Box Score |
Photos Gallery
At this rate, the Fordham University cheerleaders will be in great shape by the end of the year. After each Fordham score, the Ram supporters perform a pushup for each point the football squad put up on the scoreboard and for the third time this season the Rams scored more than 50 points as #13/12 Fordham defeated #10/13 Lehigh University, 52-34, before a sellout crowd and in front of a national television audience on Jack Coffey Field.
The win helps Fordham remain unbeaten at 6-0 on the year, the Rams' first 6-0 start to a season since 1988. The loss, Lehigh's first of the year, drops the Mountain Hawks to 4-1. The Rams remain one of seven NCAA FCS teams with a perfect record, just one of three at 6-0 (12 unbeaten NCAA FCS teams entered play this weekend), and defeated Lehigh for just the third time in 26 tries, the first since 2007. The Rams also knocked off their second top-ten team at home this fall.
"Lehigh is a very good football team and very well coached," said Fordham head coach
Joe Moorhead. "They were four-and-oh and ranked number ten in the country for a reason. I asked the team at a meeting last night for a show of hands of anyone who has been on a team that defeated Lehigh and no one raised their hand. We talked about how we made history beating Villanova and Temple earlier this year and wanted to do it again. It was a complete effort, offense, defense and special teams."
With the 52-point outburst, the Rams have scored more than 50 points for the third time in six games this year, the first time in school history that Fordham scored 50 points or more three times in a season (the 1933 and 1997 squad did it twice).
In a matchup of the Patriot League's top two offenses, it was the Fordham unit that put up the bigger numbers, gaining a season-high 630 yards, compared to 429 for Lehigh. The Rams used numerous big plays in the game, gaining ten yards or more on 23 plays and 20 yards or more seven times.
Leading the Fordham offense was quarterback
Mike Nebrich, who completed 26 of 36 passes for a career-high 384 yards and four touchdowns.
Three of Nebrich's scores went to receiver
Sam Ajala, who hauled in seven passes for a career-best 166 yards with the touchdown receptions covering 25, 40 and 62 yards.
On the ground,
Carlton Koonce gained 128 yards on 21 carries with one score, his fourth straight 100-yard game of the season and his 12
th career 100-yard game. Koonce now has 2,574 career rushing yards, moving him into fifth place on the school's all-time rushing list.
Of course, the Rams couldn't have put up the big offensive numbers without the play of the offensive line of seniors
Thomas Fisher and
Steven Tapia, juniors
Mason Halter and
Joseph Mizera and sophomore
Garrick Mayweather.
Over their first four games of the 2013 season, Lehigh fought back in the fourth quarter to pull out wins. But Fordham wouldn't let that happen today, scoring twice in the fourth quarter to take a commanding 52-28 lead before allowing a late Lehigh score.
Leading by three, 31-28, following a Lehigh touchdown with 2:58 left in the third, the Rams took advantage of a pair of Lehigh turnovers to take a 45-28 lead. The first Mountain Hawk miscue came when the Lehigh defense stopped the Rams on third and six from the Fordham 44, forcing the Rams to punt. But Josh Parris mishandled the
Joseph Pavlik punt and the ball was recovered by Fordham's
Adam Malkiewicz on the Lehigh 15. Following an illegal procedure call on the Rams,
Carlton Koonce took a handoff from Nebrich and broke through the line en route to the end zone and a 38-28 Fordham lead with 1:25 remaining in the quarter.
After a 31-yard kickoff return and a 15-yard Fordham personal foul, the Mountain Hawks took over on their own 46. But on the third play from scrimmage, Fordham's
Levon Williams stepped in front of a Brandon Bialkowski pass, giving the ball back to the Rams on the Fordham 30.
The Rams covered most of the 70 yards on the ensuring scoring drive on the ground, with Koonce picking up 41 of them. Nebrich capped the drive with a one-yard keeper to increase the Fordham lead to 45-38 three minutes into the final quarter.
The Fordham defense seemed to feed off the momentum of the offense, holding the Mountain Hawks without a first down as
Jake Rodriques came up with a big sack on second down, forcing a third and long.
The Rams took over following a punt on their own 45 and Koonce and
Jared Crayton used their legs to get the ball down to the Lehigh 12 when Nebrich connected with Tebucky Jones, Jr., with a scoring strike as Fordham took a commanding 52-28 lead.
Fordham took the opening kickoff and moved 78 yards on eleven plays , the big play a 15-yard Nebrich pass to
Brian Wetzel on third and eight from the Lehigh 44, to take a 7-0 lead on a 25-yard connection from Nebrich to Ajala.
After the Fordham defense forced a three-and-out, the Rams took over at midfield and drove to the Lehigh ten where a Nebrich pass to Jones could only gain a yard so
Michael Marando came on to boot a 26-yard field goal to put the Rams up 10-0 with 4:47 on the clock.
The Mountain Hawks responded with a ten-play, 82-yard drive, capped by a nine-yard touchdown pass from Bialkowski to Sergio Fernandez-Soto.
Fordham came right back, covering 80 yards in 13 plays, the big play a Nebrich rush for five yards on fourth and one from the Lehigh nine. Two plays later, Crayton took it in from the three to give the Rams a 17-7 lead 4:43 into the second.
Once again, Lehigh responded with a scoring drive of its own, moving 62 yards on ten plays to make it a three-point game again, 17-14, on a one-yard run from Bialkowski.
The game would remain 17-14 until Fordham took over on its own 22 following a Lehigh punt with 2:37 left. Nebrich executed a perfect two-minute drill as he moved the Rams to the Lehigh 40 where he found a streaking Ajala with a scoring strike and a 24-14 lead just before the half.
The Mountain Hawks took the opening possession of the second half and capped a 79-yard, ten-play drive with a two-yard toss from Bialkowski to Zach Hayden to make it a 24-21 game just under four minutes into the half.
Later in the quarter, the Rams took over on their own 23 and, on the second play of the drive, Nebrich hooked up with Ajala on a 62-yard scoring play down the left sideline and a 31-21 Fordham lead with 5:33 remaining in the third.
The 31-21 led would last only for about three minutes until a Sean Farrell four-yard scoring rush made it a 31-28 game in favor of the Rams.
Wetzel made eleven catches for 133 yards, all in the first half, for the Rams while Jones finished with five catches for 58 yards. Crayton picked up 66 yards rushing on ten carries with the one score.
Defensively,
Ian Williams led all tacklers with eleven stops, ten solo, while
Austin Hancock and
Jake Dixon each added eight, seven solo.
The Rams return to action next Saturday, October 12, as they travel to Washington, D.C., to take on the Georgetown University Hoyas in a matchup of Patriot League schools on Multi-Purpose Field at 1:00 p.m.
Notes
Jonah Shainberg, the ten-year-old boy who was diagnosed with a brain tumor six years ago and was adopted by the Rams last month, attended his first Fordham football game… Fordham last opened a season 7-0 in 1930… The Rams are now 8-1 on Jack Coffey Field under Moorhead… Moorhead is 12-5 as the Fordham head coach, becoming the fastest coach in school history to 12 wins… The announced attendance of 7,751 was Fordham's second straight sellout on Jack Coffey Field (capacity is 7,000 but standing room seats were sold allowing fans to stand on the sidelines behind the Lehigh bench and sit in the baseball grandstand)… The Rams have never before scored 50 points or more three times in a season (the 1933 and 1997 squad did it twice)… The Rams have scored 250 points over the first six games, the most over the first six games of any season for the Rams… Nebrich now has three 300-yard passing games this year... The Fordham cheerleaders did 228 pushups on the day… The NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee's Join the Huddle Tour was on display pregame in parking lot A.
