MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Lucas Garcia Bennett scored off a Jose Garcia ball in the 30th minute to put the third-seeded Roosevelt men's soccer team ahead of top seed and regular season champion Cardinal Stritch, but the host Wolves scored the equalizer in the 84th minute and the golden goal on a penalty kick with 1:03 left in overtime to defeat the Lakers, 2-1, in the 2017 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament championship final at the Bavarian Soccer Complex on a frigid Saturday night.
Roosevelt's season ends with a record of 11-9-0, securing the Lakers' fifth straight winning season under head coach Graham Brennan.
Brennan's side almost secured the program's second tournament title and NAIA National Championship berth in three years after Garcia Bennett, a rookie, knocked in the game's first goal thanks to another beautifully-threatening ball delivered by the Lakers' maestro Garcia. Garcia Bennett finished near post off Garcia's pass from far left to put the guests in Green on the board.
The Lakers possessed and threatened on the offensive side for most of the first half. Stritch (15-3-2) reversed that course in the second half, garnering more of the possession and pressing ahead much more frequently in search of the leveling tally.
The Wolves eventually struck with the deadlocking marker scored by Liam Heywood with less than seven minutes left in regulation.
The two sides headed to overtime to settle the score and the tournament's champion, and both teams had opportunities in the extra session. The Wolves sent forward a dangerous ball late in the stanza, and Marino Lopez was whistled for an infraction of pulling down an opposing player in the box to garner yellow and give Stritch a penalty kick.
Heywood too the kick, and he was able to get it past keeper Gary Mendoza for the result in the Wolves' favor and a heartbreaking loss to end 2017 for the Lakers.
The match was Garcia's final contest in a Roosevelt kit. The Wheeling native was named an All-CCAC First Team selection after the match, joining freshman teammates Anibal Mendoza (Second Team) and Alfredo Guzman (Second Team) as the team's conference postseason honorees. In his return from a foot injury that cost him most of his junior campaign, Garcia led the Lakers with 13 goals, five assists and 31 points. Garcia is Roosevelt's all-time leader in career goals (42), assists (30) and points (114).
Saturday was also the final match for Gary Mendoza, Lopez and Josue Leal.
Jose Garcia finished his college career as Roosevelt's all-time leader in goals, assists and points. (Photo: Steve Woltmann)
