Lourdes picked up a hard-fought point in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference standings on Wednesday afternoon, playing first place Madonna to a scoreless draw at Wildcat Stadium.
 
"We played with a lot more urgency from the start today," head coach Matt Johnson said afterwards.  "Madonna has a lot of quality, but we did a good job of taking away some of the things they do well.  We're disappointed not to have finished one of the chances we had, but we are definitely pleased with the mindset our guys had coming in."
 
Madonna (8-0-2, 3-0-1 WHAC) had the first two scoring opportunities less than 10 minutes into the match.  Alex Brock (Sylvania, Ohio/Southview H.S.) made a save from point blank range and then pushed the rebound attempt over the top of the crossbar.
 
The Gray Wolves forced Crusader netminder Youssou Ouendeno to make several quality saves in the opening 45 minutes as well, as both sides when into intermission with six shot attempts.
 
Lourdes finished with a 6-5 shot advantage in the second half, with both teams tallying just one attempt on net in the stanza.  Leon Eisert (Leipzig, Germany/Kathe-Kollwitz Gymnasium) had a team-high three shots for Lourdes. 
 
The Gray Wolves played with a man advantage for the final 12:51 following a Madonna red card but was unable to score the match-winner.
 
Brock finished with four saves on the afternoon while Ouendeno had five stops for the Crusaders.  Each team had five corner kick opportunities as well.
 
Lourdes (3-6-2, 1-2-1) remains home on Saturday evening as the Gray Wolves entertain Rochester (Mich.).  Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Wildcat Stadium.