• Championship Central | Bracket (PDF)
The 2025 Ohio Valley Conference Men's Soccer Championship continued on Wednesday with a pair of semifinal matchups. No. 1 seed Lindenwood and No. 2 seed HCU scored victories to setup a matchup in Saturday's Championship.
The Championship was predetermined before the year to be held on the campus of Lindenwood University, the first time the Lions have hosted the Championship. Lindenwood claimed the 2025 OVC regular season crown by finishing 6-2-2 overall.
Fans can watch the entire OVC Men's Soccer Championship on ESPN+.
#1 Lindenwood 2, #4 SIUE 0
Box Score |
Live Video |
Live Stats |
Photo Gallery | Postgame:
LWU,
SIUE
#2 HCU 1, #3 Liberty 0
Box Score |
Live Video |
Live Stats |
Photo Gallery | Postgame:
HCU,
LIB
#1 LINDENWOOD 2, #4 SIUE 0
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Lindenwood Men's Soccer advanced to their first OVC Championship game on Wednesday night as they defeated SIUE by a score of 2-0 in the OVC Semifinals inside Hunter Stadium. The Lions scored two first half goals and pitched another shutout to advance to their first Conference championship game in the Division I era.
Ethan Blake got the scoring started for the Lions early on in the first half at the 9th minute off a tremendous pass from Leandro Haesler just behind midfield. Blake retrieved the pass in stride, gathered his momentum, and fired a shot in between two Cougar defenders towards the bottom left corner of the goal. The shot hit off the inside of the post and into the back of the net as Lindenwood took the early 1-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the opening half. LU continued to stay on the attack for the rest of the half as they recorded eight more shots after the goal by Blake, with four of them being on target. \
The offensive pressure put on by the Lions eventually led to another goal as Maxime Legai intercepted a pass in SIUE's defensive half of the field in the 36th minute. Legai found Luca Bartoni down the left side of the field and Bartoni would do the rest. The OVC Forward of the Year gathered the ball with two defenders around him, moved to his right toward the middle of the field, and sent a shot across his body to the left. Bartoni's shot went sizzling by the Cougar goalkeeper as the Lions took a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Lindenwood finished the first half with 12 shots and four on goal, while the defense limited the Cougars to three first half shots and none of them being on target.
In the second half, SIUE returned the favor and recorded 10 shots in the last 45 minutes of play compared to Lindenwood's three. Although the Cougars outshot the Lions, SIUE only had one shot on goal the entire game, which was handled by Gavin Roberts in the 52nd minute off a header from inside the box. The Lions finished the contest with 15 shots as seven of those were on goal. Luca Bartoni led the team in shots on goal with three, followed by Ethan Blake who had two.
#2 HCU 1, #3 LIBERTY 0
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Ryan Okerayi hit the back of the net in the third minute and Houston Christian University saw that score through to the finish, claiming a hard-fought 1-0 win over Liberty University in the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals on Thursday night at Hunter Stadium. The gusty defensive effort following the early score propels the Huskies into the OVC Championship Final for the second straight season, where they will face host and top-seeded Lindenwood on Saturday evening.
The Huskies wasted no time getting on the front foot. A giveaway in the back was stolen by Cezar Onut, who quickly fed Ryan Okerayi just outside the left hash mark at the 13-yard line. Okerayi turned to his left and split two defenders before muscling his way inside the box to rifle a left-footed shot past Liberty keeper Tyler Beck with just 2:27 gone in the match.
HCU would put two more on target out of corner kicks, with Ricardo Garcia and Nico Kross getting good looks on goal. The Flames would put six shots up of their own with two on goal, both stopped by Alex Aitken to send the game to intermission with the Huskies still up one.
The second half started with the same tempo with both teams making strong runs. LU's Ben Carman put one on goal nearly seven minutes in that was put aside by Aitken. Ten minutes in, D'Alessandro Herrera broke through the middle, but his left-footed half volley attempt was high of the mark.
Okerayi would get another solid chance in the 72nd minute. Anis Harrar provided a solid sliding takeaway in the defensive end and the ball quickly found its way to Okerayi up the right flank. He would take the ball back to the middle and attempted to curl his shot through traffic but it was quickly scooped up by Tyler Beck standing in the middle of the pipes.
Moments later Ricardo Garcia found himself with a steal at midfield, took it twenty more yards and had go from 25 yards out straight away but to no avail.
The Flames had a couple of tremendous chances with just under a quarter hour remaining. In the 76th minute after a quick throw in, a deflected ball found Ty Conley about 14 yards out. His shot was deflected and glanced off the top of the cross bar and out for a corner. A couple of moments later, Dylan Swinehart's shot from the right side was gobbled up by Aitken.
Liberty kept up the pressure down the stretch, but the Huskies seemed to have bodies everywhere in their attempt to get across the finish line. Leo Conneh had two shots within a minute of each other with just over five minutes left, both knocked away by defenders before getting to the pipes. Another pair of attacks made their way into the middle of the field and dangerously into heavy traffic, but were also bounded away and a final attempt by Zach Lifferth from long range with just over two minutes left was blocked as well.
The two teams didn't give an inch in the physical contest, as a total of 31 fouls were called. Liberty had 14 shots to HCU's 13 and had a 5-4 edge on target.
Okerayi had four shots, two on target, including the game-winning goal at the 2:27 mark. The score was Okerayi's ninth goal of the season, extending his personal single-season best as well as the most in a single-season for the Huskies since 2022. It was the fourth fastest goal in school history and the second time this season the Huskies have scored under three minutes into a match, as Joby Reid put one home at the 2:25 mark against UIW on October 24.
Ricardo Garcia had three shots and Cezar Onut contributed his third assist of the season on the give for the early goal by Okerayi.
Alex Aitken pitched a shutout, stopping five shots for his ninth clean sheet of the season, establishing a new single season best while extending the school single-season mark. His first save of the night was the 300th of his career, becoming the first keeper in school history to hit that plateau.
Zach Lifferth had four shots, one on goal and three others had two shots apiece for Liberty. Tyler Beck made four saves for the Flames, who end the 2025 campaign at 9-5-6.
HCU improves to 11-5-2 on the season, the most victories in a season since the 1990 team won 14.