(PAINESVILLE, Ohio) — On Saturday afternoon, the Lake Erie men's soccer team fell in its opening game of the G-MAC postseason tournament, losing at home to Ohio Dominican, 2-0. The fifth-seeded Panthers advance in the tournament to face first-seeded Ohio Valley, while the loss ends the season for the fourth-seeded Storm.

The biggest story of the day on the field came in the form of Ohio Dominican's River Allbaugh, who scored both of the goals for the Panthers that ultimately decided the game. His first goal came right after play began in the second half, connecting with the back of the net with an assist from Shingai Nindi. Allbaugh's second goal came in the 67th minute, this time unassisted.

Neither side was able to score for the entire first half, as fouls halted much of the momentum that the two teams created. In total, there were over 30 fouls committed in the game, with the distribution being about equal for both sides. There were also five yellow cards, all of which came after the 70th minute. Ohio Dominican picked up two, with one going to Griffin Cook and one to Jonathan Lang. And the Storm got three, given to Tom Pearson, Henrique Santos, and Ayden Von Essen.

While the Panthers took more shots than the Storm, 17-8, Lake Erie had one more corner kick than Ohio Dominican, 4-3. ODU also had more saves than Lake Erie, 5-2. The win goes to Panthers goalie Harry Castella, while the loss is given to Storm goalie Tom John.

This marks the end of a highly unusual 2020-21 campaign for the Storm, one in which they had their original fall schedule scrapped and pushed back to the spring. They also got to play less games than was originally planned, and were restricted to only being able to play conference opponents. And going 5-5 on the season, Storm head coach Louie Rolko and his players look forward to being able to improve on their performance this spring when they potentially have a quick turnaround and, hopefully, play once again this fall.