krenc was able to get just enough of his arm on it to knock it wide for a corner kick. He was at it again in the 84^th minute, popping up Martinez's shot in the air on the initial stop. The ball looked headed for the net, but he hopped back up quickly and batted the ball back into play to keep it at 1-1 and save the decision.
 
Ibarra was credited with two saves in the draw. Of the 18 MKE shots on the day, Martinez produced six of them, with five on goal. Djuna was next with four, placing a pair on frame.
 
Up next, the team is off for the remainder of the week, returning to play next Monday at Chicago State in a game that is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.