Owensboro, Ky. - The Lake Erie College men's soccer team opened Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play on Thursday night with a commanding, 4-1, win at Kentucky Wesleyan University.
The Storm was startled early as the Panthers jumped out in front in the sixth minute on a goal from Mattie McNally, but Lake Erie settled in from there and controlled the rest of the way.
Ultimately, the Storm had four different goal scorers en route to posting its largest offensive output of the season.
LEC leveled the match in the 15th minute when defender
Pavlos Charalambous pushed up the field on a corner kick and deposited his first career goal.
In the closing minutes of the opening half, the Storm took the lead for good. Off the counterattack,
Florian Senf delivered a beautiful lead pass to
Fabio Juricko on the far side, and the junior transfer from Munich, Germany, did the rest with a piercing strike to the back post.
Senf's giving ways continued into the second half as he notched his second assist of the evening by setting up senior
Cal Babiash for his first goal of the season and fourth of his career in the 59th minute.
Lake Erie left no doubt about the eventual outcome when rookie
William Hjelte netted his first collegiate goal in the 77th minute with assists coming courtesy of goalie
Patrick Bassett and
Nicolas Vagujhelyi.
The Storm doubled up the Panthers in shots, 14-7, which included a 9-2 margin in shots on goal. LEC also finished with an 8-5 advantage in corner kicks.
Bassett made his first career start in goal and made one save.
Lake Erie (2-2-1, 1-0-0 G-MAC) will stay down south to tangle with Thomas More on Saturday. The first touch is set for 4:30 p.m.
