Olentangy Liberty product Jaggar Brooker scored twice, as did fellow senior forward Franklin Rodriguez, to lead Ohio Wesleyan and coach Jay Martin, the winningest men’s soccer coach in NCAA history, to a win in what was the final regular-season home game of his legendary 47-year career.
More than 100 former players showed up for the finale — a game the Bishops (10-3-2, 5-0-1 NCAC) dominated pretty much from the moment Rodriguez broke the scoring seal in the 16th minute off a feed from Brooker.
“They’re not a great team, but they’re a good, scrappy, hard team,” Martin said of Wooster (7-8-1, 2-4-0 NCAC). “We’re pleased, 4-0 was good. We’re good with that … I’m also very happy with all the alumni who showed up, I was very surprised about that.”
Brooker cleaned up a deflected shot to give Ohio Wesleyan — which outshot Wooster 31-10 — a 2-0 cushion just before halftime. Rodriguez made it 3-0 in the 67th minute off a cross from freshman back Alex Bucher while Brooker smoothed out the scoring summary with an unassisted goal down the stretch.
The defense handled its business, too, with junior goalie Sam Whitman finishing with five saves to collect the clean sheet.
Wooster’s Drew Beazley and Gabriel Thomas split time in goal, combining for five saves in the setback.
Next up, OWU will take on host DePaw Tuesday at 7 p.m. before rounding out the North Coast Athletic Conference slate at Denison Saturday in Granville. First kick is set for 3:30 p.m.
OWU Sports Information contributed to this report.