PAINESVILLE, Ohio - The Lake Erie College men's soccer team claimed the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship with a commanding 4-0 win over Tiffin University on Tuesday night at Campus Field.
It marks the first time since 2021 Lake Erie has won the regular season championship and gives them the right to host the G-MAC Tournament Semifinals and Championship, which will take place on Nov. 5 and Nov. 7 at Campus Field.
The Storm enter the postseason on a six-match winning streak with an overall record of 10-4-2 and a conference mark of 10-2-2.
"I'm incredibly happy for this team," Head Coach Louie Rolko said. "They set the goal of winning the conference last spring and really pushed and challenged each other to get to this point. We know it's a long road to get here, and we faced some adversity along the way and were able to overcome it. We had numerous players step up at different times, and I think it really sums up this team. They are incredibly close as a group and willing to fight for the guy next to them. We know the season isn't over, and we still have more we want to achieve."
Nicolas Vagujhelyi would bookend the Storm scoring to bag his second brace of the year. The Reno, Nevada, native got the party started just over 10 minutes into the contest as he finished off a feed from William Hjelte to stake the Storm to the early lead.
Tiffin nearly found the equalizer in the 24th minute when Tiffin Purtz's header hit off the crossbar, but that opportunity proved to be their best scoring opportunity of the night.
Lake Erie was relentless throughout the 90-minute affair and would take a 2-0 cushion into the intermission when Cal Babiash deposited his team-leading sixth goal of the year as he headed home a service from Florian Senf.
The Storm, who finished with a 21-7 shot advantage, stayed aggressive after the restart as Hjelte got into the scoring mix as he accepted a long free kick from Luka Bekovic and beat Tiffin keeper Nick Cherry to make it a 3-0 advantage.
Just over a minute later Vagujhelyi would break loose once again, heading a cross from Hjelte in the 65th minute to cap the game's scoring.
Patrick Bassett made three saves in goal en route to posting his eighth clean sheet of the season.
The Storm will now await the results of the G-MAC Quarterfinals to determine its semifinal matchup on Thursday night.
