Men’s Soccer Honors Seniors Before 6-0 Blowout of Moravian
The team gathers pregame as six seniors were honored: Mike Narzikul, Ryan Kennedy, Mitch Ford, Andrew Laurenzano, and Tim Figuero.
Image courtesy of Catholicathletics.com
By Jared Prenda
Men’s Soccer honored their six seniors prior to a 6-0 home rout against Moravian on Saturday, October 26. Senior’s Mike Narzikul, Andrew Laurenzano, Mitch Ford, Ryan Kennedy, Tim Figuero, and Bradley Piero were announced at centerfield before the start of the game where they and their families were honored for an impressive four years at Catholic University.
The conference victory has kept the Cards to a perfect 6-0 in Landmark Conference play and locked up the 1-seed and home field advantage throughout the conference playoffs. Moravian has also secured a playoff berth, currently sitting in fourth in the Conference with a 3-3 conference record. The Greyhounds will likely be returning to Carlini Field on Tuesday, November 5 for the Landmark Semifinals.
The Cardinals took an early lead in the seventh minute when midfielder Laurenzaro whipped in a dangerous corner kick which defender Kennedy guided home for the third goal of his season and career. The appearance was Laurenzano’s first in three weeks as he sat out for a non-sports related injury. He would go on to assist on one other goal later in later in the game to end his return with 2 assists.
Laurenzano has been key to an active midfield for the Catholic team. In his career he has contributed 5 goals and 4 assists as a corner kick specialist.
Less than five minutes later, classmate Pierro scored the team’s second when he took full advantage of a deflected ball off a Moravian defender to fire home the twelfth goal of his career. Pierro has seen play in all four of his seasons for the Cards, and lead the team in shots on goal percentage both his sophomore and junior seasons.
The Cardinals completely dominated their opponents in the last home regular season game of their senior’s careers. Catholic outshot Moravian 26-3 and held a 6-2 corner kick advantage. Furthermore, the Cards were all over Moravian for the entirety of the game and forced a frustrated Greyhound team to earn 6 yellow cards on late and aggressive tackles.
The back line of Narzikul, Ford, Kennedy, and Figuero continued to show their class as the best in the Landmark Conference. Moravian had 0 shots on goal on the day, earning junior goalkeeper Jack Long his eleventh and easiest shut out of the season.
Each member of the back line is likely to receive All-Landmark honors following the season. Narzikul has been named to the First Team each of his last two seasons, while Kennedy earned a Second Team nomination last season. Ford has been central to contributing to the defense’s success. He started in 7 out of 8 clean sheets his junior season, and was named to both the Landmark Academic Honor Roll last year and All-Sportsmanship Team. Figuero was also named to the Academic Honor Roll both his sophomore and junior years.
Coach Travis Beauchamp has served at the helm of the Cardinal’s for 13 seasons and is looking to capture both his fourth Landmark Championship and NCAA Tournament berth. He was impressed by his team and the performance of the seniors.
“I thought the guys showed how important they are to our program,” said Beachamp. “The seniors came out and scored 2 goals during the first 10 minutes of the match. It would be hard to match that.”
Catholic returns to action for one last conference game before the playoffs. The team takes to the road on Saturday, October 2 to face reigning champions Elizabethtown University. This game is a rematch of last season’s conference finals, where Catholic surrendered the only goal of the game in the first 10-minutes. The Blue Jays sit in third in the Landmark Conference with a 4-1-1 record.
