After a long and grueling two-month season, Fordham Men’s Soccer finished the regular season Saturday against Saint Joseph’s University. Home field advantage for the A-10 Tournament was on the line with Fordham having the chance to get the third seed and receive a more favorable matchup. Saint Joseph’s was hoping for a tie while the Rams needed the win. 

However, that is only the most straightforward scenario. Instead, various other results in the conference could have changed things tremendously. For Fordham, one of those matches was Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) against the University of Massachusetts. Both Fordham and VCU were equal on points heading into the final day. However, Fordham had the head-to-head advantage courtesy of its 1–0 win against VCU a week ago. As long as Fordham matched what VCU did, the Rams had a good chance of finishing in the top four and receiving home field advantage in the first round of the A-10 Championship.

Before the match started, Fordham celebrated its senior day, honoring all of its graduating players. Eighteen minutes into the match, Saint Joseph’s started the scoring. The Hawks crossed the ball to the outside of the box which deflected off of a player and fell to Hartmann, who hammered the ball into the right side of the net. This marked his fourth goal of the year and gave Saint Joseph’s the lead.

Fordham pushed for the equalizer but was unable to find it in the first half. At this point, VCU’s match ended in a draw, which meant that all Fordham needed was one point. Fordham kicked things up a notch at the start of the second half: After five minutes Fordham was awarded a penalty for a handball. Redshirt senior forward Sameer Fathazada stepped up to take the penalty but missed it wide of the post. 

However, Fordham kept on the pressure and was rewarded. In the 60th minute, graduate student midfielder Jacob Bohm passed it to graduate student defender Matt Sloan, who crossed it to Fathazada on the left side of the box. Fathazada then chipped the ball over a Saint Joseph’s defender and goalkeeper into the right side of the net to give him his first goal of the season and even up the game.

After that, Fordham kept pushing for the win and had a prime opportunity in the 76th minute when sophomore defender Florian Deletioglu fired a shot into an open net off the crossbar. After 90 minutes of play, the score remained deadlocked at 1–1, and the game went into overtime. Both 10 minute periods passed and the game finished with that same scoreline. Fordham had more shots, with 17 compared to Saint Joseph’s eight, which was Fordham’s number of shots on target. The Hawks’ lone shot on target found its way into the net.

With the tie, the Rams finished the regular season at a conference record of 4–3–1, which totaled 13 points. VCU also had 13 points, but with Fordham winning the head-to-head, the Rams were awarded the fourth seed for the A-10 championship. Fordham will now play fifth-seeded VCU this Saturday at Jack Coffey Field at 7 p.m. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.