Record-Setting Chase Edmonds Leads Football to Win over Lehigh

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Bronx, N.Y. – When Fordham running backs coach Shane Fogarty was asked what his game plan was before today's contest with Lehigh he simply said "Give the ball to number 22." And that's just what the Rams did as sophomore running back Chase Edmonds carried 31 times for a Patriot League record 347 yards and three touchdowns to lead #10/11 Fordham to a 59-42 Patriot League win over Lehigh on Jack Coffey Field.
 
With the win, Fordham's sixth straight, the Rams improve to 7-1 overall, 3-0 in the Patriot League, while Lehigh falls to 3-4 overall, 1-1 in the league.
 
Edmonds' 347 rushing yards easily surpassed the former Fordham school record of 272 yards set by Chip Kron against Georgetown in 1985 and was 43 yards better than the former Patriot League mark of 304 yards set by Lafayette's Ross Scheuerman against Lehigh in 2014.
 

The 347 yards also ties Edmonds with Lamar's Kade Harrington for most rushing yards in a game in the NCAA Division I (both FBS and FCS) this year.
 
Edmonds, who ran for scores from 9, 60 and 75 yards, also caught two passes for 55 yards and a score to bring his all-purpose yards total to 402, breaking his own Patriot League record of 385 all-purpose yards set in last year's NCAA Championship game at New Hampshire.
 
Edmonds now has 3,231 career rushing yards in just 22 career contests, the fourth best career rushing total in school history. He has also amassed 41 rushing touchdowns, second on the school's all-time list.
 
Despite throwing for only 166 yards, junior quarterback Kevin Anderson was efficient, throwing four touchdowns passes on just 16 total attempts.
 
Despite giving up the 42 points, the Fordham defense also had a hand in today's win, forcing five Lehigh turnovers (four interceptions and a fumble) with Caleb Ham coming up with two of the interceptions and Jihaad Pretlow turning in a pick-six.
 
Lehigh received the ball first and moved 87 yards on ten plays to take an early 7-0 lead on a three-yard Nick Shafnisky run.
 
The Rams went three-and-out on offense but on Lehigh's third play of the ensuing possession, Ham intercepted a Shafnisky pass and returned it to the Lehigh 32. Eight plays later, Anderson found Austin Longi in the end zone from the three to even the score at seven.
 
On Lehigh's next possession, George Dawson stripped the ball from Dom Bragalone and recovered the fumble on the Fordham 34. The Rams turned that miscue into a 15-yard scoring strike from Anderson to Phazahn Odom and took a 14-7 lead with 2:19 left in the first.
 
Lehigh responded with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Shafnisky to Casey Gatlin 2:32 into the second quarter but the extra point was blocked.
 
On the Mountain Hawks' next possession a ten-yard Bragalone touchdown run and two-point conversion put Lehigh up 21-14 with 10:26 remaining in the half.
 
Later in the quarter, Ham picked off another Shafnisky pass, giving Fordham the ball on its own 41. The Rams got to the Lehigh nine but a false start penalty and two sacks moved them back to the 20 where Makay Redd booted a 37-yard field goal to make it a 21-17 game with 1:36 left, a score that would hold up through the break.
 
Fordham took the second half kickoff and moved from its own 24 to the Lehigh 30 where Odom hauled in a scoring pass from Anderson to put Fordham up for good, 24-21, 3:05 into the second half.
 
Later in the quarter, Fordham held Lehigh on fourth-and-five from the Fordham 32 and the Rams quickly moved down field where Edmonds scored from the nine to increase the Fordham to ten, 31-21, at the 5:08 mark.
 
After a three-and-out from the Lehigh offense, the Fordham offense took just 1:10 to cover 83 yards, with Edmonds taking care of the final 60 for a 38-21 Fordham lead.
 
The game remained 38-21 until a wild fourth quarter which saw each team score 21 points. Lehigh drew first blood on a two-yard Nana Amankwah-Ayeh rush as the Mountain Hawks cut the Fordham lead to ten, 38-28, nine seconds into the fourth.
 
Fordham responded with another long Edmonds scoring run four plays later, this one from 50 yards, to regain a 13-point lead, 45-28, 1:35 later.
 

On the second play of Lehigh's ensuing possession, Pretlow made a one-handed interception of a tipped Brad Mayes pass and he returned it 23 yards for a score to boost the Rams' lead to 52-28, with 12:52 remaining.
 
But Lehigh didn't back down as Mayes and Sasha Kelsey connected on two scoring passes, the first a nine-yarder with 10:19 left, and the second on a 22-yard connection midway through the fourth, to make it a 52-42 game.
 
On Lehigh's next possession, the Mountain Hawks got to the Fordham 18 but couldn't convert on a third-and-15 and Ed Mish came on to attempt a 34-yard field goal which hit the left upright.
 
Two plays later, Edmonds put the exclamation point on his day with a 75-yard scoring run to put Fordham up 59-42 with 2:17 remaining.
 
Pretlow led all Fordham defenders with nine total tackles, eight solo, and he added a pair of pass breakups to go with his interception. Niko Thorpe added seven stops, four solo, with a pass breakup while Stephen Hodge and Dawson notched six tackles.
 
The Rams return to action next Saturday, October 31, as they travel to Hamilton, N.Y., to face the Colgate University Raiders in Andy Kerr Stadium in a Patriot League game at 1:00 p.m.
 
Notes
The game was Edmonds' sixth 100-yard rushing game of the year and he now has 16 for his career, one shy of Kirwin Watson's school record of 17.
 
The Rams have now won 36 games since 2012, the most wins for any New York City area football team.
 
Fordham scored over 40 points for the fifth time this year and the 20^th time since head coach Joe Moorhead took over in 2012.
 
The Rams have scored 154 points over the past three games, the highest three-game total in school history.
 
The game marked the third straight win for Fordham in a game the Rams surrendered 40 points or more (prior to the Penn game the last time it happened was a 49-40 win over Georgetown in 1998).
 
The Rams are now 22-2 at home since 2012. The 22 home wins over that stretch are the third most for any NCAA FCS team while the Fordham home winning percentage of .917 is second best.
 
Fordham entered the game tied for third in the NCAA FCS in turnovers gained with 17 (the Rams now have 22).
 
The Rams are now 14-1 against Patriot League opponents over the past three years (the Rams were a perfect 6-0 last fall and 5-1 in 2013, though the games in 2013 did not count in the league standings).