WASHINGTON, D.C. - Catholic freshman goalie Tyler Merchant made an impressive 20 saves in a 20-6 loss to No. 1 Salisbury on Wednesday evening at Carlini Field. Catholic dropped to 5-4 and will now shift fully to Landmark Conference play. 

Catholic kept the Sea Gulls off the scoreboard for nearly eight minutes before Charlie White put home the first goal of the contest to start a 13-goal run for Salisbury. Merchant made the Gulls work for everything they got, posting a save percentage of 50 percent while facing an astounding 63 total shots. 

Trailing 12-0 at the break, Catholic played a competitive second half, getting outscored just 8-6 in the final 30 minutes. John Hadden put the first goal of the contest in the net for Catholic at the 11:10 mark of the third quarter, scoring his sixth goal of the season off a Victor Rosado assist. Rosado assisted the next goal less than a minute later as Ian Wick put one down off the bar for his fifth goal of the campaign. 

Rosado made it three straight goal contributions for the Cardinals as he scored his first of the game with 4:16 left in the third quarter. Defender Matt Ford put home his second goal of the season with 2:37 remaining in the third for Catholic. 

The Cardinals scored the final two goals of the outing as Rosado put home goals number two and three on the day as he finished off his fourth game this season with five or more points. He now has 19 goals and 16 assists on the year.

Ryan Macksoud won 11 face-offs and led Catholic with seven ground balls while Mason Russo had four ground balls and caused two turnovers for the Cardinals. Mike Tayloe added three caused turnovers and two ground balls while Brendan Falatko grabbed three ground balls as well. 

Catholic kicks off the long stretch of Landmark Conference games on Saturday versus Drew at Carlini Field.