Catholic University of America

WILKES-BARRE, Pa.  – The Catholic men's soccer team began a four game road stretch on Saturday afternoon as they took on Wilkes, looking to continue its run of not allowing a goal in conference play in the early stages of the Landmark schedule. The Cardinals put together a thorough performance over the 90 minutes, putting five goals past the Colonels keeper while allowing just one shot on goal to help them prevail to a 5-0 victory to improve to 9-0-3 on the season.

The scoring for the Cardinals was opened by Christian Backich as he tallied his first goal of the season after taking a pass from Carson Shamoo and he rippled the back of the net to give them a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute. Catholic prevented a single shot from Wilkes in the first 45 minutes while it got 18 shots of their own off.

With less than two minutes remaining in the period, Andres Lopez received a ball from Jack Cappuccio and doubled the Cardinals lead with a goal of his own to send them into halftime with even more momentum. 

Owen Allegro made his lone save of the contest in the second half as the Cardinals continued to limit any good scoring chances for the Colonels. The goals continued to pour in for Catholic during the latter half of the action with Seth Michalak beginning the scoring just over 15 minutes into the half on an assist from Shamoo which was his second of the game. 17 minutes later, Hamin Oladokun would be the next Cardinals player to add his name on the score sheet, finding the back of the net for the fourth time this season. The final blow was dealt after the Cardinals were awarded a penalty in the final two minutes of the contest. Azaria Tewodros stepped up to the spot and buried home the penalty to put a final exclamation point on the victory.

Catholic is now 9-0-3 after picking up the win and extended their streak of conference matches without a loss to 43 straight games. The program's streak of regular season games without a loss has now reached an even 40 games. It is the second time this season that the team has scored five goals in a match.

Michalak, Oladokun and Tewodros have now each scored in back-to-back games with Michalak and Oladokun sitting as the team leaders in goals with four each. Shamoo became the first player on the team this season to record multiple assists in a game and he is now tied for the team lead three on the season. Backich became the 13th different goal scorer for Catholic thus far on the season, just one shy of the amount of scorers from the team last season. 

Allegro recorded the 21st shutout of his career in the win and played the full 90 minutes. Aidan Brindle was the lone other player to play the full 90 minutes. 

Catholic returns to the field on Wednesday, October 14 for another Landmark contest against Elizabethtown. Kickoff is set for 7 pm at Ira R. Herr Field.