By Jack McLoone
Despite the good feelings inspired by Fordham Homecoming and senior running back Chase Edmonds breaking the Patriot League career rushing yards record, the end result turned sour. The Holy Cross Crusaders turned it on in the second half, scoring four unanswered touchdowns at one point to win 42-20.
The loss snaps the Rams’ five-game Ram-Crusader Cup winning streak and drops them to 4-6 overall. They are also now 2-3 in Patriot League play and have been eliminated from a chance at the Patriot League title.
The Rams’ offense was as complete as it had been all season, with Edmonds back for the first time in two weeks, along with junior wide receivers Austin Longi, Jonathan Lumley and Andrew Prince. Graduate student quarterback Kevin Anderson, who had struggled with injuries all season, was also active.
The game started off on the wrong foot, quite literally. On the opening drive, Anderson was blindsided and lost the football, with Holy Cross scooping up the ball and returning it 65 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 12:34 left in the first. I say “quite literally” because Anderson was very slow to get up, favoring his left ankle.
The Rams finally got on the board five seconds into the second quarter. Needing just three yards to break the Patriot League rushing yards record, Edmonds ripped off a vintage run, as he broke a tackle after initially being caught behind the line and got free for a 27-yard rush to end the first quarter. While they switched sides, Edmonds had a chance to soak in his accomplishment a little bit and celebrate with his team.
“I grabbed him when he came off the field and said, ‘Hey, I get to have a moment with you,’” said head coach Andrew Breiner. “I just congratulated him, told him I’m very proud of him and said, ‘Let’s go win the game.’ Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. But it does not change how happy I am for Chase to have his name at the top of that record book. Some day, somebody will break it but for the time being, Chase cements himself as one of the best to ever play in the Patriot League.”
Edmonds put an exclamation mark on his achievement by punching in a 10-yard touchdown on the very next play to tie it up at seven. On the next drive, Edmonds and the Rams took their first, and ultimately only, lead. On fourth and one from the Holy Cross seven-yard line, Edmonds bounced off a tackler and found the end zone again to give Fordham a 14-7 lead with 10:29 left in the half. On Fordham’s next drive, Anderson would leave the game with an ankle injury for the final time. He was on the sideline with a heavily-taped left ankle.
“He’s disappointed. He was emotional when he came out of the tent the second time and he had his pads,” said Breiner about Anderson. “He’s such a competitor, he’s such a fighter and he was fighting with everything he had to stay in that game.”
Holy Cross tied things up at the end of the half with a drive that included three plays over 10 yards, including the 15-yard touchdown rush. That was the start of four unanswered touchdowns for the Crusaders.
In the second half, the teams went in two totally opposite directions. Holy Cross extended the lead on their first drive thanks to a 40-yard touchdown rush from Miles Alexander. On the ensuing drive, backup quarterback and Indiana transfer Austin King threw an interception on the 1-yard line. The Crusaders proceeded to methodically march down the field, using 12 plays and 5:35 off the clock to get in the end zone again. They went up 28-14 with 3:35 left in the third quarter.
After the interception, King was pulled in favor of senior quarterback Luke Medlock, who did not fare much better. After perfectly dropping the ball in between zone coverage for a 49-yard completion to Longi, the Ram offense stalled on the Holy Cross 20 and turned it over on downs. Once again, Holy Cross took advantage and ended up in the end zone, effectively ending the game by going up 35-14 early in the fourth quarter.
Holy Cross scored one more touchdown before the Rams finally answered. However, they did so with just six seconds left in the game, when King connected with freshman receiver Hunter Harris. It was both their first career touchdowns.
After a strong first half, the Rams fell apart on both sides of the ball. On offense, the lack of quarterback consistency certainly did not help, though Breiner also pointed to the penetration the Holy Cross defense was getting on every running play as a factor as well.
On the defensive side, the diagnosis was simple: too many big plays.
“I did not see anything on the field that they changed as far as scheme. They ran the scheme that we anticipated them running,” said Breiner. “We got physically beat. We’ll take a look at the tape if there was something schematically that we were doing or they were doing. But when it comes to run defense, it comes down to physicality and tackling. And they were more physical than we were and we missed tackles.”
The Rams were burned for 529 yards of offense, including a whopping 354 on the ground. 82 of those Holy Cross yards came courtesy of running back Peter Pujals, who consistently broke contain for big first downs.
The Rams, meanwhile, finished with just 388 yards of offense. Edmonds, who really looked like himself for maybe the first time this entire season, still only had 63 net yards on 20 carries. He was constantly caught behind the line, having actually gained 81 on the day. He also added one 46-yard reception.
On the receiving side, Longi paced the Rams with yet another huge game. He had eight catches for 147 yards.
While King looked rough at times especially on timing plays, which comes with practice he filled up the stat sheet. He was 10-16 for 173 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
The Rams have a bye week this upcoming Saturday. They will then wrap up their 2017 season at home against Bucknell on Saturday, Nov. 18 at noon.
