By Tyler Freire
From L to R: Dante Greer, Eric Ohlendorf and Christopher Bazzini celebrate with Patrick Thees on the way. (Andrea Garcia/The Fordham Ram)
After starting the year 0-2-1, the Rams played host to Fairfield University and Lafayette College this week at Jack Coffey Field. As most people were heading home for Labor Day weekend, the Fordham men’s soccer team welcomed the Fairfield Stags to the Bronx for a game that did not disappoint.
Fairfield opened up the scoring in the eighth minute when Dominic Marshall took a shot for the Stags, which deflected off of a Fordham defender right to Ben Wignall. Then Wignall laced a shot inside the left post from 25 yards out for his third goal of the season. The score would remain that way until the 52nd minute, when sophomore midfielder Janos Loebe crossed the ball from the left side of the pitch to his brother, junior Jannik Loebe. Jannik got off a header shot that deflected off a defender and up in the air. Junior Eric Ohlendorf then headed the deflection in for a goal to even the score 1-1. That was Ohlendorf’s first goal of the season and his second of his career.
The Rams then relied on the goalkeeping of sophomore Rashid Nuhu for the remainder of the match to keep the game tied 1-1 as they headed to overtime in the Bronx. The game would be over rather quickly as the overtime period started, as Ohlendorf slipped a beautiful pass into the box that found the boot of junior Cole Stevenson where he then drove in the winning goal, his second of the year, just 39 seconds into overtime, giving the Rams the 2-1 victory on Labor Day.
Head coach James McElderry gave his thoughts on the team’s overtime performance.
“I thought we ended the regulation part of the match very well. The guys seemed fresh and hungry to win the game as opposed to hanging on for a tie. I just told them to go after the win. We had no idea we would score so quickly, but it was a good goal. So a deserved win for our team.”
Later in the week, the Rams hosted the Layfette Leopards in a Friday night matchup in the Bronx. Layfette would get on the board first late in the first half as a botched clearance from the Rams lead to Layfette’s Joe DeStefano scoring from about 16 yards out for his first goal of the season. Fordham would even things up in the 56th minute as Jannik Loebe was able to get a pass through to freshman forward Dantae Greer inside the box, and Greer turned and fired a shot past the outreached arms of the goal keeper for his first collegiate goal.
However, the game would not stay tied for long, as Lafayette scored four minutes later when Evan Vare put one past Fordham’s goal keeper, sophomore Rashid Nuhu. Vare would go on to score again in the 85th minute to seal the 3-1 victory for the Leopards. With the win against Fairfield and the loss against Layfette, the Rams fell to 1-3-1 on the year.
“The Lafayette match was very odd,” said McElderry. “We created a lot of chances in the game, so I still feel we have huge potential in the group. We will start to convert our chances and the wins will come. We have to stay confident and simply continue to grind and work in training. I am looking forward to the Manhattan game, mainly because it gives us another opportunity to improve and earn a win. The players are hungry to get to the next match and show people what we can do.”
The Rams are looking to get back on track as they travel down the road to Gaelic Field in Riverdale, New York on Wednesday night in the Battle of the Bronx against the Manhattan Jaspers.
