CLAREMONT, Calif. — The match could not have been more evenly played.
The University of La Verne men's soccer team and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps quite literally traded a shot-for-shot and a save-for-save, but neither was able to break through in a 0-0 draw at Pritzlaff Field on Wednesday night.
La Verne moves to 10-4-1 overall and 6-4-1 in SCIAC play. The Stags are not 5-5-4 and 5-4-3.
The Leopards had 19 total shot attempts and the Stags had 20. La Verne goalkeeper Josh Ramirez made seven saves and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' counterpart Daniel Cui turned away six. And both teams drew identical nine corner kicks.
"It was a great overall game by both teams," La Verne coach Trevor Persson said. "A lot of back-and-forth."
Briley Venti fired La Verne's first two shots, but had his first attempted blocked in the field and sent the second one high.
The defense came up big late in the second half has the Stags fired three dangerous shots in a span of about a minute. Taylor Lemmon's initial attempt was blocked away by a defender; Michael Crowley had a shot turned away by Ramirez; and Mehron Abdi had his shot cleared out in the 77th minute.
The Leopards had a flurry of looks in the closing minutes of regulation as they drew three corner kicks and got off four shots in the last seven minutes, but couldn't convert.
La Verne returns to action at Cal Lutheran on Saturday at 5 p.m.
