Fordham Football ended their season with a 21-14 loss against Colgate University on Nov. 18 in Hamilton, N.Y. The Rams finish their season at 6-5 overall and 2-4 in Patriot League play, a regression from last season’s 9-3 and 5-1 marks. Fordham also dropped their last two games of the season and three out of the last four as they finished fifth out of seven teams in the Patriot League.
The two conference wins for the Rams were their lowest mark in a full season since 2019. Although Fordham did retain a lot of talent from last season’s success, the key departures of Tim DeMorat, Ryan Greenhagen and DeQuece Carter were always going to make regression likely.
After losing to Lafayette College the week prior, Fordham had little to play for heading into Hamilton. Despite that, the Rams wanted to finish their up-and-down season on the right note going into 2024.
Fordham and Colgate were somewhat stunningly in a scoreless tie heading into halftime. There were seven combined punts and three turnovers-on-downs. Fordham forced three Colgate turnovers in the first half, but the Rams’ offense was unable to capitalize on these extra opportunities.
In the second half, Fordham received the ball to start. But on just the second play of the drive, Montes was strip-sacked leading to a Colgate recovery deep in Fordham territory. The Raiders then pushed the ball all the way to the Fordham goalline culminating in a one-yard touchdown run from Michael Brescia.
Now trailing 7-0, Fordham’s ensuing drive stalled in their own territory. Colgate took no time doubling their advantage after Fordham’s punt, with Brescia scoring his second touchdown of the day on a 28-yard run on fourth and short.
Early in the fourth quarter, Fordham was finally able to get on the board. Sophomore quarterback CJ Montes punched the ball in from the one-yard line to make the score 14-7 in favor of the Raiders.
Colgate’s offense, which hit its stride in the second half, immediately restored the 14-point advantage with their third consecutive touchdown drive of the second half. This time, the Raiders used a big kickoff return and a personal foul penalty to start the drive in Fordham territory. Continuing to utilize the run game, Brendan Cassamajor recorded his fourth touchdown of the season to put Colgate up 21-7 with 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
In need of a score, Montes led the Rams down the field with key completions to graduate student receiver MJ Wright and senior Mekai Felton. Fordham got the ball within the Colgate 10 at first-and-goal from the nine. But the Rams offense stalled there. On fourth-and-goal, Montes couldn’t connect with graduate student Garrett Cody and Fordham did not score.
But, Fordham’s special teams unit provided them with a spark of hope. After the defense forced a punt, junior Matt Jaworski broke into the backfield and blocked the kick, giving Fordham’s offense one more chance to cut the lead down. They did just that, as Montes found Felton for a 16-yard touchdown to make it a 21-14 contest.
With a little over three minutes remaining, Fordham needed a stop fast. They managed to halt Colgate on third-and-long and forced a punt, but freshman Andrew Osmun was assessed a critical roughing the kicker penalty that handed the Raiders a fresh set of downs. From here, Colgate was able to kneel down and secure the 21-14 win.
For Fordham, their 6-5 season was a mixed bag overall, but it wasn’t without positives. Montes had big shoes to fill as DeMorat’s successor, but the Rams really couldn’t have asked for much more from the sophomore. He finishes his first season in the Bronx with exactly 3,000 yards, 26 touchdowns and just one interception.
The rest of the offense will likely look different next season. Cody and Wright are both graduate students, as are starting offensive lineman Lucas Portes and Ryan Joyce. But that’s part of college football, and Fordham head coach Joe Conlin has done a good job in recent years of consistently bringing in talented recruiting classes. Defensively, graduate students include two captains in defensive lineman Alfonso Dixon IV and defensive back Stephen Williams II.
After a season opening loss to the University at Albany, Fordham picked up a huge road win against an FBS-opponent in the University of Buffalo in early September. But once conference play began, Fordham began to struggle. A road loss against Georgetown University in the conference opener set the tone for Fordham’s Patriot League struggles.
The season ends with no postseason berth for the Rams, which seemed like it could have been likely after the early-season success. Conlin’s Rams will be back in action in the fall of 2024, beginning with a road tilt against Bowling Green State University in Ohio on Aug. 29.
