UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team defeated Lake Erie College, 2-1 in overtime today (Oct. 15) in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) match-up.

The Cardinals had seven shots in the first half of play but would not be able to find the back of the net.  Lake Erie took the 1-0 advantage into halftime at the 31:17 mark in the first half.  Saginaw Valley came out strong in the second half as they knotted the score at one all.  Freshman Noah Sawyer (East Lansing, Mich. / Haslett HS) found the foot of freshman Morley Burns (Rochester, Mich./Adams HS) for his first collegiate goal.

The Cardinals battled in overtime scoring just four minutes in for the win over the Storm.  Senior Anthony Palazzolo (Warren, Mich./De La Salle HS) scored off a pass from Burns to give Saginaw Valley the 2-1 victory.  The Cardinal defense along with senior goaltender Piotr Kazmierczak (Stargard, Poland) allowed Lake Erie to only eight shots for the entire game.

After the game head coach Cale Wassermann stated, "Today we continued to struggle from the start as we have been forced to change our style and some positions due to our large amount of injuries. Lake Erie does not have a great record but they have a couple guys that can change the game and they always make it a fight to the finish. As disappointed as we were with our performance during regulation, we had a good meeting before overtime and the decision was made, we were not settling for a tie, we went out to win the game. We really stepped up and had a team effort in that period and got the game winner from Palazzolo who as really stepped up and was recently named as a captain for our team. Sunday will be the ultimate test for us and we look to improve from today".

With the win Saginaw Valley improves to 8-4-2 overall on the season, and 4-3-2 in the GLIAC, while Lake Erie falls to 1-12-1 overall on the season, and 0-8 in the GLIAC.  The Cardinals will be back in action on Sunday (Oct. 17) when they face GLIAC rival Ashland University.  Game time is scheduled for 2:30pm.