NILES —For the better part of 65 minutes Monday afternoon, Cassopolis and Brandywine were deadlocked in a scoreless Lakeland Conference soccer battle.

Then, in the span of nine minutes, each team notched a goal and wound up in a 1-1 draw.

For two teams who entered the contest with identical 0-2-0 records in league play and only one win between them, a tie only seemed fitting for the match, which was well-played.

Both teams have several quality scoring chances. And for both teams, some of those chances were turned away by the play of keepers Alex Walters (Brandywine) and Thomas Bosler (Cassopolis).

Several other chances were chalked up to missed opportunities.

After a scoreless first half, the Rangers and the Bobcats battled for more than 20 minutes before either team could find the back of the net.

Alex Moreno put Brandywine on the board with a shot  in the 66th minute that beat Bosler, with an assist from Christopher Ludwig.

Nine minutes later, the Rangers tied the score when Bret Tietsort took advantage of a breakdown in the Bobcats’ defense to tie the score at 1-1 in the 75th minute. Vinny Sopaseuth earned the assist on the goal.

“He made the call and came out and missed it,” Brandywine coach Evan Winkler said about Walters on the goal. “He missed it, but the guy in the back end kind of stood there and let his guy run by him.”

Winkler added that Walters played well, bouncing back from a tough outing on Saturday.

“He had been playing good all day I thought,” he said.

Goals have been at a premium for both squads so far this fall.

“Goals have been tough. Either we don’t shoot or we shoot and it goes over the goal or it’s not on goal. I really thought we really had a good chance to put some goals in on this goalie tonight, especially that first half. We had a lot of chances.”

Cassopolis coach Tony Cantazarite feels that his team is improving each time out.

“We have a lot of young guys without a lot of experience, but they are gaining soccer knowledge pretty quick,” he said. “In this game they played smart. Being evenly matched gave them a chance to really kind of mature without being dominated or playing in panic mode.

“The 19 kids I had show up, most of them are pretty satisfied with their playing time. We are still working on chemistry. But I think we have figured it out. Guys are pretty unselfish and willing to trade positions. If one kid is not able to score, then hey, we move him back and he played defense and we put the next guy up. They battled. They didn’t give up and they didn’t quit and that’s all you can ask for.”

The Rangers held a 10-6 advantage in shots on goal, many of those coming in the final 40 minutes of the match.

Walters had seven saves for the Bobcats, while Bosler had five stops for the Rangers.

Cassopolis…1

Brandywine…1

Halftime score

Cassopolis 0, Brandywine 0

Second half

B – Alex Moreno 66th minute (Christopher Ludwig assist)

C – Bret Tietsort 75th minute (Vinny Sopaseuth assist)

Shots on goal

Cassopolis 10

Brandywine 6

Saves

Cassopolis 5 (Thomas Bosler)

Brandywine 7 (Alex Walters)

Records

Cassopolis 0-7-1, 0-2-1 Lakeland; Brandywine 1-7-1, 0-2-1