2021 Great Midwest All-Conference Team (Men's Soccer)
PAINESVILLE, Ohio – The final four teams left in the bracket are preparing to continue their journey through the postseason as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer All-Conference Team and individual award winners were announced on Wednesday afternoon.
A total of 35 student-athletes were voted by the league’s head coaches to either the first team, second team or third team.
In the league’s 10th year, the men’s soccer regular season was exciting to monitor with six teams advancing to the playoffs and two programs moving on from Saturday’s quarterfinal contests.
The regular season conference champion was Lake Erie and the Storm were crowned for the second time in three years when the program was the top seed in the super regional in 2019. Lake Erie was 12-2-0 in the league schedule as Louie Rolko was pronounced as Great Midwest Coach of the Year.
The Storm had additional hardware as junior striker Ayden Von Essen was tabbed as the Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Year. Von Essen finished with nine goals and five assists in 15 games for Lake Erie for a total of 23 points. He averaged 1.53 points per game to tie with Walsh’s Patrick O’Halloran, who was named to the first team along with Ashland’s Justin Libertowski in a loaded position.
Von Essen also had five game-winning goals, tops among all players, while averaging 3.20 shots per game. His teammate was named Great Midwest Freshman of the Year, Teddy Baker, who scored five goals and earned five assists for 15 points. Baker was top 10 in the league in both assists and points.
Ohio Dominican’s Jaxson Szabo was selected by the coaches as the Great Midwest Defensive Player of the Year. The Panthers are in the semifinals once again as Szabo beat out a field of talented positional counterparts for top defensive honors.
Cedarville performed the sweep of Great Midwest Goalkeeper of the Year honors with junior Jared Zacharias joining the women’s winner, Brooke Ackley, also from the Yellow Jackets. Zacharias had 13 wins with a 0.98 goals against average and 46 saves to go with five shutout decisions.
The sport’s Elite 25 Award winner was Tiffin sophomore goalkeeper Declan Lehmann, who is majoring in Sports Management. Lehmann had the highest qualifying GPA from teams qualifying for the conference tournament as the Dragons owned the No. 6 seed.
Earlier in the day, Lake Erie, Cedarville and Ohio Dominican were both also recognized in the third edition of the NCAA Super Region 3 rankings at No. 5, No. 6 and No. 8, respectively.
The Great Midwest Championship semifinals will be conducted on Thursday from Lake Erie. The top seeded and regular season conference champion Storm are set to face No. 4 seed Walsh at 7 p.m. ET from Jack Britt Stadium.
Earlier in the afternoon, No. 2 Cedarville will be taking on No. 3 Ohio Dominican with a spot in Saturday’s championship finale at stake with an AQ into the NCAA Championship field.