GOSHEN, Ind. — Nate Nussbaum's 30-yard strike off the crossbar with 21 minutes to play in regulation gave Goshen College a 1-1 draw with Grace College in the Maple Leafs' Crossroads League men's soccer home opener Saturday night at the John Ingold Athletic Complex.

Johan Escalante made 10 saves for the second straight Saturday for the Maple Leafs (5-5-1, 0-1-1), who got their first result of the conference season after losing Wednesday in the league lid-lifter.

The game's opening moments produced box-to-box action, with both teams attempting to build pressure through the midfield, but little in the way of statistics: the first shot didn't come until Goshen's Tevin Gilkes had a header saved after 9:14, and the Lancers (7-2-2, 1-0-1) wouldn't test Escalante for nearly 19 minutes.

As the game continued to simmer late in the first half, the intensity ratcheted upward: both teams had corner kicks in the middle of the period that produced shot attempts and later traded point-blank saves in the final 10 minutes.

Grace took a 1-0 lead into halftime after Cody Boerema's goal with 3:19 remaining, the final volley of a four-shot barrage that included a blocked shot, a crossbar strike, a save and finally the score. Neither team would shoot again before the horn.

Escalante saved the first two shot attempts of the second half before his Grace counterpart Kurt Hamlin got the third off the foot of Murray Cockburn in the 52nd minute. From that point forward, the game's third quarter resembled the first, with as many fouls as shots before the Maple Leafs equalized in the 69th minute.

Nussbaum's game-tying shot came from almost halfway to the midfield stripe, glancing off the field's northern crossbar just inside the eastern end with 21:42 remaining.

Grace got the bulk of the chances in the second goal's immediate aftermath as Josiah Osborn and Damon Binkley each got shot attempts over the next five minutes. Escalante also saved a try by Ivan Santagiuliana in the 79th minute.

If the first half was a simmer, the final 10 minutes of regulation boiled over as five fouls produced a pair of Lancer cautions and another save on a Matt Granitz free kick with five minutes to go. The Lancers got two more chances before the full-time whistle, the last from a rushed free kick amid confusion as to whether the clock had stopped, but the attempt from Grace's Breno Oliveira sailed high.

The first overtime period produced more whistles than scoring chances as the teams combined for a foul every two minutes: Binkley missed high two minutes after the kickoff while Cockburn had a shot attempt stuffed by the defense in the 105th minute and a late Goshen free kick produced another dustup when Hamlin landed among a crowd of bodies in the penalty area.

Both goalkeepers were tested again in the second half of the extra session, with three saves from Escalante alone over the final three minutes. His last action would be to deflect a shot from the right side wide with 63 seconds to go, but a Grace foul on the ensuing corner kick ended any real scoring chance.

Grace finished with 25 of the 36 shots, but put less than half of those on target: Goshen put seven shots on goal and Hamlin saved six of those. The Maple Leafs also took six corner kicks to Grace's four.

Quoting Goshen head coach Arron Patrick:
"Grace is very well-organized and tough to score goals against. This game has traditionally been a back-and-forth affair and today was no different. In the first half we planned to just keep things tight and allow ourselves a platform to play later on in the game. Sadly, we made a few poor mistakes and found ourselves down 1-0.

"After halftime we were a bit better and controlled the ball a lot more. Grace plays great on the defensive side of the ball and is tough to break down. You have to throw numbers at them because they are so organized, and with that comes the risk of being counterattacked by their ability to run in behind you.

"For the most part, we dealt well with the counters, but didn't have particularly good movement in the final third to create open scoring chances. Thankfully, Nate was able to step up and score a fantastic goal. That ability is something Nate gives us and something I wish he would attempt more often. He has a great shot and tonight it got us a valuable point.

"This league is crazy competitive, so each point is invaluable. Recovery is going to be key, and being ready for a tough Taylor team on Wednesday is the focus now."

Notable Numbers:

39: The teams combined for 39 fouls and 7 cards in 110 minutes, with Grace outdoing Goshen by one in each category. All of the cards came in the last half-hour, with each team receiving two in the 10-minute first overtime alone.

6: Nussbaum's goal ensured that each team scored, which means that the Grace-Goshen regular-season match was not a shutout for the first time since 2011. The Maple Leafs had kept two clean sheets and been blanked four times in that span.

3: Saturday's draw was just the third in the 61-match, 52-year history of the Grace-Goshen series. The Maple Leafs lead the head-to-head standings 33-25-3.

Up Next: Wednesday, Oct. 3 — Taylor at Goshen, 7 p.m.