INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Throughout the 2025 season, the Shawnee State men's soccer program has had one individual after another come up large -- and it's been paramount to Shawnee State's success as a program during the nonconference portion of the schedule.

That trend continued Wednesday evening as Shawnee State, despite traveling four hours to play the No. 15-ranked team in the country in Marian (Ind.) and facing an 18-6 foul disadvantage at the end of the match, battled the homestanding Knights to a 1-1 tie as Cameron Thompson's 40th minute goal, strong play from various pieces such as Clement Akanyah, Sean Williams and Sebastián Saavedra Oboukhov and collectively stout play from the defensive midfield and the back line of the defense allowed the Bears to collect yet another positive result in its final nonconference match of the 2025 season, which was played at Ascension St. Vincent Field in Indianapolis, Ind.

Despite the aforementioned shot disadvantage and facing an 8-2 shot advantage over the first 33 minutes of play, Shawnee State played tactically strong and capitalized on the chances it did have in converting on the offensive end of the pitch. Of its five shots on the evening, the Bears put three markers -- exactly 60 percent of its shots -- on goal.

Defensively, Shawnee State made life difficult for Marian's two standout scoring talents, Samuel Wehaus and Gustavo Nunes, all game. The duo, who came in notching 14 goals, five assists and 33 points through the Knights' first nine matches of the year, were shut out by the Bears defensively as the duo posted seven shots and put three balls on frame but were held out of the goal for the entirety of the match due to a stingy defense that flew around from front to back through the 90-minute affair.

"It was a hard fought battle that we needed prior to starting conference play," Shawnee State head coach Stan Rodrigues said. "We started shaky, but we rose to the occasion. My team matured tonight. The consistency needs to be better throughout the entirety of a match, but we're playing as a family. We are Shawnee State, and we are family here, on and off the pitch."

Even with the shot deficit that the Bears faced to begin the match, Shawnee State got stronger as the match wore on and began piecing together several nice runs throughout the remainder of the first half as well as later on in the second half of play.

In the 40th minute, Cameron Thompson capitalized. The 11th player on the SSU roster to score a goal in 2025, Thompson scored after a free kick, following a Marian foul, was lofted into the box, where the ball, after bouncing around momentarily at the left edge of the box, ended up at Thompson's feet. The sophomore responded by punching the ball into the back of the net for his sixth career goal. Shawnee State, as a result of that salvo, was able to take a 1-0 lead into the halftime break.

"Kudos to Cameron, Clement and Sean Williams," Rodrigues said. "They were huge all game and brought an extra spark for us. "Sebastian was also a catalyst, and the energy of the bench was great. We are going to need that. We're very fortunate to have a deep bench with a lot of talented players that each bring an element that have helped us to be where we are right now."

Not only did the Bears take a 1-0 lead into the locker room, but Shawnee State held the advantage for the first 33 minutes of the second half as Shawnee State's defense continued to step up throughout much of the final stanza.

Along with the play of the entire defense, Shawnee State sophomore goalkeeper Toby Forsythe was again terrific for much of the outing. Despite giving up a 79th minute goal, it was Forsythe's quick-twitch movement and communication in goal that also helped to preserve the result, as Forsythe made six saves coming in the third, 33rd, 50th, 73rd, 84th and 87th minutes -- with his 73rd minute save, a diving stop to his left on a Nunes attempt, being his best.

Marco Riva had two excellent chances to score in the final 10 minutes as well but the senior's valiant attempts to punch in the game-winner didn't connect.

With the tie, Shawnee State finished nonconference play 4-1-2 overall. The Bears will return to action Saturday, Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m. when Shawnee State opens up River States Conference action against Indiana-Columbus at Richard Wigh Soccer Complex in Columbus, Ind.

For more information on the Shawnee State men's soccer program, visit https://ssubears.com/sports/mens-soccer or visit https://www.instagram.com/ssumsoc.