Men’s Soccer Hosts Columbia on Friday to Kick Off Homecoming

Bronx, N.Y. – After a bounce back week with a shutout of Manhattan and a road victory over Stetson, the Fordham men's soccer team will kick-off Homecoming Weekend at Fordham's Rose Hill campus on Friday, when the Rams host Columbia at 5:00 PM on Jack Coffey Field.
 
The game is Fordham's final match before the start of Atlantic 10 action next week.  The Rams (2-3-2) will have a stiff test in Columbia, who is 4-1-0 on the season and averaging close to two goals per game on offense.  Fordham will have to keep track of junior forward Arthur Bosua, the Lions' leading scorer with three goals and an assist this season.
 
GAME COVERAGE:
Columbia at Fordham – 5:00 PM – Live Stats | Live Video | Follow on Twitter @FordhamSoccer
 
SERIES HISTORY: The Rams will go up against one of its longtime local rivals in the Columbia Lions, as the two teams meet for the 44th time.  The series dates back to 1958 with Columbia holding a 26-11-6 record against the Rams.  However, the Rams earned a win in last year's meeting, defeating the then-21^st ranked Lions, 1-0, on a goal by Janos Loebe.
 
NUHU & LOEBE PICK UP WEEKLY HONORS (9/19): The Atlantic 10 Conference announced its weekly men's soccer awards on Monday with two Rams being honored.  Sophomore Janos Loebe (Kierspe, Germany) was named Offensive Player of the Week, while fellow sophomore Rashid Nuhu (Accra, Ghana) was selected as the co-Defensive Player of the Week.  These weekly awards are the first for the Rams this season.
 
After being kept off the scoresheet for the first six games of the season, Loebe got on the board on Saturday, netting a goal and an assist in a win at Stetson.  He got the Rams on the board in the 34^th minute with his first goal of the season, and then assisted on the game-winning goal in the 73^rd minute, which was scored by his brother, Jannik.  It marked the second time that the Loebe brothers have scored in the same game, the previous time coming against La Salle last season (10/3/15).
 
Nuhu was in goal for both games last week, going 1-0-1.  He posted his first shutout of the season on Wednesday with four saves against Manhattan, and then had three stops in a win over Stetson on Saturday.
 
LAST TIME OUT: It's been 10 years since the Fordham men's soccer team played in the state of Florida.  In 2006, the Rams came away with a win that led them to a national ranking that season.  This year's team hopes the same thing happens this year, as behind two goals from the Loebe brothers, Fordham came away with a 2-1 win over the Stetson Hatters at the Athletic Training Center in DeLand, Florida.
 
Fordham got the scoring started in the 34^th minute, when Janos Loebe scored his first goal of the season.  Andrew Hickey started the play with a cross to the right side to Loebe, who found the back of the net inside the right post from 10 yards out.

 
Just a little over eight minutes later, Stetson tied the game at one off a set piece.  After a quick, short corner kick, Finn Busmann's cross found Daniel O'Brien for a header that bounced past Fordham goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu into the lower right portion of the goal for a 1-1 score.
 
The score remained that way until the 73^rd minute, when Fordham regained the lead.  The Rams had the ball near the corner after a foul call on Stetson.  Janos Loebe took the free kick and found his brother Jannik Loebe for a one-touch deflection into the left side of goal for his first tally of the season. 
 
With that goal, it marked the second time that the Loebe brothers have scored in the same game at Fordham.  The previous time came against La Salle last season.  Jannik's goal held up as the game-winning goal, making it the sixth game-winning goal of his career.
 
In net, Nuhu made three saves in the win, while Stetson goalkeeper Paul Ladwig had six saves in the loss.
 
WHO'S NEXT: The Fordham men's soccer team will next be in action on Saturday, October 1^st, when the Rams open Atlantic 10 play at George Washington, beginning at 2:00 PM.