DES MOINES, Iowa – The Western Michigan men's soccer team came out on top in a match that went down to the wire in a 1-1 tie with the Drake Bulldogs.

One hundred and ten minutes of play wasn't enough for the Broncos and Bulldogs to decide who was going to advance to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship match. It came down to five penalty kicks on either side to settle whose season would continue and whose would end. WMU scored on all five PKs to advance to the championship match while Drake only made four of five.

Junior defender Braxton Arpachinda became the Brown and Gold's points leader with the lone goal of the match for Western Michigan in the 31^st minute. Arpachinda now has four goals and four assists on the season for 12 points. He was also the last Bronco to score on his penalty kick, giving WMU the win in Des Moines.

Early in the match it would have been hard to guess that it would last over 110 minutes on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs opened scoring early with a goal in the 10^th minute on a rebound from Western Michigan goalkeeper Alex Lindewirth. Drake kept the lead for a little over 20 minutes before the Brown and Gold found the equalizer in the first half.

The Broncos moved the ball into the attacking third down the right side of the pitch. A cross to the middle of the penalty area found midfielder Connor Burkett, who kicked the ball over to Arpachinda on the left side. Arpachinda took a left footed shot from the 12, finding the back of the net to make it a 1-1 match with a little under 15 minutes left in the first half.

And the match remained at 1-1 for the next 79 minutes as neither team found the back of the net again in the run of play. Drake had three shot attempts saved by Lindewirth over 59 minutes of regular time while WMU had one attempt on net saved early in the second half. Going into the first overtime period at Mediacom Stadium, the Brown and Gold made a change in net, putting 6-7 graduate keeper Timi Adams in goal.

Adams size would be one factor that helped Western Michigan to its penalty kick victory. The graduate keeper made the only save of PKs on newly minted MVC Midfielder of the Year Eskil Gjerde. While all five of the Broncos scored on their penalty kicks, starting with forward Roni Sylejmani. Also converting on their penalty kicks was forward Jonathan Stout, forward Sahel Yessen, and defender Christian Shannon.

WMU will now face the top seeded Evansville Purple Aces in the MVC Tournament Championship match. The Brown and Gold visited the River City once already this year, dropping their regular season match 2-0. Western Michigan will look for better luck over a month later at Arad McCutchan Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 15. Kick-off from Evansville is set for 7:00 p.m. EST.