WASHINGTON - The No. 1 Catholic University of America men's soccer team claimed their first Landmark Championship title since 2010 on Saturday, November 8 in a shootout victory over the No. 3 seeded Unites States Merchant Marine Academy on the CUA Soccer Field.

"It feels really good and validated after the year we've had. We've worked really hard and the guys are really excited about it," said CUA Head Men's Soccer Coach Travis Beauchamp.

In similar fashion to the conference semifinal match, the Cardinals played a full 110 minutes of soccer for a 1-1 tie, and once again sending the contest into a shootout win.

Catholic took an early lead in the championship contest.

With less than 11 minutes to play in the first half, the Cards put themselves on the board after being granted a corner kick opportunity. Junior Tyler Zimmerman inbounded the ball and sent it high into the 6-yard box where junior Josh Barrett sent a goal inside the left post on header.

The Cardinals led 1-0 going into the halftime intermission.

"When you're in the post season, goals are pretty hard to come by so when you get one and you're on top the team starts to feel really good," said Beauchamp. "We felt pretty good going into halftime."

When the teams returned to the field after the halftime break, Catholic fought hard to keep their lead while the clock climbed to 90 minutes. In the 60th minute of play USMMA senior Kyle Arestivo, sent the equalizing goal past Torsten Meuschke.

"The first 15 minutes of the second half I felt good and we moved the ball around well," said Beauchamp. "We were pretty comfortable, but once they tied it up the dynamic shifted and we were on our heels for the better part of the half."

When the game went into overtime the ball went back-and-forth on both ends of the field as the Cardinals only took two shots to the Mariners one. Both team's defensive lines refused to let anything past them in the extra 20 minutes of play and sent the game into a shootout.

"After going through eight rounds of PK's in the semifinal game, we were used to the pressure," explained Beauchamp. "When a game goes to a shootout it becomes a mental thing, and when we got to that point the guys were excited and had a great mentality"

Just as the Cards did in the semi-final game, they sent Cam McGrory in the net for the shootout rounds and Landmark Conference Championship decider, with the senior goalkeeper once again stepping up to challege and finding in net success.

McGrory made two saves on the afternoon, one in the first round and another in the fourth, to earn the Cardinals the Landmark Conference Championship trophy.  The four Cardinal shooters, Alex Laprade, Miguel Hernandez, Ben Fleri, and Barrett, each made their respective shots in the penalty kick series.

"If you can dictate things in the first round of PK's it starts to sway the way things will go," explains Beauchamp "Cam was able to make the first save and set the tone for the rounds to follow."

McGory was named the Landmark Conference Tournament MVP for his penalty kick goal keeping efforts in both the semifinal and final matches of the tournament.

"Cam has faced a lot of adversity in his four years as a Cardinal. We knew because of that he was going to be able step up and do what he needed to do for the team in both the semifinal and final games," expressed Beauchamp. "The coaching staff along with the team had a lot of confidence in him. It was great for him as a player and us as a coaching staff to see him step up to the challenge. I'm really proud of him."

Penelty Kicks: Round 1 (Alex Maney, USMMA, no good, Laprade, CUA, good). Round 2 (Gavin Yingling, USMMA, good, Hernandez, CUA, good). Round 3 (Dan Weldon, USMMA, good, Fleri, CUA, good). Round 4 (Tim Hughes, USMMA, no good, Barrett, CUA, good).

Notes: This is the Cardinals first Landmark Conference since their back-to-back in 2009 and 2010.

In 2011 the Cardinals lost to USMMA in the Landmark finals at home.

This is the first time since 2010 that the Landmark Conference Tournament Champions where decided in a shootout. In 2010 the Cardinals outshot the Mariners 3-0 in PK's.