'KEENE, NH 10/5/02 - The Keene State College men's soccer team battled the University of Southern ME to a scoreless tie in a homecoming game at Owl Stadium Complex on Saturday.

The Owls, who outshot the Huskies 31-6, had numerous opportunities to score, but could not get the ball past USM goalie Chris Willard (Hampton, CT) who finished with 12 saves. 

Chris Banks (Westborough, MA.) missed several close-in chances in the first half, and Jason Lombardo (Woburn, MA.) and Nick Ferro were denied on second half scoring attempts. 

With 2:32 to play, Mike Monteiro (Hudson, MA.) had a chance to win the game for KSC, but Willard came up big again for USM with a diving save on his header shot.

Keene State goes to 7-4-1 (0-1-1 LEC) while USM is now 3-4-2 (0-1-1 LEC).

Keene State was forced to play most of the game short-handed after John Harke (Northampton, MA.) was given a red card midway in the first half.

Keene State will be at Babson College on Tuesday (3:30 p.m.)