UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Roosevelt's season came to an end in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference semifinals Friday with a 2-1 overtime loss to Northern Michigan at Saginaw Valley State.
The second-seeded Lakers had some good early chances, but trailed 1-0 at halftime while being outshot 7-3. Northern Michigan scored in the 24th minute after a pass went behind the Lakers defense to an attacker who looked to be in an offsides position.
Roosevelt turned up the heat in the second half and finally found the equalizer from the penalty spot with just under 13 minutes remaining. A long pass into Oskar Schuster was headed down by the German to his countryman Fynn Mewes, who was taken down in the penalty box before getting a shot off. Mewes then stepped to the penalty dot and calmy sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with a shot into the lower-left corner.
The goal energized the Lakers, who had several chances to take the lead in the five minutes after tying the match. Caco Fernandez had a line drive shot blocked at the last moment that went out for a corner kick then Krystian Niziolek's screamer went just wide of the far post. With about eight minutes left, Schuster had a great chance but sent the volley wide of target.
After making three saves in the first half, Eric Carvajal only needed to make one in the second half to help push the game into an extra session. In the overtime, the game flowed pretty quickly back and forth and the game ended less than three minutes into extra time.
The Wildcats sent in a cross the Carvajal looked to handle easily, but a late run from a Wildcats striker re-directed the ball into the net. Carvajal and the Lakers asked the referees to discuss potential interference from the Northern Michigan player as the attacker's leg was high and came right across Carvajal's torso. However, the officials did not overturn their original call after a brief discussion.
