The regular season came to a close for the Fordham men’s soccer team this past weekend. The Rams lost to the Loyola University Chicago (LUC) Ramblers, 1-0, and fell to the eighth spot in the Atlantic 10 (A10) standings. This position was good enough to sneak into the A10 Championship, but Fordham has now failed to win a match in six straight contests heading into the playoffs.
The Rams had already secured a playoff spot prior to the game, but official seeding remained up in the air. The situation was the same for the Ramblers, although the home team was pushing for a higher position than Fordham with home field advantage on the line.
Early in the game, the Rams claimed the majority of opportunities. In the third minute of the game, a dangerous cross found the feet of Daniel D’Ippolito, FCRH ’26, who proceeded to shoot through traffic toward the right side of the goal. Aidan Crawford, LUC ’27, made a diving save but could not corral the ball. Liam Salmon, GSAS ’24, chased down the rebound and took a shot of his own from point blank range, but Crawford dove again to make a leaping stop and keep the Rams scoreless.
Through the first 30 minutes of play, Fordham outshot the Ramblers 6-2. Loyola was still able to create an opportunity for itself with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Lukas Ender, LUC ’25, drove toward the Rams’ net and found space to shoot.
His attempt tailed away from goalkeeper Carter Abbott, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) ’24, but he was able to leap and push the ball out of harm’s way. The game remained tied heading into the halftime break, 0-0.
The second half began similarly to the first. Aside from a shot on goal by Julian Cisneros, LUC ’24, that was saved by Abbott neither team threatened to score in the first segment of the half.
The game moved along until the 75th minute when Fordham got its best chance of the game. Salmon fired a screaming shot toward the top corner of the net that required Crawford to tip the ball very slightly directly into the crossbar. Despite the dangerous opportunity, the score remained knotted with 15 minutes remaining.
Fordham has now failed to win a match in six straight contests heading into the playoffs.
The draw was broken in the 84th minute. Jack McFeely, LUC ’27, sent a cross through the box that deflected off of a few feet before bouncing in the air. The ball fell directly to Markus Maurer, LUC ’24, who forcefully headed it into the back of the net. With that, Maurer did a celebratory backflip and Loyola took a 1-0 lead.
Fordham would put one more shot on target in the final minutes of the game, as Salmon sent a shot directly into Crawford’s grasp with just over a minute left in the match. When the final whistle blew, the Rams did not know what position they would find themselves in or who their opponent would be, but it was determined that Fordham would occupy the eighth and final seed in the upcoming A10 Championship.
Meanwhile, the Ramblers moved to a final regular season record of 8-2-4 with a 4-1-3 record in A10 play. That ended up being good for the second overall seed due to their last minute victory against the Rams.
After a hot start to conference play, Fordham lost some steam down the stretch. It opened with three wins in its first four A10 matches but concluded with a series of draws and losses that left it with a 3-3-2 record against the conference.
Now, the Rams will face the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Rams on Nov. 3 in Richmond, VA. VCU finished the regular season as the top team in the A10 and will be a tough foe to defeat in the opening round of the A10 Championship.
VCU has allowed only five goals by A10 opponents, the least in the league this season. Fordham will need to put together one of its more complete performances of the year to overcome the stingy VCU defense and get the ball past goalkeeper, John Ermini, VCU ’25, who leads the league in save percentage at .839.
For Fordham to move on it would require the team to win for the first time since Oct. 4. The match will be streamed on ESPN+ for Fordham supporters who cannot attend the game in person.
