BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Benedictine University men's soccer team opened play at the Illinois Wesleyan University ' Clash of the Titans' by battling Alma College to a 2-2 draw.

Benedictine built a 2-0 lead in the first half. Ante Markotic finished a penalty kick in the 23rd minute to put the Eagles ahead. Less than five minutes later Jonny Leman finished a feed from Edgar Reyes to extend the lead by placing an attempt just over the keeper's fingertips.

"I felt our first 45 minutes combined the energy and style of play we asked for out of the guys," head coach Rich Nassif said. "We played quite a bit in their half and had some nice spells of possession."

Alma utilized a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes to remain unbeaten on the year. The first came in the 85th minute on an own goal. The second evened the score just over a minute later. Both teams had chances in extra time. Steve Mack made a save in the 98th minute while a Nick Kapetanos header in the 105th minute missed wide and a late corner didn't produce a result.

"When we look at the second half it was definetly a tale of two halves," Nassif said. "The pressure of holding onto a lead instead of managing the game eventually led to their goals. Despite giving away the three points, we are proud of the way our guys regrouped, forced the game to overtime, and gave us a chance at the golden goal. We are getting close to 90 minutes of winning plays and hopefully tomorrow we can put it all together."

Mack stopped five shots in goal as Benedictine faced 24 shots. Lehman and Kapetanos picked up two shots each as Benedictine posted nine.

Benedictine concludes play with a Sunday afternoon affair against UW-Platteville at 4:00 p.m. at Illinois Wesleyan.