COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Back on the road once again, this time for their closest trip of the season to date, the Colorado School of Mines men's soccer team began their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title defense at Mountain Lion Stadium on Thursday night against UCCS. In a match that played out in much the same way recent history has gone, the Orediggers (1-2-5, 0-0-1) and Mountain Lions (4-2-3, 0-0-1) battled back in forth in a physical match that saw limited chances to score, ultimately ending in a scoreless draw.
 
Mines and UCCS picked up right where they left off last time out in the RMAC tournament a year ago, as the action and intensity was high from the opening whistle. Marc Levin lined up the first shot of the evening just 83 seconds in but missed his mark wide left. UCCS had their first look of the night in the 10th minute from Kolby Ranieri but he missed wide right. Caden Allaire made a pair of saves in the 12th and 15th minutes against the Mountain Lions' leading scorer Alex Andersson and Raineri as zeroes remained on the scoreboard.
 
Levin's second shot of the night came on the next trip down the field for the Orediggers, as his try off a free kick was on target but saved by keeper Soren Russell. A battle for possession and a flurry of hard challenges came in the following minutes as both sides continued to battle it out for the advantage. Andersson had another chance to give the home team the lead in the 21st minute but didn't have the angle correct as his shot from just inside the top of the 18-yard box on the near side of the field found the right post of goal instead of the net.
 
Nearly 10 minutes elapsed before another shot attempt came, this time from Gabriel Rodriguez, but his first shot of the night missed its mark, sailing off to the left as it remained scoreless. A late half yellow card issued to Mines awarded UCCS a free kick just outside the penalty area and provided them with two more opportunities to try and score, as Andersson put up two shots in succession but to no avail, getting the first blocked before missing high left with the second.
 
Both teams had one more try at a first half goal in the final minutes of the opening period, as Peter Chang's attempt in the 41st minute ended up going over the crossbar and settling in the net above the goal, while Caelin David looked to go top shelf in the 43rd minute but was denied by Russell as the first 45 minutes of the night came and went with no change on the scoreboard.
 
With the resumption of play in the second half, Mines came out as the aggressors, putting up four shot attempts in the first nine minutes, as the fourth attempt from Alex Gonzalez in the 54th minute looked to tuck inside the near post, but a diving save denied the freshman the first goal of his career. Next up, it was Allaire's turn to make a spectacular save in goal, as a shot from Cole Van Holland off a corner kick required the sophomore keeper to lay out to keep things scoreless.
 
With the minutes ticking away, both sides felt the pressure mounting to try and earn a win to open conference play. After coming up with the ball in a battle deep in Mines' own end, Kayden Zamora-Reeves put boot to ball but missed off to the left. In the 75th minute, the Orediggers were on a run that saw Luke Hanna play a great cross into the box, but just a little out in front of Collins as it sailed across the face of goal and back to UCCS. A quick run down the field by the Mountain Lions saw Andersson end up with the ball in the middle of the field, going one-on-one with Allaire as he came charging off his line to break up the play, and was able to do just enough as the shot attempt was shanked out of bounds wide right of goal.
 
Mines had some near misses on the other end not too long after, as consecutive tries from Collins missed over the crossbar and found the hands of Russell as zeroes remained on the scoreboard. The final frenetic 10 minutes of play saw both a yellow and red card issued to the UCCS bench as the scramble for a goal intensified. Raineri's last try for UCCS was blocked, while the Orediggers' last run of the night saw Chris Seery try to go coast-to-coast, but he was disrupted by the defense who managed to make one final clear before time expired as the match ended with a 0-0 result.
 
NOTABLES
-Collins led the offensive effort with three shots, two of which were on goal
-David and Levin each added two shots with one on target for both players
-Allaire made three saves in goal as he posted his second career shutout
-The Orediggers recorded a season-high 13 corner kicks in the match and did not allow a corner kick to UCCS until the 59th minute
-For the evening, Mines finished with 10 shots, putting four on goal
-All 11 starters for the Orediggers logged at least 60 minutes in the match
-Mines has now tied the single-season mark for draws in a season in program history with five, the last occurrence of which came back in the 2004 season
 
UP NEXT
Conference play rolls on for the Orediggers as they'll be back on the road Sunday, heading to Pueblo for the second meeting in 11 days with the seventh-ranked ThunderWolves Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines men's soccer on Twitter and Instagram at @MinesMSOC and @mines_msoc. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.