Cardinals pick up impressive road win at Hampden-Sydney

HAMPDEN SYDNEY, Va. – CUA ran its winning streak to three straight on Sunday afternoon as the Cardinals picked up an impressive 3-1 win over Hampden-Sydney on the road.  CUA got two first half goals to jump in front and then added a third score in the second half to up its record to 4-2 and send the host Tigers to their fourth defeat of the season.

“We played well today,” CUA head coach Travis Beauchamp said afterwards.  “We put together a good plan and stuck with it.  We were able to do some things that we really wanted to do, we pressed them (Hampden-Sydney) hard and created chances for ourselves.” 

He continued, “This is a program that has had a lot of success the last few years,” Beauchamp said in reference to Hampden-Sydney.  “So for us to come in here and get a good result is a real positive for our team.”

Mike Brennan was the offensive star for CUA on Sunday as he netted a pair of goals on the day.  His first score came at the 17:32 mark as the Cardinals jumped out to a 1-0 lead.

After only 45 seconds ran off the clock, the Cardinals struck again, this time when Nick Sylvester blasted a direct kick into the back of the net at the 18:17 mark to put the visitors ahead 2-0. 

“I thought that was big to get the second goal,” Beauchamp explained.  “Sometimes after you score a goal, there is a tendency to let down, but we came right back and got another.  That allowed us to dictate the way the game was played.”

The two teams traded shots for the remainder of the half, but CUA’s defense kept the Tigers off the scoreboard as the Cardinals took their two-goal lead into intermission.

Early in the second, Hampden-Sydney sliced CUA’s lead in half when Bryan Wharton took a feed from Brandon Haynes and scored at the 53:20 mark to make the score 2-1.  The Cardinals were unfazed though as Brennan scored his second goal of the match just 1:25 later to put CUA in front 3-1. 

“Mike made a great play on his second goal,” Beauchamp said.  “It was a terrific finish.  We scored two goals from outside the 18 today and that was great to see.”

CUA controlled the remainder of the match, out shooting the Tigers 8-5 in the final 35 minutes and Quinn Daly registered two of his six saves during that time. 

In total, the Cardinals out shot their counterparts 24-14, while both teams were awarded four corner kicks.  Tigers’ goalkeeper John Robert Plyer recorded eight saves for the home team and CUA’s Brennan took a game-high five shots.

“This was a good weekend for us,” Beauchamp said.  “These were two very tough, physical matches which featured a lot of hard work and a lot of hustle.”

He added, “Our defense has really done a good job of late.  The goal we gave up today was off a free kick, so we haven’t given up a goal within the flow of a game since the Johns Hopkins match.  Those guys on defense are playing well for us.”

Following the game, Nick Sylvester was named MVP of the tournament.  Joining him on the all-tourney team were Mike Brennan, Ian Smith, Pete Wawrzusin and Quinn Daly. 

CUA will return to the pitch on September 16 when the Cardinals travel to take on Mary Washington.  The match is scheduled to begin at 4:00.  “Afterwards I told the guys we can’t get too excited about this result,” Beauchamp said.  “We have to get back to work.  We have two difficult road matches and then we open league play so we have to keep getting better.”