BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – Peering at the decorated talent on the 2014 roster of the Roosevelt men's soccer team, one can easily deduct that the potential of a high-octane offense is engrained in this year's edition of the Laker XI.
That potential turned into reality in the third match of the Lakers' season on Saturday, as Roosevelt unleashed an offensive barrage to overwhelm visiting Clarke, 6-0, at Toyota Park.
The win gave the Lakers their first victory of the year, moving the Green and White to 1-2-0.
Clarke fell to 1-3-0.
Jose Garcia, who scored 28 goals as a senior at Wheeling last fall en route to Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year honors, tallied his first two goals in a Roosevelt kit while assisting on another for his best statistical performance as a collegian to date.
Junior co-captain Leo Rodriguez had himself a banner offensive afternoon as well, scoring two goals and assisting on two others for a game-best six-point effort.
Evan Trychta and Diego Rivas scored the Lakers' other goals, with helping feet provided in the form of assists credited to Cristhian Jimenez, Andrew Obmalay, Omar Guzman and Irving Balboa, with the latter joining Rodriguez as two-assist men in the match.
The defense was not shabby for the Lakers, either. Goalkeeper Jake Cigelnik (two saves), his revolving backline mates and the full-squad marking recorded Roosevelt's first clean sheet of the year.
Trychta unleashed the reality of Roosevelt's offensive potential early. The newcomer took a pass from Rodriguez and made a beautiful run in the box to beat keeper Jordan Steuer in the fourth minute for the quick Laker lead.
Roosevelt took 12 more shots that half, with some providing more shock to the Crusaders' system than others but none able to cross the goal line.
While the first half was summarized by one early tally, the second half went down as a depiction of scoring often.
Garcia was the creative culprit in the beginning of the second frame. He scored his first collegiate goal in the 49th minute, receiving a ball played in by Rodriguez after a pass from Obamaly and, after Garcia made crafty moves on the run, he had enough room to bang in a goal off the crossbar and past the line to initiate his game-breaking onslaught.
It took Garcia less than four minutes to tally his second career goal, corralling a close pass from Jimenez while he was engaged in a sprint on the left side and sending in a powerful shot that stymied Steuer to make it 3-0.
Garcia played a key role on the fourth goal, directing a corner kick toward the noggin of Rodriguez in the 56th minute. The ball was hammered in high off of the leaping captain's skull to evade the scrum and hug the net.
Balboa then played creator in the late stages, connecting with Rivas on the run in the 81st minute. Rivas spun his hips to put Crusader defenders on skates and allow clarity in his sight of goal for his first tally since 2012.
The scoring was capped with 1:16 left in the match, as the rookie Guzman sent ahead a ball on the right to Balboa, who found Rodriguez lurking up from his second-half backline position. Rodriguez unleashed a quick kick off that pass toward frame, resulting in a keeper-beating sixth score.
After finishing the first two regular-season matches with just two total goals, Saturday's tally-tripling output displayed a Laker side more in line with Roosevelt's preseason results of two six-goal showings and reinforced that head coach Graham Brennan's charges have the tools to make life miserable for their opposition.
Roosevelt faces Moody Bible this Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 4 p.m. at Moody's field at 301 W. Oak Street (between Orleans and Wells). The field is just 1.8 miles from Roosevelt's campus, and members of the Roosevelt community can take the CTA Brown or Red Line trains to the respective Chicago stops or the 22 Clark bus to Dearborn and Chicago to see their Lakers play closer to campus than ever before.
