MARION, Ind. -- In the books it will go down as a 0-0 draw but Indiana Wesleyan University men's soccer advances to the Crossroads League Tournament championship match with a 4-1 penalty kick shootout victory over Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) University.

It was a great game," said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Mark Castro. "It was representative of a league semifinal game."

Junior Geoff Bowman and senior Lucas Carpenter led off with two goals in the penalty kick shootout. Meanwhile, the first Cougar shot went wide left and their second was saved by IWU freshman keeper Josh Goepper as Indiana Wesleyan held a commanding 2-0 lead. With Indiana Wesleyan leading 3-1 heading into the fourth round, senior Micah Snyder blasted his shot into the back of the net to complete the shootout victory.

"Going into PK's I was pretty confident," said Castro. "We have a really good goalkeeper and we've been practicing those all week. And the guys who took our PK's, we were really confident they could put the ball into the back of the net. We knew our five would make it so it was a matter of Josh making one save and he did it on the second one."

Following a fairly even first half of play, which Indiana Wesleyan held a slim 3-2 advantage in shots, IWU came out of halftime and took more control of the match in the second half, doubling up Mount Vernon Nazarene in shots 10-5.

The best opportunity for Indiana Wesleyan came in the 64th minute off the foot of Bowman. He launched a shot from distance that was aimed right at the top of the far corner. But MVNU keeper Trevor Stewart made a great save to preserve the scoreless contest.

"The first half was mostly back and forth but the second half we kind of stepped it up and could almost feel it," continued Castro. "We asked the guys at halftime to give us something to cheer about and I feel they stepped up to that challenge."

Following two 10 minute overtimes with no results the match ended in a tie. Indiana Wesleyan won the shootout to earn their fifth league tournament championship appearance in the last six years.

Top-seed Indiana Wesleyan (13-2-4) will host No. 2-seed Spring Arbor (Mich.) University in the Crossroads League Tournament championship match next Saturday at 7 p.m. The match will be played at Wildcat Field.