WASHINGTON, D.C. - Catholic University men's lacrosse senior Kevin Crowley scored six goals to lead the Cardinals to a 16-8 victory over Elizabethtown in the Landmark Conference championship game Saturday at Carlini Field.

With the win, Catholic (8-0) earned its third Landmark Conference championship and first since 2016. The Cardinals and Blue Jays have combined to win the last six conference titles with each team winning three apiece.

Crowley was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after totaling eight goals, one assist, four ground balls and two caused turnovers in wins over Moravian and Elizabethtown.

Saturday marked Crowley's fourth game out of eight this season with at least six goals. He scored two of Catholic's first six goals as it raced out to a commanding 6-1 lead after the first quarter.

After the Blue Jays (6-3) scored to start the second, Crowley tallied back-to-back goals to put the Cardinals in front by six, 8-2 with 11:58 remaining in the second.

Following a 54-minute lightning delay, the game resumed with two consecutive Elizabethtown goals to cut its deficit in half after two quarters.

Led by two goals and one assists from sophomore Luke D'Ambrogi and two goals from junior Nick Fanelli, Catholic outscored the Blue Jays 6-0 in a decisive third quarter to take its largest lead of the game, 14-4.

D'Ambrogi finished the game with five points on two goals and three assists while junior Sean Baudo also had five points with three goals and two assists as he recorded his fourth hat-trick in eight games this season.

Meanwhile, Fanelli also had three goals as he totaled his second hat-trick of the season and the fourth of his career.

Defensively, junior Tynan Hillery, who shared Landmark Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors with Elizabethtown goalie Tom Mahoney, had four caused turnovers and two ground balls while Crowley added three ground balls and two caused turnovers.

The Cardinals had 11 caused turnovers and limited the Blue Jays to just 29 shots while winning 17-of-28 faceoffs and picking up 35 ground balls.

Mahoney, who also earned All-Landmark Conference First Team honors, finished with 18 saves. His counterpart and All-Landmark Conference Second Team selection, sophomore Nic Pezone, had nine before giving way to senior Kevin Malone who made one in the final 4:07.

The selection show for the 2021 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship will be tomorrow night at 9 p.m., live on NCAA dot com. As the recipient of the Landmark Conference's automatic bid, Catholic will be making its third NCAA tournament appearance and first since 2016.