It was a Senior Night to remember for the John Carroll men's soccer team, as an early barrage of goals put them in the driver's seat in the Ohio Athletic Conference race.

Jesse Marinaro netted two first-half goals on the way to a 5-0 victory over Capital on Saturday night in University Heights.

Marinaro added an assist on the night. Justin Miller had a goal and an assist. Myles Taylor and Hayden Parente also scored goals on the night.

The Blue Streaks improve to 9-5-2, including a near-perfect 6-0-1 in the OAC. Capital drops to 12-2-2 and 4-1-2 in conference play. JCU can clinch the regular season title by winning both of their final two games.

"Getting three points tonight is obviously the biggest thing," said head coach Hector Marinaro after the game. "[Capital] spoiled our Senior Night last season, so I'm so happy for our seniors that we took this one."

"We're concentrating on Tuesday, but they believe in themselves right now and I could not be more proud."

Myles Taylor kicked things off in his final regular season home match by depositing a rebound off a Marinaro shot in the lower left part of the goal in the 16th minute. Roughly 1:45 later, Marinaro buried his fifth goal of the season off a free kick from 30 yards out.  

Before the end of the half, Justin Miller corralled a ball at the midfield logo and sent a deep pass to Marinaro. The junior made a move to beat the keeper and ran down the ball before firing it left into the goal. His sixth goal on the year made it 3-0 with nine seconds left in the half.

"As a team, we're playing well at the right time," said Jesse Marinaro. "We knew we'd have to play team offense and team defense against a nationally ranked team. That's exactly what we did against a quality opponent."
In the 57th minute, Dalton Browsky chased a ball to the right of the goal and sent a pass backward to Hayden Parente. The freshman stepped into the ball and curved it past the goalkeeper into the left corner of the net.

JCU's defense held strong throughout the match, and a senior-to-senior connection put the exclamation point on a complete performance. Kirk Ring entered the game late, and sent a free kick into the box, which was deposited left of the keeper by Miller in the 83rd minute.

"It is so huge to have teammates like this," Miller said. "We wouldn't be where we are without them."

It was a strong finish for the group of seniors: Michael Melfi, Taylor, Tim Delaney, Miller, Ring and Kyle Shaffer. The group has compiled a record of 55-17-5 in their four years at John Carroll. That squad has appeared in three OAC Tournaments, three OAC Championship matches and were the regular season champions in 2014.

"Come tournament time, we think we can do something special," Miller said.

The march to a potential second title for that group continues on Wednesday night in Alliance, Ohio against the University of Mount Union.