Weekend Victory Would Secure Slot in Playoffs

After a long and testing season, it all comes down to just one game to finish up the regular season, as the Cardinals could clinch the Old Dominion Athletic Conference title with a win over Bridgewater on Saturday.

“I think we can’t grow complacent with what we have done so far this season,” said senior captain Nick Olivero midseason about what needed to be done to reach the playoffs. “We have to be even hungrier and more focused for the next game if we want to have the type of success that we desire.”

The Cardinals drowned Guilford College 49-34 last Saturday. Senior quarterback Keith Ricca passed for over 500 yards and threw five touchdown passes. Read more

Football: Cards Will Try to Snatch #1 Seed

The men of the football team are not just facing down the Guilford Quakers formidable offense this weekend; they are facing down their own destiny.
Hanging on Saturday’s game is a guaranteed seed in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship. Success means top placement in the tournament, failure leaves their playoff chances in the hands of other teams.

Offensive Lineman Steve Prieur puts it this way, “This week is a big game, for the entire program. We just need to focus on this week and not about what has been going on around us. We can go out, play our game like we have all year, and take care of business.”

As the football season begins to wind down, the Cardinals remained in control of their own destiny as they defeated Emory and Henry 38-23 on Saturday to improve to 7-1 (3-1 ODAC) and on track for a possible playoff berth. Catholic came into the game as the favored team after upsetting #18 ranked Hampden-Sidney 33-21 last Saturday. The Cardinals once again showed off their offensive dominance once again led by Senior quarterback Keith Ricca, who was named for the second time this season an ODAC player of the week.
Ricca finished with 27 completions on 37 attempts (73%) for 345 yards and five touchdowns, three of which topped more than 20 yards.

His favorite target on the day was Senior wide-reciever Miles Sabrick who finished with nine catches for 184 yards and a touchdown, which gives him his third plus 100 yard reception performance on the season. As for the remarkable season Ricca has had, he now leads the ODAC in quarterback efficiency rating (156.6) and touchdown passes (25).

Although the offense seems to be the big headline every week, it is not just because they are blowing teams out, but being efficient on their drives. The major contributions that Brown has given the running game has allowed Ricca to capitalize on picking apart defenses every week for a full throttled attack that has left defensive coordinators in awe.

The Cards will return to action this Saturday, and will travel to Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. The Quakers and Cardinals meet on the gridiron for the 10th time in a series that dates to 1999. Guilford’s victory last season gave the Quakers a 5-4 lead in the series history.

Last year at Cardinal Stadium, Guilford won 34-27 thanks to Markas Brunson’s 88-yard blocked field goal return for a touchdown with 1:24 left. It will be the last away game for the Cards this season; they will be coming home for the last game of the season, hopefully still in control of their destiny.

Birds Drop in Round Robin

The Catholic Volleyball team fell to two of their three opponents last weekend at the Landmark Conference Round Robin Tournament.

The Cards first took on Merchant Marine, dominating all three games. Senior Kilah Fox contributed 8 kills and 7 defensive digs, while Michaela Carrol gave 26 set assists, six digs, and two service aces.

On Wednesday, the Cards took court against Mary Washington, losing again in straight sets.

“This season is different from previous ones mainly because we have lost some great players, not only from graduating seniors, but underclassmen as well,” says  senior Kilah Fox.  “It has been a challenge and a learning experience with so many new freshmen, but we continue to improve and work together as a team. I think this season has gone pretty well so far.”

The losses and wins this week put Catholic with a current record of 7-18 and a Landmark record of 2-4. In 2007, the women’s team garnered an overall record of 20-15, and a Landmark Record of 5-1.

Cards to Face AU Eagles at Verizon Center Sunday

The hockey squad will hit the ice in a much bigger arena then they usually skate. Following a pre-season match up between the Washington Capitols and the Boston Bruins, the Cards will be playing against the Eagles of American University at the Verizon Center. Puck drop is expected at 7:30 in the evening.

This will be the second straight season in which the Cards have played at the Verizon Center and to Senior Assistant Captain Zak McGinniss, there isn’t a more priveldged feeling.

“It’s amazing to play on that ice in front of hundreds of CUA students. It’s a great atmosphere and really gets the team going” said McGinniss.

The Cards have already begun their young season, with three wins and two defeats. So far the team has had a very exciting start with dramatic overtime wins and big time upsets.

Game one was an overtime nail biter, ending with CUA defeating Widener 6-5. The Cards scored six unanswered goals. McGinniss got the Cardinals on the board with a goal with nine minutes left in the second period. Then in the 3rd period, CUA scored four goals in just two and a half minutes tying up the game and forcing the extra time. With all the momentum on their side, the Cards scored six seconds into overtime.

Following such a dramatic win, Catholic went on to defeat division two opponent Lasalle 6-4. This past weekend, the team played in a tournament against some highly touted competition.

Fourteenth ranked Indiana U of Pennsylvania and third ranked Fredonia defeated the cards by a combined score of 13-7.

After those upsets, the cards bounced back to defeat tenth ranked PSU-Altoona 4-1. As for Sunday night’s game, it should be another tough battle from start to finish, but so far early on this season, scoring on both sides has been easy to come by so fans should expect an exciting match.

The team is looking forward to be playing in front of a big CUA crowd and has requested a RED-OUT, having all CUA students to wear red coming to the game.

First Conference Game to Follow Upset Loss

 

Tomorrow afternoon, the Women’s Soccer team will play the biggest game of their season, traveling to Pennsylvania to face off against conference powerhouse, Juniata College (6-2 overall record, 1-0 conference record).

Junior midfielder Diana Spadaro believes that the next few games of their season will be watershed moments for the squad. “We are just waiting for that one game to change our season and change our attitudes. Even though we go into every game with positive attitudes and the motivation to win regardless of the opponent, these next few games will be extremely crucial for the rest of our season.”

 

After a strong week of practice, the Cards, (2-4-1) were ready to play Frostburg State University, but Mother Nature had other plans. Rain forced a game cancellation. The cancelled game was a major disappointment because the Cards had hoped to avenge their tie with Frostburg State from last season.

Their next game came against Montclair State University and the Cards were looking to get back to their winning ways after dropping their last two out of three. They dominated the game but Montclair State had the last word in a heartbreaker. Though CUA out shot their opponents 14-7 and out-kicked them from the corner 7-1. Players agreed that the loss was due to committing a cardinal sin and eased off before the final whistle was blown, squandering their 1-0 lead with just eleven minutes left to play.

“The Montclair game was a learning experience for us,” said Spadaro. “Soccer is a 90 minute game and you have to play through no matter what the score is. Though we were definitely happy with how we played for the first 80 minutes, in soccer it takes more than that.”

Freshmen midfielder Maggie McCarthy notched her second goal of the season, giving the Cards a 1-0 lead in the sixteenth minute of play. The Cardinals continued to dominate on both sides of play for nearly an hour thereafter, both out shooting their opponents while in control of the ball and then by limiting Montclair’s shots on the CUA goal when falling back to play defense. However, Montclair State made the most of their seven shots. With eleven minutes to go, Montclair State tied the game with a goal from Symone Seldon. Just six minutes later, Natalia Sisti knocked in what would later turn out to be the winning goal for Montclair State. Spadaro led Cards’ offense with a game-high four shots, but the Cards felt as if they let a win slip away from them.

Even though they have played seven games to date, in some ways this season is still very young for the Cards. They have yet to play a conference opponent, and how well they do in their conference will ultimately determine both their playoff hopes as well as the overall fate of their season.

Cards Respond to First Loss With Accelerated Practice

After winning their first three games to start the season, the CUA football team was handed their first loss of the season Saturday at Randolph Macon. Although the Cardinals went into halftime with a 14-9 lead, the yellow-jackets fought back to secure a 32-20 victory. With the loss the Cardinals drop to 3-1 overall and 0-1 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC).

For CUA, the game was truly a story of two halves. The Cardinals got on the board first with a two yard run from Wide Receiver Miles Sabrick, who finished the game with 70 yards receiving. After a Randolph Macon touchdown and field goal put the yellow-jackets up 10-7, the Cards retook control of the game when Senior Greg Brown scored with only seventeen seconds left in the half.

 

This momentum however, did not carry over into the second half. Senior Safety Nick Olivero, who ended the afternoon with ten tackles and an interception, noted “I don’t think we matched the intensity that Randolph Macon had in the second half.” The yellow-jackets went on to score twenty-three unanswered points. Quarterback Keith Ricca, who finished with 230 yards passing, hooked up with Senior Wide Receiver Andrew Buis for a thirteen yard touchdown pass late in fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.

When asked about the differece between the Randolph Macon game and first three wins, Senior Tight End Ryan McManus said, “We just didn’t execute our offense and we blew too many chances”.

Head Coach Dave Dunn added, “We just made too many mistakes and were too inconsistent in the second half to win the game”.

The Cardinals look to rebound next Saturday when they host Maritime College on Saturday at 12 pm. The Maritime Privateers are 2-2 on the season and are fresh off a 34-20 victory over Norwich University. With both teams losing to Randolph Macon by similar margins this season, look for the outcome of this game to be decided in the fourth quarter.

In order to get a victory against Maritime it will be important for the Cardinals defense to stop the run. In their last game Maritime tallied an impressive 323 yards on the ground, as well as an uninspiring 6 net passing yards. One way to stop the opposing offense is to keep your defense off the field. The key to this strategy is converting on third down, something Coach Dave Dunn has said they have to improve.

In regards to the preparation for this weekend’s showdown against Maritime, Senior Nick Olivero said, “Mentally, we need to get in and watch film on Maritime so that we are fully prepared for anything they throw at us. Physically, we need to be more intense and play at a higher pace in practice. If we do those things we shouldn’t have any problem bouncing back.”

Although the Cardinals are not looking past Maritime, the following week they will begin a set of five straight conference games, the first of which will be at home against Washington and Lee. Last year, Washington and Lee finished 4-2 in conference play, which was good enough for third place in ODAC.

Washington and Lee opened their season with a 24-0 loss to Franklin and Marshall, a team Catholic defeated 14-7 earlier this season at Cardinal Stadium. Since then, Washington and Lee have won three straight games, improving their record to 3-1. As will be important against Maritime, the Cardinals must stop the run if they want to be successful against a Washington and Lee offense that prefers to keep the ball on the ground.

Losses Prompt Self Evaluation

After Saturday’s loss to Chris Newport brought their losing streak to three consecutive games, the Cardinals salvaged hopes for their season with a big win on Wednesday, bringing their overall season record to 4-4.

On Saturday the Cardinals suffered a 3-1 loss to the Christopher Newport Captains (7-3). Catholic was to held to no shots in the first half, and junior goalkeeper Mariah Cassilly let one get by in the by opposition Katelyn Yandle. Late in the second half, Chris Newport pulled ahead. The Cardinals managed to get three shots, one of which was sunk by junior Carley Walko. Despite the glimmer of hope by cutting the lead in half, the Captains’ Yandle reinforced the lead by scoring again just four minutes later.

 

The last few games for the Field Hockey team have been less than stellar. Despite their predicted undefeated season by the Landmark Conference, the team has found themselves stuck in a rut. When it comes to this unexpected change of pace in the season, Cassilly says, “I am not sure there was a problem with the team; we just lost some intensity. We need to get back on track, and remember why we love to play hockey, and remember our goals for the season.”

        It’s going to take a lot to turn everything around and make some changes to live up to their acclaimed reputation. According to Cassilly, the key to coming out of this slump is to, “focus on becoming more mentally tough. We are a very skilled team, but we need some work on becoming tough and persevering through the losses.”

While there is room for improvement before their upcoming game against St. Mary’s, there are strengths as a team. “The team has a very strong defense,” said Cassilly. “Our back line is very supportive on the field. Captain Ro Dixon was moved to the back line, and she has helped the defense come together and work as a unit.”

Despite this discouraging stretch of losses, the team maintains that their competition hasn’t seen anything yet. “I feel [that] we are a very strong team,” says Cassilly. “We have not shown others how amazing we really are, and we are working on getting ourselves together, and once we do I feel that we will be unstoppable!”

The team certainly proved just that on Wednesday as they shutout St. Mary’s with a final score of 4-0. The Cardinals soared above and beyond the Seahawks by having new freshman Tracey Scanlon in a position that she had not played before, but proved to earn her keep as she scored the second goal of the game unassisted at 42 minutes after freshman Liz McCormick scored the first goal at  the 40 minute mark assisted by senior and captain Ro Dixon. After these exciting goals, the team kept firing in shots by sophomore Abby Banholzer and Dixon.

      Coach Gia Cillizza attributed several factors to their win over St. Mary’s. “A lot of the losses had to do with the past five games being away,” admitted Cillizza. “While that’s no excuse, it’s still tough to bounce back after not being on your home turf. I think that the girls were just tired of losing and really wanted to come out of that low point in the season. In the previous games we were playing like high schoolers just pushing the ball forward. In the game tonight, we played our style.”

As for upcoming games, Cillizza feels the team is now back on track to achieving the preseason prediction. “I feel that now that we’ve found our rhythm we’re going to have many more successful games to come,” said Cillizza.

        The Cardinals take on Juniata at home this Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

Cross Country Picks up High Finishes

Both cross country teams turned in another strong performance at the Belmont Classic on Saturday. The women’s team placed third overall, while the men’s team finished in eighth place.

“We wish we had done better,” admitted Senior Captain Jenna Hackett. She cited the absence of senior Mary Shashaty competing in the meet as affecting their overall score.

 

The frontrunner for the women this meet was Hackett, finishing in seventh place with a time of 20:14;17. Strides behind her was freshman Katie Sacker, clocking in with a time of 20:38;88 for a ninth place finish. Sophomore Madeline Cronan and junior Remy Ball were Catholic’s next two over the line, with times of 20:51;41 and 21:27;88, respectively.

The Cardinals finished in third place overall with 81 points, just behind Ursinus College and Philadelphia College. They were the top DIII finisher at the meet.

While they do not have a meet for another two weeks, the women’s cross country team isn’t just standing around. Hackett said the team is going to run a Road Race Group this Saturday, giving the proceeds to charity.

The women’s team is also taking advantage of this free time to tackle a number of goals they have for upcoming meets. “We are going to work on staying within 30 seconds of each other after the first mile,” said Hackett. “We are also going to work on our speed and strength individually.”

One the men’s side, the team was led yet again by senior Paul Santuoso, finishing with a time of 28:30.01 in sixteenth place. Seconds later came junior Andrew Smith, crossing the line at 28:40.45. Sophomore Kris Reynolds was third for the Cardinals, clocking in at 29:29.36.

“My top three are experienced and dedicated athletes, and that is why they have been leading the team,” said Coach Mark Robinson. “And if they continue to improve, [it may] give us a chance to get into the high placing at the championships.”

Robinson is also counting on increasingly solid runs from Brian Norte, who he cited as showing rapid improvement this season. “We actually ran better than the 8th place finished even indicated,” said Robinson. “We finished second in this race last year, but I believe this team will be better at the end of the season than last year’s group.”

With two meets remaining before the Landmark Conference Championship, Robinson said the team is going to work on building their speed and strength. The men’s team is also focused on closing the gap in future races. “Our other goal is to try and get our #5 - #7 runners closer to the top four,” said Robinson. “We need whoever emerges as our #5 to not have the type of gaps we have had up until this point.”

The women’s team will be back in action at the Gettysburg Invitational on October 18th, while the men prepare to run at the Juniata Invitational on October 11.

Merch. Marine Sent Packing

After ten days off, the Cardinals (6-1) were anxious to get back on the field Wednesday in their highly anticipated conference opener against rival Merchant Marine Academy (6-2). Coach Travis Beauchamp, who worked as an assistant coach at Merchant Marine for three seasons, came into the game looking for his first win against his alma mater.

The game lived up to the hype, and CUA came out with yet another narrow win, defeating the Mariners 3-2.   Junior forward Matt Brady scored two goals and Sophomore Kevin Duffy chipped in with a goal and an assist.  With this win, the Cards move to 1-0 in the Landmark Conference and upped their winning streak to four games.  Meanwhile, the Mariners, last year’s Landmark Conference champions, dropped to 0-2.  

From the first sound of the whistle, the Cardinals came out firing.  Matt Brady put the Cardinals on the board within the first ten minutes of the game off an assist from freshmen Bryan White.  CUA pushed their lead to 2-0 later in the first half when Kevin Duffy found the net off a header that had been crossed into the box by freshmen Michael DiMarco.  Although the first half ended with the Cardinals securely holding a 2-0 lead, Merchant Marine was not ready to throw in the towel.  

The Mariners responded with a spark of their own to begin the second half.   Merchant Marine senior Kyle Luetjen scored two goals within 15 minutes of each other to tie the game at two goals apiece with over 20 minutes to play.

“When Merchant Marine scored we knew we had a tough time ahead,” said Goalkeeper Quinn Daly.  “The defense stuck together under an enormous amount of pressure.”   Yet as has been characteristic of the Cards this season, they proved resilient and found a way to snag the win.  

With ten minutes left in the game, Duffy played a thru ball to Brady, who dribbled around the goalie and scored the game winner.   The defense, led by captain Tim McAneny, held strong for the final minutes which earned CUA their first conference victory.  McAneny, who turned 21 on Thursday, received an early birthday present by defeating Merchant Marine, a team he desperately wanted to beat after they lost to them 5-2 last year.   

The Cardinals outshot Merchant Marine 16-13 and goalkeeper Quinn Daly finished the game with five saves.  After the game, Coach Beauchamp noted, “Even though we had a let up in the second half by giving them back a couple of goals, we worked hard in the end and came out on top. I am really proud of how our guys worked to get us the win!”

The victory has given the Cards confidence that they can play with the elite teams in the Landmark Conference.  ”It was a true team effort and everybody came together, especially when Merchant Marine tied the game in the second half,” said Brady. ”We just put it behind us and went back to work.”

One reason for the Cardinals’ early success has been the contribution they have received from the incoming freshmen class.  In the win over the Mariners, Coach Beauchamp got quality minutes out of his freshmen.  Defenders Brian White and Hal Cogan helped secure their one-goal lead late in the game, and midfielder Michael DiMarco provided a solid presence in the middle of the field.  

Although the Cardinals are very happy with their performance thus far, they are quick to realize that they still have a lot of work to.  “This is just the start of things,” said Duffy. “It was a huge win but now it is behind us.  We just have to keep plugging away, stay level headed, and continue to put the same effort in practice.  If we are able to do this we will continue to get good results”.

The Cardinals are looking to extend their win streak to five games when they travel to Maryland on Tuesday to play St. Mary’s College (2-4-1).  Their next home game is scheduled for Tuesday October 7 at 4:00 against Washington College.

Brady Picks up Player of the Week

Not even half way into the season, junior Matt Brady has established himself as one of the most intimidating offensive players in the Landmark Conference. In his freshmen year, he was honored as the ‘Capital Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year’, and has continued his quality play every since. This year, he has scored in five out of the Cardinals seven games, with a total of seven goals and three assists in the season.  

Brady, a civil engineering major from Woodbridge, Virginia, has been a starter ever since he came to CUA in the fall of 2006.  He was a five sport athlete at Potomac High School, where he played soccer, hockey, golf, as well as ran track and cross country.   

 

Although his high level of play on the soccer field is evidently worthy of great praise, you would never know this if you had a conversation with him.  His modest approach as a player and captain possibly deserves even more admiration.   His unique ability to serve as an intermediate between the players and coaching staff has been critical in shaping the dynamics of this year’s team.    With the help of fellow juniors Brian Pappas and Tim McAneny, Brady has been a major contributor to the program’s steady improvement over the last three years.  

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