Football Retains Ram-Crusader Cup

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Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham football is not for the faint of heart. For the second straight week, the results of a game came down to one of the finals plays. And sophomore All-American running back Chase Edmonds made that play, rushing for a seven-yard touchdown in overtime, to lead the Rams to a 47-41 Patriot League win over Holy Cross on Jack Coffey Field.
 
With the win, Fordham's fourth in a row, the Rams improve to 6-1 overall, 2-0 in the Patriot League, while Holy Cross falls to 2-4 overall, 0-2 in the conference. The win also ensures that Fordham will retain the Ram-Crusader Cup for the fourth straight year.
 

Edmonds led the Rams, carrying 31 times for 162 yards and four scores, but none larger than the one he scored in overtime. It was the third straight 100-yard rushing game for Edmonds, who surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in just his seventh game of the year.

Edmonds wasn't the lone 100-yard rusher for the Rams as quarterback Kevin Anderson gained 115 yards on 20 carries, a school record for a quarterback.
 
Fordham won the overtime coin toss and elected to go on defense first. The Rams held Holy Cross to six yards on three plays and Peter Wasp came on to attempt a 37-yard field goal but pushed it wide left.
 
The Rams then had their chance and it was all Edmonds, who carried three times for 18 yards to set up the seven-yard scoring run around the right side for the game-winner.
 
The Crusaders forced overtime with a field goal on the final play of regulation. Holy Cross took over on its own 27 following a punt with 49 seconds remaining. A second down pass fell incomplete but the Rams were called for pass interference, giving Holy Cross the ball on the 42. Two plays later, Holy Cross quarterback Peter Pujals found Brendan Flaherty with a 22-yard completion that was tipped at the line but still found its way to Flaherty.
 
The Holy Cross drive would end on the Fordham 31 on a third down incompletion and Wasp came to boot a 48-yard field goal as the clock expired to send the game to overtime.
 
Cory Caddle returned the opening kickoff 52 yard for the Rams but the drive ended two plays later when a Kevin Anderson pass was picked off in the end zone.
 
Holy Cross covered the 80 yards with five plays, capped by a nine-yard Branden Flaherty run to take a 7-0 lead 2:15 into the game.
 
Another long kickoff return, this one a 59-yarder by Jihaad Pretlow, gave Fordham the ball on the Holy Cross 34 but the drive again ended with an interception as an Anderson pass was tipped at the line and picked off on the Holy Cross five.
 
The Crusaders turned the second interception into a 47-yard field goal from Wasp to increase its lead to 10-0 with 5:07 left in the first.
 
Fordham took the ensuing kickoff and moved from its own 24 to the Holy Cross three where Anderson found Ben Johnson with a scoring strike to put the Rams on the board and cut the Crusader lead to three, 10-7, with just over two minutes left in the first.
 
Later in the period, the Crusaders took over on the Fordham 47 following a punt and, three plays later, Pujals connected with Flaherty on a 30-yard touchdown pass as Holy Cross bumped its lead to 17-7 with nine seconds remaining.
 
The second quarter was all Fordham as the Rams score 20 unanswered points to take a 27-17 lead at the break.
 
The first score came on a 12-yard Edmonds run 3:29 into the quarter and, after Pretlow picked off a Pujals pass on the first play of the ensuring drive, Edmonds scored from 13 yards out to put the Rams up 20-17 with 9:25 left in the half.
 
Later in the quarter, Holy Cross went for it on fourth-and-ten from the Fordham 30 but a Pujals pass was incomplete and the Rams moved down to the Holy Cross 34 where Anderson connected with Johnson for his second receiving touchdown on the day and give Fordham a 27-17 lead with one minute on the clock.
 
Holy Cross took the second half kickoff and used three straight Pujals completions, the final a 34-yard scoring pass to Kalif Raymond, to trim the Fordham lead to three, 27-24, 2:28 into the half.
 
Pretlow fielded the ensuing kickoff and raced 87 yards to the end zone to get the Fordham lead back to ten, 34-24, 16 seconds later.
 
Holy Cross then capped a 12-play, 69-yard drive with a 20-yard scoring toss from Pujals to Flaherty to make it a 34-31 game with 9:38 left in the third.
 
After the Rams went three and out, Holy Cross took the lead as Pujals found Raymond with a 13-yard touchdown pass with six minutes remaining in the third to give the Crusaders a 38-34 lead.
 

The Holy Cross lead was short-lived as the Rams moved 67 yards on nine plays, capped by a seven-yard Edmonds run to retake the lead, 41-38, with 2:03 left in the third.
 
The Crusaders had a chance to tie the game early in the fourth quarter but a 37-yard Connor Fitzgerald field goal went wide right with 13:13 left and the Rams had a chance to take a six-point lead but a 44-yard Makay Redd field goal attempt with 8:50 remaining was deflected and went wide right.
 
Anderson completed 14 of 23 passes for 194 yards and two scores, both to Johnson, while Robbie Cantelli caught four passes for 58 yards and Austin Longi had four for 28 yards.
 
Pretlow returned three kickoffs for 172 yards with the touchdown.
 
Defensively, Lourenzo Smith led the Rams with nine tackles, six solo, and he broke up two passes while JQ Bowers and Stephen Hodge each added eight sops, six solo, with Hodge recording one sack and two tackles for loss while also forcing a fumble.
 
The Rams return to action next Saturday, October 24, as they host Lehigh University for a Patriot League contest on Jack Coffey Field at 1:00 p.m.
 
Notes
Edmonds' 162 rushing yards brings his career total to 2,884, good for fifth place on the Fordham career rushing list while his four rushing touchdown give him 38 all-time, placing him second on the career rushing touchdown list, just ten behind Kirwin Watson.
 
The game was Edmonds' fifth 100-yard rushing game of the year and he now has 15 for his career, two shy of Watson's school record of 17.
 
The Rams had 254 total kickoff return yards, just 28 yards shy of the Patriot League single game record of 282, set by Holy Cross against San Diego in 2004.
 
The last Ram to return a kickoff for a score was current junior Jorge Solano, who took one back 96 yards at Saint Francis in 2013.
 
Though the Rams had only one sack, they did record ten quarterback hurries, five of those coming from Marlon Crook, Jr., and Fordham had ten pass breakups.
 
The Rams have now won 35 games since 2012, the most wins for any New York City area football team.
 
The Fordham seniors have never lost to Holy Cross.
 
The game was the first overtime game on Jack Coffey Field since a 27-20 overtime loss to Brown in 2004 and just the fifth ever overtime game for the Rams.
 
Freshman Kyle Facibene handled the kickoff chores for the Rams today, his first ever collegiate experience.
 
Junior offensive lineman Erik McCauley celebrated his 20^th birthday.
 
Mark Holtzman, Executive Director of Non-Baseball Marketing at Yankee Stadium, received gifts from Fordham AD Dave Roach and Holy Cross AD Nathan Pine at halftime to recognize the Yankees for hosting next year's Fordham-Holy Cross game at Yankee Stadium on November 12.
 
Pujals attempted 70 passes in the game, a Jack Coffey Field record.
 
The Rams scored 20 points or more in the second quarter for the second straight game and the third time this year and are outscoring opponents 103-55 in the quarter.
 
The game marked the second straight win for Fordham in a game the Rams surrendered 40 points or more (prior to last week the last time it happened was a 49-40 win over Georgetown in 1998).

The Rams are now 20-2 at home since 2012. The 20 home wins over that stretch are the third most for any NCAA FCS team while the Fordham home winning percentage of .909 is second best.