EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR

Carlton Koonce had his third consecutive 100-yard game. He recorded 126 yards on the ground and scored a touchdown. He also had 21 receiving yards. (Photo by Ally White/The Ram)

And the Rams keep rolling. Fordham, ranked 16th in both FCS polls, dispatched St. Francis (Pa.) on the road Saturday afternoon. The Rams improved to 5-0 on the year, setting up a clash with Lehigh (4-0) at Jack Coffey Field this coming Saturday.

Fordham wasted no time getting on the board, as freshman receiver Jorge Solano returned the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.

The Rams would eventually surrender the lead when a 71-yard touchdown run by the Red Flash’s stellar redshirt senior running back Kyle Harbridge put St. Francis up 20-17 with 3:21 left in the third quarter.

Fordham responded with three unanswered touchdowns and came away with a 38-20 victory.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Michael Nebrich continued his strong season, passing for 253 yards with four touchdowns on the afternoon. He and Solano earned honorable mentions from the Patriot League for their performances.

Harbridge racked up a whopping 291 rushing yards in the game on 29 carries and scored all three of his team’s touchdowns. He even passed the ball for a two-point conversion after one of his scores. Harbridge ranks second in the FCS in rushing yards with 753, despite having played one fewer game than the others on the top of the leaderboard. He leads in rushing yards per game by a wide margin with 188.3.

Fordham head coach Joe Moorhead called Harbridge “a tremendous running back”.

“They’re going to run the ball 50 or 60 times a game, and when they do that you have to commit a lot of people to the box, and we had nine men committed,” Moorhead continued. “We stopped him for minimal gains for most of the game, but if you’re out of a gap, or you miss a tackle against a guy like that and you’ve got that many people committed to the box, the run is going to split and go a long way.”

Moorhead also said that while he was upset with the number of yards the Rams allowed on the ground, he was pleased that they only gave up 20 points.

Fordham’s matchup against Lehigh should be different. The Mountain Hawks’ offensive attack relies much more heavily on the pass. Lehigh is averaging 388.8 passing yards per game, compared to 121 on the ground. The Rams’ defense performs much better against the pass than against the run. Fordham ranks 13th in the FCS in passing yards allowed per game, but 86th in rushing defense.

“I think they have featured the pass but are capable of running the ball, too,” Moorhead said. “Their offensive coordinator does an unbelievable job using the weapons at his disposal… While our primary focus might be to stop the pass, we can’t be mindful to forget the run, because they can run it at you, too.”

Lehigh’s come-from-behind victory over No. 7 New Hampshire earned the Mountain Hawks a boost in this weeks’ polls. They come in at No. 13 in The Sports Network poll and No. 10 in the coaches’ poll. Fordham ranks 12th and 13th in each poll, respectively.

The game falls on Fordham’s Family Weekend and a large crowd is expected. It will also be broadcast nationally on the CBS Sports Network.

Saturday afternoon will be the second time this season that a ranked team will visit Jack Coffey Field. The first was on Sept. 7 when Fordham beat No. 8 Villanova, 27-24. This time around, though, the Rams are not considered the underdog.

“It does not feel different,” Moorhead said of being the favorite. “I talked to the team and I said, ‘Whoever has beaten Lehigh here, raise your hand,’ and no one’s hand went up. None of our players on our current roster have beaten Lehigh and myself, as a player and as a coach, I’ve never beaten Lehigh. We may be the prohibitive favorite on paper, but until we beat them, we’re the underdog.”

Categories: Football, Sports