A battle between the Skyline Spartans and Mercer Island Islanders boys soccer teams in the season opener for both teams ended in a stalemate.

It was a tale of two halves. Mercer Island dominated the first half of play with seven corner kicks and six shots on goal but couldn’t cash in with a score. Skyline had three goals called back in the second half in a contest which ended in a 0-0 tie in the first game of the 2016 season for both squads.

The swirling winds played a factor the entire night. Mercer Island had the wind at its back in the first 40 minutes of play and Skyline had the wind at its back in the second half. Skyline, who had already had two goals nullified to offsides calls in the second half, appeared to take a 1-0 lead when Ivan Esmeral found the back of the net in the 79th minute. Unfortunately for the Spartans, the possible game-winner was called back.

“It looked like the ball came out. Our guys were never quitting on it and popped it in. The referee thought the goalkeeper had control of it but you might say our guys saw it differently,” Skyline head coach Don Braman said. “It was a hard-fought game.”

Braman thoroughly enjoyed coaching against his oldest son David Braman. Braman, who is a senior team captain for the Islanders, nearly gave his team a 1-0 lead on a sizzling line drive shot in the 17th minute that caromed off the upper left crossbar.

“I knew that ball was a good opportunity for them. We are just thankful it came off the bar. Otherwise I would had been hearing about it for weeks in the kitchen,” Braman said of his son David.

Braman coached against his son a few years ago but came up on top in that matchup.

“The last time was when there was a freshman/sophmore game. We (Skyline) won that one 2-0. At least he has a chance to say he didn’t give one up this time,” Braman said with a smile.

Mercer Island head coach Colin Rigby was pleased with how his team performed in the first half against the Spartans.

“I was really happy with the first half. We had a lot of positive things from pretty much everybody on the field. It was a really good effort. There were lots of chances where we probably could had scored on three or four of our corner kicks and we had that one (Braman’s shot in the 17th minute) hit the crossbar. We had lots of opportunities,” Rigby said. “There is a lot to work on but I’m happy with the way we played. We got to try to be an 80-minute team.”