LEXINGTON, Va. — Despite a fervent comeback effort, the Catholic University men's soccer team saw its season come to an end at the hands of SUNY Oneonta in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals went two goals behind but were able to pull one back before throwing caution to the wind in the final 10 minutes of the match to chase an equalizer.
The first half offered virtually no talking points as neither team threatened at all. Much of the play occurred between the two penalty areas and the only real moment of note was when Oneonta's John Bernardi was booked for a poor challenge in the midfield two minutes prior to halftime.
The match exploded into life in the second half with three goals in the space of 60 seconds.
The Red Dragons found the breakthrough in the 56th minute through their top scorer Luigi Prosperi. Good work down the right from Ali Somow opened up the Cardinal defense, and the winger's low cross was turned in Prosperi for his 10th goal of the season.
Oneonta doubled its advantage in lightning-quick time, scoring just 41 seconds after the restart. The Red Dragons won the ball off of Catholic in the midfield before Somow again provided a sumptuous ball for one of his teammates. This time it was Milton Mancias Magana who was on hand to slot home.
The Cardinals had struggled to create anything going forward to that point, but they were able to muster an immediate response. Just 19 seconds after the kickoff, Catholic's top scorer Gordie Bernlohr halved the deficit to pull his team right back into the contest.
Domenico Caltabiano found his way into the penalty area and used his body well to shield off a potential challenger. As he was ushered toward the byline, he played a low left-footed ball toward the Red Dragon goal in hopes of finding a teammate. Bernlohr, being his usual optimistic self, was the quickest to react and arrived at the front post ahead of goalkeeper Nate Hanna to finish first time.
Catholic grew into the match and Oneonta were then content to allow the Cardinals more of the ball in hopes of hitting on the counter attack. Owen Allegro came up with a big save to deny a Red Dragon attacker at point-blank range to keep the score at 2-1.
Travis Beauchamp's side turned up the pressure in the closing moments. Catholic's best chance to draw level came in the 84th minute when Mudi Jagha nodded a cross back into the danger area for Caltabiano to strike but his attempt was saved by Hanna.
Bernlohr's 15 goals was the most in the Landmark Conference this season and the most by any Cardinal since the 2019 when Ben Alexander found the net 17 times.
