Fordham Men’s Soccer continued its 2021 season and their quest to retain the Atlantic-10 championship by going 2–1 in the past two weeks, sweeping their homestand matches against Davidson College and George Mason University and losing their lone away match against the University of Rhode Island (URI).

For the opening match against Davidson, Fordham thrashed the Wildcats with a 5–1 victory. Fordham scored  in the 20th minute off of a Davidson miscue. The Wildcat defender misplayed a pass and graduate student defender Matt Sloan got the ball and lofted it over the goalkeeper into the back of the net to give him his third goal for the season.

The scoreline remained that way until the 62nd minute when sophomore midfielder/defender Florian Deletioglu passed it to sophomore defender Galen Flynn, who fought off a defender and the goalkeeper and chipped it from the penalty spot into the open net to double the Rams’ lead on the night, giving him his second goal of the season. 

The Rams kept applying pressure and five minutes later senior midfielder Paul Makaj took a shot from outside the box. The goalkeeper blocked the shot, but it was deflected onto Sloan, who put the rebound into the back of the net to give him a brace on the night.

Fordham continued to punish the Wildcats with Deletioglu scoring off of a scramble in the Davidson box to make it 4–0. The Rams increased their lead in the 85th minute when junior midfielder Savvas Chrisoforou was fouled in the box, giving the Rams a penalty which graduate student defender Luke McNamara converted to make it 5–0.

Unfortunately, Fordham was unable to keep the clean sheet when Connor Smith scored in the game’s dying seconds to give Davidson a consolation goal.  The five goals in this dominating victory were the most by the Rams in a single game since 2019 when they beat College of the Holy Cross, 5–0.

The Rams then played on homecoming weekend against George Mason University. They capped off the day they received their A-10 championship rings in style with a 2–1 victory over the Patriots. The Rams scored in the 31st minute. Sophomore Max Rogers sent a free kick into the center of the box where graduate student midfielder Jacob Bohm headed it into the back of the net for his first goal of the season, giving the Rams the lead.

It remained a 1–0 game until Fordham doubled its lead in the 55th minute. Rogers’ corner kick found sophomore defender Sebastian Fabrin’s head for his first goal of the season to double the Rams’ advantage. George Mason got a goal back in the 70th minute courtesy of Balint Kosco. However, George Mason was held at bay for the rest of the match as Fordham did not let them have another shot on goal. The Rams were scheduled to play another game at home versus Hofstra University, but it was cancelled.

The next match instead came against Rhode Island where the Rams fell 1–0. The only goal of the match was courtesy of Jordan Koduah in the 48th minute, enough for URI to come away with the win. Fordham had several chances to equalize but could not convert any of them. Fordham had an opportunity in the final seconds of the game with Flynn crossing the ball to Deletioglu who headed it toward the net, but Stefan Schmidt caught the ball on the line to secure the win.

When asked about the team’s performance over the past two weeks, head coach Carlo Acquista said that they “did a lot of really good things with those two victories.” Acquista also expressed some disappointment with the loss against URI, stating that “we played the best [at URI] out of all three games and couldn’t get a point.” With these games completed, the Rams have an overall record of 5–8–1, 3–3 in conference. When asked about the team’s chances to make it to the A-10 Championship, Acquista said that he “is very confident” about qualifying, saying that the team knows they need to play well in the remaining games to get there.

Those next games are both away. The first is against Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday at 7 p.m. in another A-10 clash with the second game being a non-conference matchup against Princeton University on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Both of these games are available on ESPN+. With the regular season coming to a close, all of these matches are important as Fordham continues its quest to become back-to-back A-10 champions.