PAINESVILLE, Ohio – The Ohio Dominican men's soccer team tallied two goals and punched its ticket into the Great Midwest Athletic Conference semifinals with a 2-0 victory over Lake Erie on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday's clash marked the second time both teams met in Painesville, with the Panthers looking to avenge their 2-1 March 14 loss to the then No.11 Storm.

ODU maintained an advantage throughout. The Black and Gold outshot LEC 17-8. Goalkeeper Harry Castella (London, England, United Kingdom) was the busier of the two backstops, making five saves en route to his third clean sheet of the season.

The visitors wasted little time, scoring their first goal 38 seconds into the second half. Freshman Shingai Nindi (Shanghai, China) intercepted a poor pass from the Lake Erie defense and found forward River Allbaugh (Pickerington, Ohio) who poked the ball past LEC goalkeeper Tom John to grab a 1-0 lead.

The Panthers pressed on in search of a second goal as sophomore forward Khalif Hassan (Columbus, Ohio) harassed the Lake Erie defense. The sophomore forward eventually proved such a nuisance that he caused a break in the defense. Hassan dribbled into the penalty area, unleashed a shot that was stopped by John, but the rebound spilled into the 18-yard-box. Allbaugh pounced on the opportunity and doubled the lead to 2-0.

LEC attempted to mount a comeback but would fall short, allowing the Black and Gold to complete the upset of the fifth-seeded Storm.

HISTORIC WIN

The win marks the first time the Panthers will make an appearance in the G-MAC semifinals. The last time that the Black and Gold appeared in a conference semifinal was in 2013 when they battled Saginaw Valley State in the GLIAC Tournament Semifinal.

ODU would go on to win the tournament and the automatic qualifying bid into the NCAA tournament.

HOME COOKIN

Despite being considered the "away" team at Thursday's semifinal, the Black and Gold will play at least one more match inside the friendly confines of Panther Stadium as the G-MAC has opted for Ohio Dominican to host the remainder of the 2021 men's and women's tournament.

UP NEXT

Ohio Dominican will battle the number one seed Ohio Valley University with kickoff scheduled for 12 PM on April 29. The Black and Gold will look to avenge their 2-0 defeat to the Fighting Scots suffered on April 7 in Charleston, West Virginia.

Contact: Ralph Schudel
schudelr@ohiodominican.edu