Tuesday Sept

Football Improves to 2-0 With Narrow Win Over Monmouth

By NICK GUZMAN

SPORTS EDITOR

For the first time since 2013, Fordham Football is 2-0 to start the season. Then, it was victories over the University of Rhode Island and Villanova University in the season’s opening weeks that propelled the Rams to a 12-2 campaign and a League title.

Now, two huge road wins over Wagner University and Monmouth University have the Rams hoping for similar fortunes in 2022.

Led by a record setting day from senior quarterback Tim DeMorat, the Rams outested the Monmouth Hawks 52-49 on Saturday afternoon in New Jersey in a contest that saw both teams amass over 700 yards of total offense.

DeMorat tied both his own single-game touchdown mark of six and became Fordham’s all-time leader in passing touchdowns with 78, breaking the mark previously set by Kevin Anderson from 201417.

All told, DeMorat completed 34 of 51 passes for a career high 452 yards to go along with his six scores. For his effort, he was named FCS National Player of the Week. He currently leads the FCS through two weeks in passing touchdowns and passing yards per game.

Like last week, it was another slow start for the Rams in the first quarter. Monmouth jumped out to a 20-7 lead after 15 minutes of play thanks to an Alex Bryant 60-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Tony Muskett and a 95-yard scoring run from running back Jaden Shirden.

Fordham fought back in the second quarter thanks to three touchdown passes from DeMorat: one to senior Fotis Kokosioulis, one to junior Mekai Felton and one to senior Dan Byrnes.

For Kokosioulis, history was made as well. His catch was one of 15 for him on the day, good enough for a new school record. These three scores were enough to put the Rams on top 28-26 heading into the halftime break.

In the second half, more back and forth action ensued. A twoyard touchdown run from sophomore Julius Loughridge opened the second half for the Rams, but Monmouth responded with an 80yard score from Shirden.

A field goal from each side meant that the Rams had a narrow 38-35 lead to start the fourth quarter.

Just 14 seconds into the final quarter of action, DeMorat found Felton for a 22-yard score to put Fordham up 10, his second touchdown catch of the day. However, this lead did not last long.

After an Owen Wright rushing touchdown got Monmouth within three, DeMorat marched the Rams back down the field looking for

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS DeMorat etched his name in the Fordham history books last weekend. more insurance. With Fordham in the red zone on the Monmouth 16-yard-line, DeMorat was picked off by Terrell Smith to keep the Hawks in the game.

The ensuing Fordham drive would end in another touchdown for Wright, putting Monmouth on top 49-45 with four minutes to play in regulation.

With the ball down by four, the Rams began their game-winning drive from their own 25. Graduate student running back Trey Snead ran for 43 yards on Fordham’s final offensive series, including a huge 20-yard run on fourth-and-two that set the Rams up in Monmouth territory.

On third down from the Monmouth 14, DeMorat threw a game-winning touchdown to Kokosioulis in the corner of the endzone to put Fordham up 5249 with under a minute to play.

Still needing a stop to secure the victory, the Rams defense put their rough day behind them and came up huge, stopping Monmouth on fourth down with four seconds left on the clock to seal the win.

Speaking on his team’s victory after the game, Fordham head coach Joe Conlin said, “Obviously it was a great effort. Tremendous resilience shown by our guys … the defense came up big with a few stops right before the half and in the second half there at the end.”

Conlin also commented on the play of his offense. “Obviously, offensively we had a great day. Timmy [DeMorat] had a great day, Fotis [Kokosioulis] had a great day, our running backs did a great job. You’d like it to not be that high scoring and that close, but a road win is a road win so you take it any way you can get it.”

Fordham’s offense was truly clicking on all cylinders Saturday. In addition to the historic play of DeMorat, Sneed finished with 110 yards rushing, while Loughridge added 94 yards and touchdown. In the receiving game, Kokosioulis led the way with his record-breaking 15 catches to go along with 130 yards and two scores.

Defensively, the Rams will look to sure up a bit in the coming weeks. They’ve allowed a total of 80 points through the first two weeks of the season and allowed over 700 total yards against Monmouth.

Graduate student linebacker Ryan Greenhagen led the Rams on Saturday with six solo tackles. The Fordham defense, outside of Greenhagan and sophmore star James Conway, has not held its own in the first two games.

Next, Fordham will finally return to Jack Coffey Field for their home opener this Saturday against the University of Albany on Homecoming weekend at 1 p.m.

You can watch on ESPN+ or listen on WFUV 90.7 FM in an important home game for the Rams.

Water Polo Defeats #18 St. Francis Brooklyn, Win Two at Princeton Invitational

By LOU ORLANDO

STAFF WRITER

Fordham Water Polo, ranked #17, earned its first win over a Top 20 opponent this weekend with a win against #18, St. Francis Brooklyn College.

The victory came in the threegame Princeton Invitational that saw Fordham take two of three and improve upon some of the sloppier aspects of their play from the first week.

Fordham split 2-2 at the Bruno Invitational to start the year. With losses to #16 Harvard University and #5 University of Pacific, the Rams would look for better fortunes as they were tested once again with two teams in the Top 20 national poll.

Fordham kicked things off with an 18-11 win over California Lutheran University. The Rams held a 9-4 lead at halftime and carried that momentum into the get a ton of credit for Fordham’s offensive success, Loupakis’ presence in front of the net as a dominant goal scorer adds another wrinkle that opposing defenses have to prepare for.

Gross seemed to adjust well in his first series of games with the team, scoring four goals over the course of the weekend. “I think he’s just gonna get better as the season goes along and as we continue to figure out how to play with him in the confines of our system,” said Bacharach.

Berenyi, fresh off of being named Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Rookie of the Week, continued to impress and appears to be a major factor in Fordham’s overall gameplan. Lercari was impressive in goal, with strong performances in all three games. With a brilliant game against St. Francis and strong performances against Pacific and Princeton, Lercari has fared well early against Top 20 teams.

Despite failing to get the weekend sweep, Fordham’s play in the Princeton Invitational was indicative of a team that showed strong improvement in its second week of play.

Bacharach was critical of the team’s play against #16 Harvard in their season opening loss. While he felt his club got better throughout the opening weekend, it’s encouraging to see Fordham play tighter and cleaner games in their second week. With a dominant win over #18 St. Francis Brooklyn and a well played game against #10 Princeton, Fordham continues to show that they can hang with some of the

third quarter, scoring five goals while holding Cal Lutheran scoreless. Junior Christos Loupakis led the offense with five goals while sophomore Lucas Nieto Jasny was very active with two goals, four assists and three steals.

Graduate student Nir Gross made his Fordham debut after missing the opening week to participate in nationals. The University of California, Davis, transfer notched a goal and two assists in an impressive day for the Fordham offense, with 12 Rams scoring at least one goal.

Sophomore goalie Thomas Lercari shined in the first three quarters, shutting down the Cal Lutheran's offense to just four goals.

The Rams won their second straight game, opening the Sunday double header with a 17-8 victory over St. Francis Brooklyn College. The Rams got on the board first with Gross’ second of the season, giving them a lead they would never relinquish.

Fordham featured a balanced offensive attack; Loupakis led the team in goals for the second straight game, notching four, while sophomore George Papanikolaou and freshman Balazs Berenyi tallied three each.

Gross and sophomore Jacopo Parrella each scored twice in Fordham’s statement nine-goal win. Lercari was superb once again, making 13 saves and holding a talented offense to just eight goals.

Head coach Brian Bacharach described the victory as Fordham’s strongest performance of the season so far.

Fordham was unable to come away with the sweep, falling to #10 Princeton in a tight 13-12 loss. After Princeton ended Fordham’s season last year in the opening round of the NCAA tournament with a 17-8 victory, the Rams put together a much better effort, taking a 10-8 lead into the fourth quarter.

Princeton would put together three straight goals to take a 11-10 lead in the fourth. Gross answered with a goal to tie things at 11, but two straight goals gave Princeton the lead with 23 seconds to play.

Loupakis scored a late extra man goal, but it wasn’t enough as the Rams fell just short. Parrella led the Fordham attack with a game-high five goals while Loupakis notched another three to cap off an impressive series.

Loupakis led the team this weekend with 13 goals. While the big three of players – Parrella, Papanikolaou and Nieto Jasny – rightfully league’s best.

“Part of our focus is gonna be to just figure out how to put together complete games,” remarked Bacharach.

Fordham has struggled to maintain leads against top competition early on this season, surrendering fourth quarter leads to Pacific and Princeton. Bacharach felt his team played well for three quarters against Pacific and three and a half quarters against Princeton, but was unable to maintain that play in the final minutes. He believes that improved team chemistry and conditioning, two things that should only improve as the season goes along, will help Fordham close out those games. “You wanna be peaking in October, November. I think we’re still getting to that point.”

The Rams will get their first taste of league play this weekend, facing three MAWPC team's: Mount St. Mary’s University, Bucknell University and Wagner College in the Bison Invitational.

Bacharach acknowledged that there’s a different mindset going into conference play. “The goal is to win a conference championship. You can’t get to the NCAAs unless you win your conference. This is a big prep week for us.”

At 4-3, Fordham will look to pick up some of those crucial league wins. Despite facing four Top 20 teams, Bacharach is taking a page out of Bill Parcells' book. “You are as good as your record is at any point in time. You wanna be in the top 10-15, you gotta beat the top 10-15.” It’s a mindset like that that keeps the Rams hungry for back to back conference championships.