The men’s soccer team (3-7-1, 0-0-1 Mid-American Conference) took a double overtime draw in its first conference game against the University of West Virginia Mountaineers.

A 1-1 tie forced the Huskies and the Mountaineers into overtime Saturday, where the most significant moment in the game occurred.

Junior forward Giovanni Pacheco collided with Mountaineers freshman forward Tsubasa Takada while going for a header. Pacheco was issued a red card forcing the Huskies to play a man down.

Head Coach Ryan Swan was pleased with his team’s defensive play after losing Pacheco.

“I thought the response from the guys was very good,” Swan said. “After being shorthand, I thought the guys really locked in and focused defensively and made things as difficult as they could for West Virginia.”

Swan also admitted the game plan changed once West Virginia was given the man advantage.

“Going into overtime we were still focused on trying to secure a win, but once we lost Pacheco, we shifted our focus to getting a point out of this game,” Swan said. “The guys played really hard and were in a good position, and we wanted to make sure a point came from that.”

The game was scoreless until the centered ball by the Huskies was mistakenly headed into the West Virginia net by the Mountaineers to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead with the own goal.

West Virginia found the equalizer in the 37th minute when junior forward Rushawn Larmond got a ball past Huskie redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Konrad Dziedzic to tie the game at a goal a piece.

Both teams had chances throughout the rest of the game, but neither team was able to score in the remainder of regulation or two sudden death overtime periods and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Swan said he saw positive things from this game, and the team is improving on certain aspects from earlier in the season.

“A lot of the things that have been missing we found today, so that was good,” said Swan, according to NIU Media Services. “I really thought this was a game we could have won, but West Virginia is a good team and scored a nice goal.”

The Huskies will return to the field Saturday when they take on the Western Michigan University Broncos 7 p.m. at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex. The Huskies have four games remaining in conference play.