ARLINGTON HEIGHTS – Less than three minutes after the lights turned back on at Morris Field, Fynn Mewes dimmed the lights on Parkside.
The graduate student from Germany scored for the fifth straight game, providing the only goal in Roosevelt's 1-0 win over the Rangers on Thursday night in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener. Mewes is the first Roosevelt player to score in five consecutive games in program history.
The goal came just minutes after the contest was restarted in the second half due to the lights going out for 10 minutes at the Lakers home field. The 65th-minute strike was a combination of Roosevelt's patient ball-control attack and Mewes' dynamic movements in tight space.
After receiving the pass from Noah Vasilev, Mewes backed into his defender and spun away from the pressure to create space for himself. He fired his left-footed strike perfectly into the far corner past the outstretched arms of the Parkside goalkeeper for his fifth goal of the season.
Roosevelt was back on the field Thursday following an 11-day hiatus between games, and the Lakers (3-0-2, 1-0-0 GLIAC) were a bit rusty in the first half. Despite holding much of the possession through the opening 45 minutes, Roosevelt had few dangerous chances on frame. The Rangers had the two best chances of the first half, but Cedrik Strupler was up to the task and denied both shots in the fifth minute of action.
The Lakers looked more like themselves in the second half and began threatening in the Parkside half of the field. However, the lights suddenly shut down with 27:39 left in the game, forcing a 10-minute stoppage before the field was re-illuminated. After the lights returned, the pressure ramped up with Mewes scoring and Roosevelt nearly adding a second goal twice with passes that barely evaded the intended target.
Strupler made five stops for his third clean sheet of the season as Roosevelt held a modest 12-10 edge in shot attempts.
UP NEXT: The Lakers host Purdue Northwest on Sunday at 3 p.m. as the second half of a doubleheader with the women's soccer team at Morris Field.
