Men’s Soccer Is Landmark Championship Bound

By Katie Ward

Catholic University men’s soccer played against Elizabethtown on Saturday, October 27.   The game began at 1 p.m. after a brief Senior Day ceremony to honor senior Cardinals Tyler Martin, Aaron Boyle, Brian Galfond, Jake Nabbie, and Corbin Brailsford.

Neither team could find the back of the net, and the game was left at 0-0 after two overtime periods. Elizabethtown played a physical game, forcing Catholic to play on the defensive for most of the first half. Catholic defenders locked down in the 18, including Brailsford, Ryan Kennedy, Mitch Ford, and Mike Narzikul, who all played the full 110 minutes. Goalie Jack Long, with five saves, has had a phenomenal goalkeeping streak as he increased the team’s clean sheet to six games on Saturday.

Elizabethtown made 13 shots in the first half, but only five in the next 65 minutes of play; Catholic rallied after a slow first half of 3 shots with 6 in the second half and another 5 during both overtime periods.

Catholic’s seventh straight win ended its regular season with a 10-5-1 overall record and a 5-1-1 conference record, making it second in the Landmark Conference rankings entering into conference play this week.

The first playoff game was this Wednesday, October 31, at 7:30 p.m., when the Cardinals hosted the third-seed Drew University Rangers in the Landmark Semifinal match and won 2-1. Sophomore midfielder Nelson Zimmerman made the game’s first goal with a header halfway through the first half. After the Rangers evened the score at the end of the first half, freshman forward Ben Alexander made the second goal of the night in the 64th minute, after a beautiful cross from Brian Galfond, his second assist of the night. Long continued his dominance in the net with a season high of 12 saves.

The Cardinals will verse the Blue Jays again when they play at Elizabethtown on November 6 at 6 p.m. for the Landmark Championships.