Catholic University of America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Catholic men's soccer team began its Landmark Conference tournament journey on Saturday afternoon against the sixth seed Lycoming at Carlini Field. After trailing in the final 10 minutes of regulation, the Cardinals found an equalizer which spurred them on to a game-winning goal in overtime to knock off the Warriors 2-1 and advance to the conference semifinals. 

The Cardinals thoroughly out-shot the Warriors throughout the match but a goal in the 27th minute of the action had Lycoming in the lead for the majority of the game. Catholic generated several dangerous chances throughout the second half and finally found a breakthrough in the 82nd minute when Charlie Paparella delivered a pass to Azaria Tewodros inside the 18-yard box. Tewodros dribbled around a defender and buried a shot into the back of the net to tie things up at one with just eight minutes remaining in regulation.

Catholic got off two shots in each of the two overtime periods but finally got its opportunity to pull out a win five minutes into the second overtime. Michael Brown ripped a shot that was saved by Jace Bennett but Jack Cappuccio got on the end of the second ball and put the game-winning goal into the net to secure the double overtime victory. In total, the Cardinals had 21 more shots in the action with 13 of those shots being on target. 

The Cardinals have now advanced to the Landmark semifinals for the ninth consecutive season with the victory and they are now 17-7-4 all-time in the Landmark tournament. The program is now also 3-0 against the Warriors all-time in the conference tournament with all three victories coming in the past four seasons. 

Catholic improves to 12-2-4 on the season and are 6-1-1 when playing at Carlini Field this year. It is the fourth time under head coach Connor Keenan that the Cardinals have scored multiple goals in a conference tournament match in five matches played.

Tewodros' goal to tie things up in the late stages of the second half was his fifth of the season to move him into second on the team in that category with five this season, which is also a new career high. His nine goal contributions on the season are the most on the team and he also now once again leads the team in points with 14. Cappuccio's goal to win the match was the first of his career and it also made him the 16th different goal scorer for the team this season. 

Trevor Grice made three saves for the Cardinals in the victory while also playing the full 105+ minutes in goal for the team. Ellington Andrews, Christian Backich, Aidan Brindle, Charlie Paparella and Carson Shamoo all also played the full 90 minutes plus extra time for Catholic.

The Landmark Conference semifinal game will take place on Wednesday, November 4 at 7 pm against third-seeded Moravian. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 pm at John Makuvek Field.