LEXINGTON, Va. – Senior forward
Patrick Rooney (Littleton, Colo. / Mullen) scored a pair of goals to highlight the No. 13 Washington and Lee men's soccer team's 4-0 home win against Oglethorpe on Friday afternoon, the Generals' fourth straight win.
W&L (4-1) got on the board early in the game, as it took just 99 seconds for junior defender
Park Bruner (Atlanta, Ga. / Atlanta International) to score off a feed from senior midfielder
Michael Kutsanzira (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe / Putnam Science Academy (Conn.)) from the right side of the 18-yard box.
Bruner then helped first-year midfielder
Matteo Adler (Cobham, England / ACS Cobham International) on the team's second goal, as Adler extended the lead to 2-0 in the 17th minute. Bruner brought the ball up on the right and crossed before reaching the goal line, where Adler met the pass and finished from close range.
Rooney got on the board in the 39th minute for his first score of the season. Senior defender
Charley Colby (Prairie Village, Kan. / Shawnee Mission East) sent a long pass up the left side, that Rooney controlled behind the defense. Rooney needed one touch to evade a defender, and placed his shot through the keeper's legs to put W&L up, 3-0.
In the 81st minute, Rooney added his second goal of the game, a pass from sophomore forward
Sandor Franch (Tallinn, Estonia / Tallinn European School) positioned Rooney within six yards of an empty net after the keeper came out to cut Franch off.
Rooney's goals were his first two of the season and just the second and third of his career. Bruner finished the game with three points and leads the team with three assists this season. Colby's and Franch's assists were their first this year. First-year goalkeeper
Will Joseph (Wilmette, Ill. / New Trier) (4-0) earned the win. He made four saves in 90 minutes of action, all of which came in the second half of play.
Sophomore midfielder Ben Alram led the Oglethorpe offense with two shots in the contest and seven other players tallied one shot each. One of Alram's attempts was on frame. In goal, sophomore Ethan Harrison (3-2-1) suffered the loss and allowed four goals. The keeper made four saves in 82:12 of action; junior Spencer Hsu covered the final 7:48 and made one save.
W&L took five more shots than Oglthorpe in each half to finish the contest with a 19-9 advantage. The Blue and White also earned six corner kicks in the game, including five in the second half, and conceded none.
The Generals return to action on Sunday when they host Emory at 3:00 pm.
