HUNTINGDON, Pa. — For the second straight year and the seventh time in history, Catholic men's soccer has been crowned champions of the Landmark Conference.
Corey Magro played the hero, scoring in the 87th minute to ensure the trophy returned to D.C.
Similar to last weekend's meeting, Juniata took an early lead as Nathan Weick beat
Owen Allegro in the 11th minute, putting one home off a Shawn Tanaka assist.
The Cardinals responded in the 27th minute when
Holden Woodings received the ball at the edge of the box, beat a defender, and then beat Juniata keeper Maxwell Mattioni for his 15th goal of the season, tying the contest.
With the game-tying goal, Woodings becomes just the fourth player in the Division III era to score 15 or more goals in a season for the Cardinals, joining Matt Lewis, Ben Alexander, and
Gordie Bernlohr.
Neither team put a shot on target for the rest of the first half, but Catholic's
Charlie Paparella did pick up a yellow card late in the period.
The second half was a stalemate between the two sides throughout much of it with the Cardinals holding a slight 5-3 shot advantage and Catholic continued to limit dangerous chances from Juniata throughout the rest of the contest.
It took just one moment of brilliance for the Cardinals to capture a conference title and that moment came with just three minutes remaining in regulation to punch Catholic's ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Mudi Jagha started the move off by playing a pass through to
Liam Giblin on the right side of the 18-yard box. Like he has so many times this season, Giblin delivered a perfect cross in front of goal that
Corey Magro ran on the end of, smashing home a perfect header into the back of the net for the decisive goal in the conference championship.
The Eagles mustered up one more chance to score off a corner with their keeper, Mattioni up the field but his shot sailed wide of the target and the Cardinals closed out a 2-1 victory to capture the Landmark Conference championship for the second straight season.
Magro's match-winner was his second goal of the season, making him the sixth multi-goal scorer on the squad this season. It was his first goal since the early stages of the season, which came against King's (Pa.) on September 8. Magro was named the Landmark Tournament MVP for his efforts.
Giblin continues to be a key distributor on the squad this year, tallying his fourth of the season on the winning goal. Woodings closes out the conference tournament as the league's top goal scorer this season with 15. His 32 points on the season rank fifth in a single-season in program history since the program has been in D3.
Catholic's seven conference championships is the most in the history of the Landmark with no other team having more than three. The Cardinals have captured three of the last four conference championships and are now 14-7-4 in Landmark Tournament matchups. Catholic is now 1-1 all-time in the conference tournament against Juniata and this was the first meeting in the postseason between the two schools since 2013.
The Cardinals have punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year and the ninth time in program history. Catholic will learn where it's heading this upcoming Monday, November 11 when the selection show takes place at 1:30 pm.
