ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – For the first time in program history, Roosevelt overcame a multi-goal deficit in a winning effort, rallying to earn a wild 4-3 victory over Parkside in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match Friday at Morris Field.

Just last year, the Lakers overcame a two-goal deficit for the first time in coach Paddy Hoepp's tenure to tie Lewis. But it was clear from the moment the second half kicked off that Roosevelt (3-1-3, 1-0-1 GLIAC) was not going to settle for only one point Friday.

The Lakers had their moments in the first half, especially with most of the possession in the first 45 minutes. Yet Parkside still held a 2-0 lead at the intermission as Roosevelt struggled to convert its ball control into quality scoring opportunities. The Lakers held a slim 6-5 advantage in shot attempts in the first half, but neither of their two shots on goal really troubled the Rangers' keeper.

Roosevelt flipped the game on its head in the second half, continuing to dictate the game with possession, but doing so with most of that ball control on Parkside's side of the field. The Lakers attempted 11 shots in the second half, and seven went on goal while many of the other four were not too far off target.

A little more than 11 minutes into the second half, the Lakers finally clawed their first goal back courtesy of Fynn Mewes. The graduate student from Germany collected a clearance attempt from the Rangers and sent the ball into the lower right corner from near the penalty spot.

Less than two minutes later, the deficit was fully erased with Mewes again in the middle of the action. This time, the German found space in the middle and dribbled towards the box before unleashing a through pass to a diving Oskar Schuster, who pushed the ball past the keeper to tie the game. It was the first goal of the season for Schuster, who was an All-GLIAC first-team pick last season.

Roosevelt continued attacking in search of a winner and the Lakers thought they found it in the 71^st minute. Mewes was not credited with an assist on the play, but he did send the pass to Rafael Rios that unlocked the run for Krystian Niziolek. Rios found the freshman on the wing and Niziolek sent in the cross for Omar Yousaf to head home to give the Lakers the lead.

Parkside had one last say in the match and tied the game in the 79^th minute on a play that was nearly offsides. Yet there was still 11 minutes remaining in the match, and a determined team wearing white jerseys.

Valdemar Nambo tried to connect with Caco Fernandez on a high lob pass, but the Rangers came from behind and fouled Fernandez to set up a Lakers free kick. Noah Vasilev took the kick and played a seemingly routine pass across to Luca Swinton. The senior from Italy, however, had other ideas and took a few dribbles before whipping in a 33-yard laser past the outstretched arms of the Rangers keeper for the game-winning goal in the 84^th minute.

Three of the four goal scorers for the Lakers tallied their first goal of the season, giving Roosevelt eight different scorers this season. Mewes was the lone exception as he tallied his team-leading fourth goal, which puts him one behind Parkside's Eduardo Aguilera-Guillen for the GLIAC lead after the Rangers forwarded scored twice Friday.  

UP NEXT: The Lakers will try to carry this momentum into Sunday when they welcome Northern Michigan to Morris Field for a 3 p.m. kickoff.