The Fordham men’s soccer team is off to a strong start to their 2023 campaign after a major upset against the former Ivy League Conference champions, the University of Pennsylvania. Ranked 14th in the nation last year, Penn came to Moglia Stadium hoping to start off their year with a win, but the Rams were hungry for a victory.
New addition to the squad, graduate student Liam Salmon, made his mark early on in the sixth minute, capitalizing on a pass from sophomore Daniel D’Ippolito, who wrangled the ball 10 yards out from the goal, slotting it into the upper 90 corner for the first goal of the game.
The Quakers would not shy away so easily in this game, continuing to play hard resulting in both sides being called on numerous fouls, with Penn leading 23-18 on that statistic and four Rams receiving warnings from the referee.
Penn got their equalizer in the 23rd minute of the game, as the reigning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, Stas Korzeniowski, received a well-placed ball from teammate Ben Do, slipping it right past senior Alex Dolce, making his first start as a Ram.
Salmon made his mark again just under a minute after the Quaker goal as he drew a foul inside the box, resulting in a penalty kick for the Rams. Graduate student Timo Hummrich stepped up to the spot for the Rams, delivering the win for the Rams right into the lower-right corner of the goal.
Penn was not able to find the back of the net after that, giving the Rams their second win of the season, 2-1, and their second win at home.
It was five years to the day that the Rams unseeded a top school — last time, it happened against the University of Wisconsin, taking down the Badgers 1-0.
Challenges continued for the Rams as they went on this past weekend to face off against another tough opponent in Georgetown University. The Hoyas took home the title for the BIG EAST as well as the 2019 National Championship title.
This time, the Rams struggled in the first half, conceding three goals to Georgetown early on. The first goal came from the Hoyas in the 27th minute, off of a header from Maximus Jennings. The assist from the goal came from the recently subbed in Trevor Burns, who would make an impact later on for the second goal as well. With five minutes left in the first, Burns passed it to Kieran Sargeant, who took it to the endline before crossing it for Cole Parete to make it 2-0 at the half.
Right as the second half opened for play in the 50th minute, the Hoyas piled it on for a three-goal lead, with a goal from the head of Zach Zengue.
Fordham was not ready to relent just yet, however. Even though the Rams were lackluster in their opportunities in the first half, they outplayed the Hoyas incredibly going into the last half of the game. Roughly seven minutes after that, sophomore Andre Insalaco headed a rocket from Hummrich to cut the Hoyas’ lead down to two.
Seven minutes later, graduate student Kai Griese crossed the ball over to Insalaco. In incredible fashion as he was turned away from the goal, Insalaco looped the ball over his shoulder toward Hummrich, who finished the deal with a shot making it a 3-2 game.
With 15 seconds left in regulation, junior Jed Dixon sent a ball into the box from a distance that found its way to D’Ippolito just shy of the six-yard box. Once again, the ball was able to find the head of the sophomore into the lower-right hand corner of the goal just past the outstretched arms of the goalie.
The Rams secured the tie, 3-3, ensuring their 2-0-2 record thus far.
Fordham will play two more out-of-conference games before their first Atlantic 10 matchup of the year against St. Bonaventure University on Sept. 16. The first matchup will be against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on Friday at 7 p.m. on the road. The Rams will then travel back home to face Loyola University Maryland for a game on Monday at 4 p.m.
