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Charlottesville, Va. – For the third time in four seasons, the Fordham men's soccer team is once again in the NCAA Championship. After receiving the Atlantic 10's automatic bid in 2014 and 2016, the Rams received an at-large berth for the first time in program history, after finishing the year at 12-5-2 overall with an NCAA RPI ranking of 26. However, unlike 2014 and 2016, the Rams got a monkey off their back, getting the program's first-ever NCAA win on Thursday night by defeating St. Francis Brooklyn, 3-2, in overtime at Fordham's Jack Coffey Field.
The Rams received goals from
Jannik Loebe and
Matthew Lewis in regulation, and then got the game-winner from
Joergen Oland in the 96th minute. The win moved Fordham to 13-5-2 on the season, tying the program record for wins in a season at 13, set in 1985.
In the second round, Fordham will hit the road and head to Charlottesville, Virginia to face the #11 seed Virginia Cavaliers at 5:00 PM on Sunday at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers are 12-3-5 on the season, and finish ninth in the RPI rankings. In the final United Soccer Coaches Poll, the Cavaliers ranked #8 in the country, while being #15 in the College Soccer News Poll.
Virginia also received an at-large berth into the NCAA Championship after falling to Wake Forest in the ACC Championship game in penalty kicks. The Cavaliers are led by Edward Opoku, who had eight goals and four assists for 20 points over 19 games, while Pablo Aguilar is right behind him in the scoring department with seven goals and four assists for 18 points. In net, Jeff Caldwell has been the starter all season long, playing all but 12 minutes this season, recording a 0.79 GAA and six shutouts.
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the first-ever meeting between Fordham and Virginia.
LAST TIME OUT: Fordham's
Joergen Oland scored the game-winning goal in the 96th minute to give the Fordham men's soccer team a 3-2 overtime win over the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers in the opening round of the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship at Jack Coffey Field. It is Fordham's first-ever NCAA victory. In addition to being the first-ever NCAA win for the Rams, it also gave the Rams 13 wins on the season, tying the program record, set in 1985.
Things did not get off to a good start as the Terriers opened the scoring in the ninth minute, as Dominick Falanga got a cross to Leo Folla on the left side, and he slid a shot into the bottom right corner of the goal for his third marker of the season.
Jannik Loebe
The score remained at 1-0 in favor of the Terriers until the 72nd minute, when Fordham knotted the game at one on a long distance effort from
Jannik Loebe. Loebe dribbled up the right side and fired the ball toward goal from almost 35 yards near the sideline. The ball had plenty of movement on it and ducked inside the top right corner of the goal to tie the game at one. It was Loebe's seventh of the season, tying his career-high.
The tie score lasted only seconds, as the Terriers regained the lead at 2-1 on a goal by Nadim Saqui. Fordham goalkeeper
Rashid Nuhu attempted to clear the ball from Saqui's possession on the right side of the box, but Saqui was just able to chip the ball inside the left post for his fourth goal of the season.
Nuhu made that goal up in the 81st minute, as he launched a free kick from midfield, and found
Matthew Lewis for a looping header that bounced inside the right post to knot the game at two. It was Lewis' second goal of the season.
The game then went to overtime, where the Rams completed the comeback in the 96th minute. After a clearance,
Vincenzo Zuccala picked up the ball for Fordham near midfield. He booted the ball to
Connor DeFilippis for a flick-on header, which found
Joergen Oland. Oland made one move and snuck the ball past the St. Francis goalkeeper for his fifth marker of the year and the game-winning goal.
RARIFIED COMPANY: The Atlantic 10 Conference has had a number of fine players come through the league, which include former U.S. National Team members Alexi Lalas, Geoff Cameron, and Fordham's own John Wolyniec. However, none of them can say they made fourth straight Atlantic 10 All-Championship teams, where current Ram
Jannik Loebe can. Loebe became only the second Atlantic 10 player to be named to the Atlantic 10 All-Championship team four times, joining Rhode Island's Nicholas McCreath (1998-2001). He scored in all four Atlantic 10 Championships from 2014 to 2017, which included, scoring the game-winning goal in the 2014 Atlantic 10 Championship game against Rhode Island and in the 2017 A-10 quarterfinals against Dayton.
TURNING DEFENSE INTO OFFENSE: Most people give a lot of the credit for the Rams' success to how the team defends, but the same group that defends is also just as responsible for the Rams' offensive success. Out of the Rams' primary defenders,
Matthew Lewis,
Joergen Oland,
Vincenzo Zuccala,
Christopher Bazzini, and
Owen Lawrence, the group has contributed 10 goals and nine assists this season with goalkeeper
Rashid Nuhu also adding an assist.
Oland leads the group with five goals, while Bazzini has three goals with Lewis having the other two. Lewis has a group-best four assists with Zuccala and Lawrence each having a pair of helpers. Bazzini and Nuhu round out the assist category with one each.
IRON MEN: Only two players have started every game for the Rams this season, and it's no surprise they are the centerpieces of the Rams' defense. Senior defender
Matthew Lewis and junior goalkeeper
Rashid Nuhu are the only Rams to be introduced in the starting line-up every game this year.
Lewis has only missed two minutes of action all year, bringing his career total to 7,537 minutes, while setting the Rams' record for games started at 81, surpassing the record of 78, set by John Wolyniec (1995-98) and John Rollins (1982-85), as well as the Rams' career record of 80 games played by Wolyniec.
Nuhu has played every second of the season in the Rams' goal, and became just the third Rams' goalkeeper to reach 10 shutouts in a single season, joining Ryan Meara (2011) and Jeff Knuth (1987). His 0.78 goals against average is also just off the pace of the single season mark, which is currently held by Meara at 0.65 in 2011.
BROTHERS IN ARMS: When the Rams won the Atlantic 10 Championship in 2014, the coaching staff got an important phone call, as then-freshman
Jannik Loebe's brother, Janos, decided to join his brother at Fordham in 2015. From there, the Loebe brothers have been one of the top scoring duos in the Atlantic 10, racking up a total of 38 goals and 32 assists since the start of the 2015 season.
Each of them has also climbed the all-time Fordham lists, as they rank in the top 11 in goals, assists, and points. Janos currently sits tied for third in career assists (20), tied for ninth in points (58), and tied for tenth in goals (19). Jannik is tied for seventh in goals (23), tied for 11th in assists (12), and tied for ninth in points (58), while sitting third in games played (79) and tied for second games started (77).
TEAM RECORDS WITHIN REACH: With the win over St. Francis Brooklyn in the first round of the NCAA Championship, the Rams have reached the 13-win plateau for just the second time in team history, matching the school record of 13, set in 1985. Fordham is also two team shutouts shy of the 1987 record of 12.
WHO'S NEXT: If the Rams win on Sunday, the Rams will face the winner of #6 Duke and FIU next weekend.
