WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Cardinals scored the first four goals of the contest and led 6-2 at halftime before extending the lead in the second half for a 13-5 victory over the Gophers. 

Victor Rosado and Fitz McLaughlin combined for eight goals as the Cardinals while Connor Pierce chipped in with a pair. 

McLaughlin started the scoring at the 8:01 mark of the first period, scoring his 27th goal of the season off a feed from Matt Shandley. Pierce followed at the 6:50 mark to put the Cardinals up by a pair of goals more than halfway through the first. Shandley scored his seventh goal of the season with 1:43 remaining in the period to push the advantage to 3-0. 

Rosado got on the board in the second, scoring just eight seconds in to put Catholic up 4-0 just under two minutes prior to the Gophers' first goal of the game at the 13:09 mark when Jacob Morgan found the net. McLaughlin scored his second of the game with 9:42 left in the first half in a man advantage for Catholic. Luke D'Ambrogi picked up his first of two assists on the day on McLaughlin's finish. Morgan's second goal of the game cut the lead back to three for Catholic with 5:27 to play in the quarter, but Pierce scored his 20th goal of the season to put the Cardinals back up by four with 1:19 on the second quarter clock. 

McLaughlin completed the hat trick with 10:05 remaining in the third period to extend the Catholic lead to five goals. He added his final two goals in the final four minutes of the contest to finish with a team-high five tallies.

The Gophers answered but Catholic scored the next three goals to take a 10-3 lead after 45 minutes of gameplay. Rosado scored his second and third goals of the game at the 8:18 and 1:59 marks of the third while Mike Mulligan put home his fifth goal of the season with 2:52 left in the third off a Rosado assist.

Cooper DiCicco had a monster evening at the face-off X, winning 17 of his 21 attempts and claiming 11 ground balls. Long-stick midfielder Andrew Kearns scooped up four ground balls while Rosado added to his hat trick with a team-high five ground balls.

The Cardinals will look to make it five wins in a row on Saturday when they travel to Drew. Opening face-off is set for 1 p.m.