ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – Roosevelt scored three times in the first half to easily take down Purdue Northwest 3-1 in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at Morris Field on Wednesday evening.

From the opening whistle, the Lakers dominated the play and created excellent scoring chances for themselves against the Pride. Fynn Mewes hit the post in the third minute and Caco Fernandez had a low-drive stopped a minute later for a corner kick. So it was not a surprise when Roosevelt (7-2-3, 5-1-1 GLIAC) finally did score less than five minutes into the contest.

After the Lakers played short off the original corner kick, the ball eventually made its way back to Valdemar Nambo near midfield. The senior defender locked in on Fernandez on the opposite side of the field and pinged a perfectly-placed pass onto Fernandez's foot. The graduate student took one touch with his right foot to settle the ball then blasted a left-footed shot into the lower left corner of the goal.

The one goal was far from enough for the Lakers and the attack continued to heap pressure on the Pride's backline. Luca Swinton had a drive stopped in the 10^th minute then he beat the goalie in the 12^th minute only to be robbed by the post. Oskar Schuster was put on goal perfectly by Fernandez, but the Purdue Northwest keeper was able to stop Schuster's shot at close range.

Nikola Dimitrijevic finally doubled the Lakers' lead in the 26^th minute when he took a pass from Oswaldo Perez and marauded up the field 20 yards before unleashing a right-footed shot that went into the far corner. It was the freshman's first career goal and only built on the dominance Roosevelt was demonstrating over the opening 45 minutes.

Schuster had his moment in the spotlight as well, scoring his second goal of the season in the 31^st minute. Once again, it was Perez who spotted the opening in the Purdue Northwest defense and fired a pass up field. Schuster took the ball from out wide and made a quick cut inside of his man before unleashing his shot.

The Lakers held a 14-9 advantage in shot attempts in the first half with half of their attempts landing on target. Although the Pride had five shots on target in the opening half, none really tested Eric Carvajal in goal.   

Purdue Northwest controlled the ball for much of the second half as it chased the game, but still could not find too many good chances for itself. The Pride held a 9-3 edge in shot attempts, but made Carvajal sweat for just one save, a point-blank shot with about 14 minutes left off a mad scramble in front of goal.

However, that one save did set up the Pride's only goal off the ensuing corner kick to ruin the shutout. Carvajal still finished with eight saves in the match for his 26^th career victory with the Lakers. The senior now is the only goalkeeper in Roosevelt history to win at least seven matches in three seasons and he is now only five victories behind the all-time wins record.

UP NEXT: Roosevelt has a quick turnaround ahead as the Lakers head to Minnesota to take on St. Cloud State at 7 p.m. Friday.