Eric Lynch and Joakim Carlsson each scored in a dominating 2-0 Wright State victory over Robert Morris Friday evening.
The Raiders improved to 2-0-1 on the season. Friday’s win came four days after a grueling 1-1 tie at Cincinnati Monday.
WSU outshot RMU 22-5 for the contest as Raiders goalkeeper Tyler Blackmer only made two saves for the contest.
After a slow start for WSU, the Raiders finally got their legs underneath them in their third game in a week in humid conditions.
“There was a hangover from playing Cincinnati, we didn’t have a rhythm that night and we were just physically beat on in that game,” WSU head coach Bryan Davis said. “For the first 10 minutes, we just couldn’t connect anything and then all of a sudden, it started to click.”
Despite the dominating effort, WSU went the bulk of Friday’s contest with nothing to show for the effort. The Raiders had a number of good scoring chances before Lynch finally broke the stalemate in the 69th minute.
“Winning in college soccer and college sports is about needing to grind it,” Davis said. “Good teams find a way and right now, we’re okay.”
Wes Cain made a nice effort along the sideline finding Lynch inside the box and he buried his shot from within the 18-yard box.
Thirteen minutes later, Carlsson, a senior defender, scored his first collegiate goal after converting on a WSU set piece.
“This was a tough game, (RMU) wasn’t a team that was going to come out and play on you. That are going to be physical and try to wear you down,” Carlsson said. “Give credit to Robert Morris, we couldn’t get our passing going but we got two gritty goals but it is college soccer and that is what you need to win games.”
Robert Morris had both of its shots on goal in the first half. WSU also had quality chances to score. Its best scoring chance came in the 14th minute when Lynch’s header went off the post on a corner kick.
After a day of rest, WSU is back in action Sunday hosting IUPUI at 5 p.m.
