WINCHESTER, Va.  — The Catholic men's soccer team looked to start the season off on the right foot against Shenandoah on the road on Friday night. The Cardinals found a goal late in the first to take the advantage into the halftime break and the back line held strong in the second half to take home a 1-0 victory over the Hornets in the season-opener.

The Cardinals generated a few shots in the first 45 minutes of the match but finally found the back of the net for the first time in the season with under 10 minutes to go. Donik Elshani subbed into the game and made an immediate impact in his Catholic debut as he stole the ball off a defender just outside the 18-yard box. Elshani took a couple dribbles and tucked a shot beautifully into the bottom right corner to open up the scoring and send Catholic into halftime with the lead. 

Catholic only faced one shot in the first half, none of which were on target, as the Cardinals were able to dictate the pace of play to generate the 1-0 lead.

Zach Robinson created a couple of chances in the final 20 minutes of the contest for the Hornets, the first of which Owen Allegro made his first save of the night, diving to the low right post to keep Shenandoah off the board. Robinson fired another shot just two minutes later that rang high off the crossbar to keep the Catholic lead intact. 

The Cardinals created another solid chance with just under 14 minutes left in the contest off of a corner from the left side when Graham Leary directed the cross in the direction of goal but Shenandoah came up with a save to keep the deficit at one. 

The Hornets got just two more shots off the rest of the game, but could not find the equalizing goal and the Cardinals captured a 1-0 win to start the season off with a victory.  

Elshani scored the first goal of his Catholic career and the fourth of his collegiate career to get the Cardinals in the win column. Catholic outshot Shenandoah 11-5 and put seven of their shots on target in the win.

Allegro recorded his first clean sheet of the season after contributing to seven last season. He along with Leary, Ellington Andrews, Corey Magro and Charlie Paparella played the full 90 minutes in the contest. 

The Cardinals return to D.C. for their home-opener on Tuesday, September 2 for a match against St. Mary's (Md.) at Carlini Field at 7 pm.