Lakers Win Wild Match Against Viterbo

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Roosevelt cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win over Viterbo on Wednesday night at Morris Field in a chaos-filled Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference match that was ended with 18:02 remaining on the clock.

The Lakers (7-5-1, 6-2-0 CCAC) played nearly the entire match up a man after a V-Hawks defender was shown a red card just 1:36 into the match after tripping Eduardo Hernandez on a breakaway. However, it would take more than 20 minutes for Roosevelt to cash in on its advantage. After a Viterbo foul, the Lakers played the free kick to Sebastian Rodriguez, whose shot was parried away by the keeper into the path of Ryusei Ogawa for his first goal of the season.

The pressure continued to build in Viterbo's end of the field in the first half as Roosevelt asserted more control over the ball and the pace. Yet the V-Hawks managed to hang in the match despite being outshot 15-3 in the first 45 minutes. The barrage continued in the second half until the 54^th minute when Ogawa played a beautiful through pass to Alan Rubio, who chipped a shot over the keeper for the Lakers' second goal.

Prior to the restart after the goal, Viterbo had a second player sent off after he received a second yellow card while continuing to argue with the referee. In the 63^rd minute, the dam started to break and Oswaldo Perez took a pass from Rubio and hit his shot over the keeper into the far corner to make it a 3-0 match.

Just as it felt like a fourth goal might be inevitable for the Lakers, the match was halted in the 72^nd minute when Viterbo's coach was ejected. By rule, the match had to end because the V-Hawks did not have an assistant coach on the bench. Roosevelt finished with a 26-4 advantage in shot attempts and put 16 of those shots on target. Meanwhile, Eric Carvajal finished with three saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season.

The Lakers welcome Governors State to Morris Field at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday for a CCAC contest on Senior Day.