BILLINGS, Mont. – The Western Washington University men's soccer team earned a hard-fought 1-1 tie at Montana State Billings on Thursday afternoon in a tightly-contested Great Northwest Athletic Conference game at Yellowjacket Soccer Field.
 
The Vikings move to 5-4-1 on the season and pick up a point in the GNAC standings at 1-2-1. MSUB is now 4-6-2 overall and 1-3-1 in conference play.
 
Playing their second overtime game of the season, the Vikings had a decisive 26-6 edge in shots in the 110-minute contest, but the margin was much closer at 10-5 in shots on goal. WWU also had a 10-3 advantage in corner kicks. Defense prevailed in the overtime periods, with neither able to get off a shot in the pair of 10-minute periods under the golden goal scenario.
 
"It was a good performance by both sides today and I am really happy with our team effort today," said head coach Greg Brisbon. "We played Billings two weeks ago and definitely improved from that game, on both offense and defense. We created a lot of scoring opportunities today, but credit to MSUB as their goalkeeper had a fantastic game."
 
After a scoreless first half, the Yellowjackets put the go-ahead goal on the board less than three minutes into the second half. Brady Tesch scored at the 47:50 mark with a low right-footed shot from the top right of the box to the lower left corner of the goal.
 
WWU netted the equalizer in the 71^st minute on a penalty kick goal by sophomore midfielder Georg Cholewa (Leipzig, Germany) at the 70:44 mark. Senior defender Louis Genty (Toulouse, France) drew a foul in the box to setup the PK, with Cholewa converting his second of the year firing to the upper right quadrant past the diving MSUB keeper.
 
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Brandon Wolter (Vancouver, WA/Union) recorded 4 saves in goal for the Vikings, while MSUB keeper Ludvig Rhodin stopped all of WWU's shots on goal in the run of play.
 
The Vikings (5-4-1, 1-2-1) return to GNAC play on the road on Saturday traveling to Nampa, Idaho to face Northwest Nazarene at 4 pm MT/3 pm PT. The game will be streamed live via GNAC.tv.
 
"It's a tough road trip, but we'll get into Boise tonight, get some rest, have a training session tomorrow and get ready for Saturday's game vs. a tough team," added Brisbon.
 
Game Notes: Georg Cholewa scored his team-leading 5^th goal of the season and is 2-for-2 on penalty kicks…WWU recorded its first tie of the season after setting the program single-season record with 5 ties in 2017…Jeremiah Lee (D), Georg Cholewa (M), Gus Diehl (M), Louis Genty (D), Stephen Jinneman (D) and Brandon Wolter (GK) played all 110 minutes for the Vikings…WWU went 0-1-1 vs. MSUB this season and holds all-time series lead at 15-6-4…series is 2-2-3 over last 7 meetings dating back to 2015 season…WWU is now 0-2-1 in its all black kits this season…temperature at kickoff was reported at 35°.