By Jack McLoone

It was ugly, it was long and it was disappointing. Fordham Football came into its Patriot League opener on the road against the Lafayette Leopards hoping to put their 1-4 out-of-conference record behind them. Instead, they lost 14-10 and now slip to 1-5, and 0-1 in-conference.

Fordham looked poised to get on the board early after a facemask penalty on a punt return set the offense up on Lafayette’s 29 yard line. After a 20-yard completion from graduate student quarterback Kevin Anderson to junior wide receiver Austin Longi —who had not played since the Army game —put them on the 9, the drive stalled out. Freshman kicker Andrew Mevis, who took over field goal duties from junior Kyle Facibene last week, continued Fordham’s field goal woes, clanking it off the right post.

The Rams later benefited from a few field goal mishaps from Lafayette. Leopards kicker Jeffrey Kordenbrock hit from 29 yards out, but a holding penalty negated the field goal. On the attempt from 39 yards out, the Rams burst through the middle and blocked it; junior defensive back Bryce Petty returned it all the way to the Lafayette 17.

Two plays later, Anderson hit Longi with a beautiful fade to the corner to go up 7-0 with 13:10 to play in the second quarter. That touchdown was his 70th career passing touchdown, a Fordham record. It was also Fordham’s only touchdown of the game.

“I’m incredibly proud of Kevin,” head coach Andrew Breiner told WFUV. “We’ve spent a lot of time together. It’s been incredible to watch him grow as a quarterback, grow as a person. I’m happy his name is in the Fordham record books to stay for a long time. He’s done some great things here.”

Longi finished with 10 catches for 111 yards and the touchdown.

The Rams scored for their final time on their first possession of the second half. Anderson and the offense put together a long drive, but were unable to finish it, stalling out inside the Lafayette 10-yard line. Breiner did go to Mevis this time, and his faith was rewarded with a 22-yard made field goal. The Rams were up 10-0, but not for long.

The Leopards finally got on the board with an 11-play, 81-yard touchdown drive. On fourth and 2 on the Lafayette 30, senior defensive back Caleb Ham went for the interception instead of making the stop, and receiver Dylan Wadsworth made a SportsCenter-worthy catch to convert. Later in the drive on third and 6, junior defensive back James Biggs-Frazier was flagged for blatant pass interference in the end zone to extend the drive again. Two plays later, the Leopards were within three, 10-7, with 13:33 left in the fourth quarter.

There was plenty of time left for the Rams to extend their lead, but a backbreaking interception of Anderson soon turned into points and the lead for Lafayette.

Two Fordham defensive backs collided to allow wide receiver Rocco Palumbo to break free for a 63-yard touchdown. Junior defensive back Antonio Jackson went for the interception, obliterating another Ram defender and springing Palumbo free to go untouched to the end zone to take a 14-10 lead with 5:06 remaining.

Fordham had one more real chance on the next drive, starting on their own 31. They moved quickly across midfield, but multiple mini-disasters struck in succession. First, Anderson left with an injured ankle, stranding senior backup quarterback Luke Medlock with a third and 15. However, he hit senior running back Chase Edmonds with a swing pass, who broke a couple of tackles to convert and put the Rams on the 31.

A few plays later, Anderson came back in and handed it off to Edmonds up the middle. He made one cut and went down grabbing the ankle that had caused him to miss two full games and two halves of others. He returned to the game for Fordham’s final drive.

However, it was third and 4 with just over five minutes to play, and the Rams needed to soldier on. But two throws to the end zone fell incomplete, and so with them went the Rams’ chances.

Fordham did have one more possession after a strong defensive showing gave them the ball back with 55 seconds left, but they were unable to convert on a 38-yard Hail Mary attempt, ending the game.

Fordham ended the game with 412 yards of offense but not much to show for it. They were just 6-16 on third down and 1-5 on fourth down. Anderson finished 29 for 47 for 277 yards with one touchdown along with one interception.

Lafayette did a great job bottling up the Rams’ running game, holding Fordham to just 122 yards. Edmonds, after sitting out the second half of the Yale game last weekend, was once again held under 100 yards rushing. He had just 78 yards on 23 carries. His chance at the FCS career rushing yards record of 6,559 is all but gone, as he came into the game needing to average about 180 yards per game.

While they did lose, the Fordham defense played incredibly well for the first time in weeks. They held the Leopards to just 255 yards of total offense, including -5 rushing yards. The Rams also had two sacks for -21 yards, which gets factored into the rushing total.

“I think the frustration right now is that in different games, different units are playing really well, and unfortunately the other units aren’t,” said Breiner. “So we aren’t playing complementary football. Obviously, this past week, I’m very pleased overall with the defensive performance. Hold a team to negative five yards rushing – obviously sacks are involved in that statistic – and to 14 points and you expect to win the football game. Unfortunately, we didn’t score enough points to do so.”

Fordham, having already been in a dire situation in terms of making the FCS playoffs, will need to both win out and get a lot of help to win the Patriot League.

“I’m not a big believer in moral victories,” said Breiner. “But to look around the league and see that Lehigh and Lafayette are the only teams, I believe, that don’t have a loss in the league at this point [note: Georgetown has yet to play a Patriot League opponent], seeing the potential parity that’s in the league, there’s hope. But what we have to do is we have to win a football game, and we have to do that before we think about anything else.”

The Rams will look to get that win this Saturday, Oct. 14 at Colgate University. Kickoff is scheduled for noon.