WASHINGTON, D.C.  — The Catholic men's soccer team clinched an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, its fifth consecutive trip to the postseason, with a 2-1 win over top seeded Juniata for the seventh Landmark championship in program history. The Cardinals are heading to Fredericksburg, Va. to Mary Washington for their first round matchup in the tournament. 

After seeing the first three teams in the Mary Washington region were announced, Catholic's name appeared on the NCAA Tournament Selection Show screen, setting up a date with the Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan. 
Ohio Wesleyan comes in with a rich history as a program in the NCAA Tournament, now making its 45th appearance in the tournament, winning two national championships (1998, 2011) and reaching the final four 10 times. Its 45 appearances in the tournament are the most out of any other school in the D3 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament.

The Body of Work

The Battling Bishops played to an 11-4-3 record in the regular season as they headed into the postseason on a nine match unbeaten streak. OWU fell to DePauw 2-1 in overtime in the semi-final of the NCAC tournament after going unbeaten in conference play in the regular season at 6-0-2.

After a tough spell in the opening month of the season, Catholic comes into the tournament with a 10-5-5 record after going 5-0-4 in Landmark play which is its third consecutive unbeaten season in conference matches. The Cardinals took on three teams who made the tournament field in the regular season and went 1-2-0 in those games with the victory coming over then-ranked #3 Washington & Lee. 

Ancient History

This will not be the first meeting in the NCAA tournament between these two programs this upcoming Saturday. OWU knocked off Catholic 2-1 in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament in the only ever meeting between the two schools. Tyler Wall and Travis Wall were the two goal scorers on that day for the Battling Bishops while Kevin Duffy scored late for the Cardinals.

Ohio Wesleyan wound up making it all the way to the elite eight in that 2010 season, picking up wins over Keyon (2-0) and Johns Hopkins (1-0) before falling to Lynchburg, 2-0.

Old Dog Versus New Tricks

The years of experience in coaching is quite a gap in this matchup as Connor Keenan is in just his second year as a head coach while OWU's head coach Jay Martin is in his 47th season at the helm of the Battling Bishops. Martin holds a career record 773-168-84 (.795) with two D3 national championships. He is the only coach across any NCAA men's soccer level to reach 700 wins in their career. 

Keenan does have some experience coaching against Martin as an assistant coach during his time at fellow NCAC school, Denison. Martin held a 3-1 record against the Big Red during Keenan's time in Ohio and the programs met both years in the NCAC Tournament going 1-1 in those matches. 

Offensive Genius 

The Cardinals roster one of the most prolific goal scorers in the country in Holden Woodings. The Landmark Offensive Player of the Year has 15 to his credit this season which led the conference and is tied for the third most in D3 program history in a single-season while also being tied for 25th in the nation. Woodings also has two assists to his credit to bring his season point total to 32 which is the fifth-most in D3 team history. 

The Cardinals also had two midfielders make the All-Landmark squad in Domenico Caltabiano and Hayden Lim. Caltabiano became the fourth player in program history to be selected to the All-Landmark First team three times, adding two assists this year to his program leading total of 20. Lim is the leader in assists this season on the squad which was the sixth-most in the Landmark. Catholic finished with the second most goals in the conference this season (34).

The Battling Bishops have had a three-headed monster in terms of goal scoring this season between Franklin Rodriguez (9), Jaggar Brooks (8) and Christopher Guerra (7). Brooks, who is now a four-time All-NCAC selection, led the conference with 12 assists this season and was also second in the league in points with 28. Rodriguez ranked third in the league in both goals and points (22), earning his second All-NCAC honor. OWU's 47 goals led the NCAC this season which was six more goals than the next closest team. They outscored opponents 27-4 in conference play this year. 

Dissecting the Defense

Both programs bring multiple all-conference defensive players to the matchup led by Ohio Wesleyan senior Brady West the NCAC Defensive Player of the Year. Junior goalie Sam Whitman and freshman defender Alex Bucher also earned all-conference honors for the Battling Bishops. 

On the other side, Catholic brings All-Landmark First Team selection Liam Giblin and second-team selections Mudi Jagha and Owen Allegro to the battle. 
With the lead of the aforementioned trio, Ohio Wesleyan allowed the second-fewest goals in the NCAC (17). West contributed on the offensive side, scoring a goal and adding three assists while Bucher tied for second in the conference with six assists. In goal, Whitman posted four shutouts and ranked second in GAA (.930) and save percentage (.805) in the NCAC. 

The Cardinals ramped up their defensive pressure once Landmark Conference play started, allowing just four goals in nine contests. Giblin put together his best season yet, scoring a goal and handing out four assists while playing nearly 100 more minutes than any other Cardinal. Jagha played nearly 1,400 minutes and followed up last year's all-region selection with another all-conference nod. Last year's Landmark Rookie of the Year, Allegro, posted a .852 save percentage and a GAA of 0.45 in nine conference games to earn second-team honors for the second straight year. Only Moravian (3) allowed fewer goals than Catholic in Landmark Conference play. 
 
 Match Details

The match is set for 1:30 pm on Saturday, November 16 at the Battleground Athletic Complex on Mary Washington's campus. The winner will take on the winner of the matchup between Mary Washington and William Peace on Sunday. Sunday's match will take place at 1 pm. 
The Cardinals will try to make it out of the first round for just the third time in program history after falling to SUNY Oneota 2-1 in the opening round last season. 

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