🆚 Lindenwood University
📆 Saturday, November 15, 2025
⏰ 7:30 pm CT
🏟️ Hunter Stadium – St. Charles, Missouri
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
⚽️OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
🏆TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Houston Christian University takes on Lindenwood University for the Ohio Valley Conference Championship on Saturday evening. The Huskies are making their second straight trip to the championship match where they will face the top-seed and host Lions. Kick-off is set for 7:30 pm from Hunter Stadium.
The Huskies advanced to the championship match after a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Liberty University in the semifinals.
Ryan Okerayi hit the back of the net in the third minute and HCU saw that score through to the finish on the back of a gusty defensive effort over the final 87-plus minutes.
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.
The Flames had a couple of tremendous chances with just under a quarter hour remaining as they seeked the equalizer. 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.
Okerayi's game-winning goal at the 2:27 mark was his 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. Okerayi now sits in a tie for fourth all-time in game-winning goals with
D'Alessandro Herrera, each with seven.
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.
HCU is now 11-5-2 overall and finished 5-3-2 in the OVC in Head Coach
Ryan Pratt's ninth season at the helm and 12th season overall with the program. The Huskies have advanced to the league championship match two years in a row and the 11 wins on the season is the most in a single-season since the 1990 club won 14. HCU lost to SIUE 3-2 in double-overtime in last year's OVC Championship match.
The Huskies had seven players honored by the OVC last Friday as the
league handed out its postseason accolades.
Houston native and senior
D'Alessandro Herrera was named 2025 Midfielder of the Year for the second time in his career and was selected to the All-OVC first team, earning all-conference honors for the third straight campaign.
Alex Aikten, a senior from Great Barford, England, was selected as the 2025 Goalkeeper of the Year as well as picking up first team honors, the second time he has been selected All-OVC. Aitken is the first keeper in school history to be named Goalkeeper of the Year.
Ryan Okerayi, a junior forward from Houston, picked up First Team All-OVC honors for the third straight season. He was Freshman of the Year following 2023 season. He was joined on the first team by defender
Nico Kross, a junior from Heidenheim, Germany.
Ricardo Garcia, a junior midfielder from Houston, was named to the second team, his first career postseason honors.
Joby Reid was named 2025 Freshman of the Year. The forward from Tauranga, New Zealand was joined on the All-Newcomer team by freshman midfielder
Ben Thirkill of Bingley, England.
Ryan Okerayi leads the club with 18 points and a career-high nine goals, the most by a Husky in a single-season since 2022. He is now one of just seven players in school history with 20 goals or more and he ranks first in the league in both goals (9) and points (20).
D'Alessandro Herrera and
Joby Reid are tied for second on the squad with five goals apiece. Reid paces the Huskies with six assists, tied for third in the OVC. Herrera is just behind Okerayi with 17 career goals and his 19 assists have moved him into a tie with George Sangira for fourth place all-time.
Alex Aitken now has nine clean sheets which leads the OVC and establishes a personal single-season. He is first in the league in GAA (0.73) and save percentage (.852) while ranking 4th in saves (75) and saves per (4.17).
He has placed himself at the top of several goalkeeping lists. As aforementioned, he is the leader in career saves and also ranks first in career shutouts with 21 and has 27 wins total, the most victories since the restart of the program in 2006.
HCU faces top-seed and tournament host Lindenwood University for all the OVC marbles on Saturday evening when the two teams kick off at 7:30 pm from Hunter Stadium. The Lions were the regular-season champions and earned the top seed while the Huskies won their pod and finished with the second seed. HCU defeated third-seed Liberty 1-0 while LU ousted two-time defending champion SIUE 2-0, assuring the league a new champion in its third season.
While Lindenwood makes its first championship match appearance, the Huskies play for the title for the second straight season. HCU lost 3-2 in double-overtime to SIUE in last year's final in Edwardsville. HCU's trip to the title match marks the third straight season that one of the two Texas teams has been in the league's culminating contest, as UIW lost to SIUE 1-0 for the inaugural title of 2023.
Saturday will be the fifth all-time meeting between the two schools, with all coming since the teams joined the OVC. The series is knotted at 1-1-2 after Lindenwood edged HCU 2-1 on October 19 in St. Charles. The two teams played to regular season stalemates in 2023 and 2024 before HCU claimed a 2-0 win over the Lions in the semifinals of the OVC Tournament in Edwardsville last year.
Lindenwood is led by third-year head coach Kris Bertsch who has the high-octane Lions at 14-2-3 overall. The Lions finished OVC play at 6-2-2 and have led the league in scoring most of the season, having hit the back of the net 41 times in 19 games for a 2.16 average. The Lions placed five players on the All-Conference teams, including Forward of the Year Luca Bartoni and Defender of the Year Leando Haesler. Bertsch was named Coach of the Year, and the team also put four players on the All-Newcomer team.
Bartoni, a senior forward, leads the charge for the Lions, having scored six goals to go with five assists, both tied for fifth in the league. Grad midfielder Gavin Csiszar also has six goals, while grad midfielder Matteo Landais has five goals and leads the league in assists with nine. Senior forward Ethan Blake chips in six assists, while Haeseler adds five as well.
Senior Gavin Roberts, who took over in the pipes midway through the season, has 10 starts with a 6-2-2 overall record. He has five shutouts and 40 saves.
The winner of the championship will earn the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. Seedings will be announced on the Selection Show on Monday at noon.
#DawgsUp
