DELAWARE, Ohio (October 28, 2023) – With its seed for the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament on the line, the Denison University men's soccer team finished the regular season with a 2-0 shutout win at Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday night at the Jay Martin Soccer Complex. With the win, Denison holds onto the No. 3 seed for the upcoming conference tournament.

Denison scored early on as a long pass into the middle of the box by Jake Krueger led to a nice first-touch and shot by Corey Brunner for his second goal of the season in the 17th minute.

OWU, meanwhile, did not get its first shot of the match until the 35th minute when goalkeeper Zach Barr stepped up and saved the attempt by Jaggar Brooker, who had netted the game-winning goal in OWU's 1-0 win at Denison during the regular season a year ago.

Barr, who was making his first start since September 30 at Hiram College, added another save in the 43rd minute as Denison outshot OWU 5-2 in the first half but trailed 2-1 in shots on goal and 3-0 in corner kicks.

However, five minutes into the second half, Denison's first corner kick of the match was taken by Cameron McIntosh, whose pass found its way to Miles Crosser in front of the goal for a shot to the bottom right corner to notch his first-career goal and put the Big Red ahead 2-0.

Denison nearly made it a 3-0 lead twice as a shot from just outside the box by Krueger hit the crossbar in the 56th minute, and then in the 58th minute, an offsides call negated what looked to be the second goal of the match by Brunner.

A minute later, a shot on goal by Rohan Tripathy was saved by the Battling Bishops' Mason Taylor, who made two mores saves on shots by McIntosh (64th minute) and Krueger (66th minute).

After entering the match to start the second half, Tommy Prokos made a save on an attempt by Christopher Guerra, the leading shot taker in the NCAC, in the 48th minute, and then he wasn't challenged again until making a save on a header in the 77th minute.

Prokos added another save on a bicycle kick in the 80th minute as OWU tried to claw its way back into the match, and then he had an easy save in the 85th minute for his fourth and final save of the half.

In all, the Big Red defense did its job by holding a strong Battling Bishops' attack that is ranked second in the NCAC in scoring to just six shots on goal.

OWU entered the match with five straight wins with at least two goals scored and at least a two-goal margin of victory, but that all ended on Saturday as the Big Red will try to take the momentum into next week's matchup.

"Tonight was the complete performance I've known was in this group", spoke Head Coach Brandon Bianco. "I'm really proud of the team and happy we could finish the regular season with this match. We'll recharge our batteries and get ready for next week."

For the third season in a row under Coach Bianco, Denison (10-4-3 overall, 4-2-2 NCAC) wraps up its regular season with 10 wins and heads to the NCAC Tournament semifinals as the No. 3 seed. In addition, for the third season in a row, the third-seeded Big Red will take on second-seeded Ohio Wesleyan in a return trip to Delaware, Ohio. The Big Red and the Battling Bishops will square off yet again at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 1.