In the regular season finale for the Fordham men’s soccer team, things did not fall their way as they were shutout on the road against Loyola University Chicago with a hard-fought 0-1 battle.
While the men already clinched an Atlantic 10 playoff berth, they were battling for a home quarterfinal match. Unfortunately, with the loss, the Rams are assured a road game.
Fordham managed to rack up some scary shots but were unable to find the back of the net. The Rams’ first chance came when sophomore Daniel D’Ippolito soared a kick towards the goal, which was swatted by the goalkeeper in the third minute of play.
The Rams remained on the front foot in the early going, holding a 6-1 edge in shots at the 25-minute mark of the match. Fordham outshot Loyola, 7-5, in the opening 45 minutes.
Loyola managed to put up their own shots that were saved by graduate student goalkeeper Carter Abbott. The graduate student has been a key figure piece in close games with 43 saves across 15 games played.
The Rams’ best chance of the game came in the 75th minute, when graduate student Liam Salmon launched a shot that just missed the net, being deflected by Rambler goalkeeper Aidan Crawford off the crossbar.
The lone goal of the game was scored in the 85th minute, with Markus Maurer having a stellar header goal after a cross came in from teammate Jack McFeely.
With five minutes left, there was little for the Rams to do, so they conceded the match, 0-1.
The Rams finish the regular season with a 6-3-7 record and a 3-3-2 record in A-10 play. They improved since last year’s season in which the team only recorded three wins. However, in both years, they tied many of their matches.
Their first matchup of the postseason is against Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) on Friday at 7 p.m. on the road. VCU comes into the tournament as the number one seed, and Fordham the number eight seed.
The tournament this year is an eight-team single elimination tournament. After the quarterfinals, matchups will be re-seeded heading into the Nov. 8 semifinals, which the two highest remaining seeds will host.
Then, the winner of the A-10 Men’s Soccer Championship will be determined with the A-10 Championship Final at the highest seed’s home site at noon on Nov. 12. The winner of that game will receive the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
