TIFFIN, Ohio — The Lake Erie men's soccer team traveled to the neutral site of Tiffin University to compete in the 2023 G-MAC Men's Soccer Semifinals against the Thomas More Saints. Despite a goal from the Saints in the first half, the Storm would tie it up in the second to force overtime. A scoreless overtime into double overtime took the match to penalty kicks, where the Storm would outshoot the Saints 5-4. Lake Erie advances to the G-MAC Finals to take on the winners of the following match. 

The Storm had a shot from freshman Aaron Garrote in the middle of the first half, which could not make it past the Saints' goalie. Thomas More found the back of the net at the 32 minute-mark, and another saved shot from Garrote soon after made the score 1-0 going into the second half. 

Lake Erie was set on tying things up to continue the semifinal match. Shots from graduate student Alex Saggese, graduate student Fabian Kiessetz, and freshman Kacy Parish gave strong efforts. At the 80 minute mark with ten minutes to go, sophomore Mathi Ott cleared the net and tied up the game 1-1. A final shot from Ott and a save from sophomore goalie Cooper Cook took the match into overtime. 

The first ten minutes of overtime were scoreless, with shots from Garrote and sophomore Kevin Habibelahy, just off the net. Ott recorded a final shot for the first overtime, but the Thomas More goalie was on top of it. This would then take it into second overtime. 

The Storm stayed consistent with another shot from Ott, yet the ten minutes ran down without a goal. The nail-biting semifinal match would then go into penalty kicks. 

The first penalty kick from the Saints was successful, which was matched from a goal from graduate student Tom Akinola to make it 1-1. Thomas More found the net again for the second PK, but the Storm answered with a successful goal from graduate student Maximilian Lintschinger. The third PK from the Saints was good, followed by a clean goal from Parish to make it 3-3. The fourth PK is what made the game. A crucial save by Cook gave the Storm the upper hand, and a successful goal from senior Marcos Somohano made it 4-3 Storm up by one. A final goal from the Saints was answered by a goal from Kiessetz to give the Storm the 5-4 PK win. 

Cooper finished the match with four saves guarding Lake Erie's net. Ott led the Storm in offense with four shots and three shots on goal. 

The Storm will face the winner of the semifinal game of Ashland versus Tiffin, on Saturday, November 11th.