Fordham Men’s Soccer suffered their share of wins and losses this past week as they faced three different opponents in Saint Joseph’s University, Rhode Island University and Hofstra University.
The 24th NCAA ranked Fordham Rams had their fair share of matches this past week against tough opponents. Their first match of the week came against Saint Joseph’s Hawks at home in the Bronx.
The Rams were playing down right away, as in the fourth minute of play, the Hawks’ Luke Johnson got the early lead as a pass from teammate Mikkel Andersen came across the pitch, and Johnson was able to make use of a breakaway chance, burying it in the net past Fordham graduate student goalkeeper Carter Abbott.
Graduate student Liam Salmon moved the Rams to a tie with the Hawks as he drew a foul in the penalty box. Taking the kick was graduate student Timo Hummrich during the 14th minute. Going into it, Hummrich was perfect on the season, with three made penalties, and increased to four-for-four in the penalty situation.
Fordham continued to apply pressure, looking for that second goal, as graduate student Kai Greese’s almost goal narrowly avoided the goal as it hit the crossbar, and graduate student Shizu Yohena right before halftime unloaded a shot that just missed out on the back of the net.
The second half marked a turning point for the game, as Fordham severely outplayed the Hawks. In the 68th minute, they were rewarded with the advantage as graduate student Sigfus Arnason was able to shake a Saint Joseph’s defender, finding the foot of senior Florian Deletioglu at the top of the box. Deletioglu blasted his shot to the upper-90 of the net, securely winning the game for the Rams, 2-1.
The nationally ranked Rams proved their dominance, especially as Saint Joe’s did not register a shot attempt or a corner kick in the second half.
But the Rams’ week didn’t stop there as they suffered their first home loss this season to Rhode Island, in a tough 0-1 match.
The first half remained quiet on both sides, as neither team could find the back of the net. That’s not for lack of trying of course, as the Fordham Rams had six shots in the first half.
However, in the second half, Brandon Bermingham was the Rhode Island Rams’ savior, collecting a long pass near the top right corner of the box, and then dribbling through a pair of defenders. He beat Abbott’s dive to the left, sending a shot to the back of the net.
Fordham had a few more chances, furthered by the fact that Rhode Island had to survive the final 2:30 a man down because of a scrum in front of the URI goal, in which a red card was issued to Rodrigo De Castro. However, the Rams were not able to lock this one down.
The last matchup for the week for the Rams came against #16 ranked Hofstra University. Just five minutes into the game, the Rams got on the board off of a set piece goal started by Yohena. He delivered a corner right to graduate student Louis Lehr, who was positioned at the top of the box. He slotted one into the bottom corner for the 1-0 advantage for the Rams.
From then on, most of the game remained quiet with both sides fairly evenly matched. Hofstra was able to just edge Fordham in terms of shots on goal.
Junior Jed Dixon tried to recreate the earlier set piece goal, this time heading it into the goal to have the ball just batted away by the Hofstra goalkeeper.
Trouble spelled for the Rams with 33 minutes left in the game as sophomore Daniel D’Ippolito attempted to head down a ball from a cross into the box. In his efforts, the ball ricocheted off of his hand and a penalty kick was issued to the Pride.
Eliot Goldthorpe took the kick for Hofstra, burying it to the opposite side of Abbott and evening the score, 1-1.
The Rams had a couple big chances late into the game but neither side was able to overcome the tie.
Now on the week, the Rams acquired a win, tie and loss and are 6-2-4 on the season. Next the Rams will take on just one match for the week, against the University of Massachusetts on Saturday, as they enter in the last three Atlantic 10 matches of the season.
