Football Outruns Lehigh, 45-35

Bronx, N.Y. – Even though the game was played on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Fordham head coach Andrew Breiner thought the Rams won the game on a rainy Tuesday. For it was on Tuesday that Fordham was forced by inclement weather to practice inside the Lombardi Center and the Rams came out with an intensity that carried through the week and into today's game as Fordham knocked off defending Patriot League champions, Lehigh University, 45-35, on Jack Coffey Field.  
With the win, Fordham improves to 3-6 overall, 2-2 in the Patriot League, while Lehigh falls to 2-6 overall, 2-1 in the conference.
 
Without the services of All-American running back Chase Edmonds, sophomore D'Angelo Palladino did his best Edmonds impersonation, rushing for a career-high 297 yards and three touchdowns. The 297 yards is the third best single game total in school history.
 
The Rams were also without their top four receivers (Jonathan Lumley, Corey Caddle, Austin Longi and Andrew Prince) due to injury/illness, but that didn't stop graduate student quarterback Kevin Anderson from completing 17 of 26 passes for 244 yards and three scores.  His favorite receiver was junior tight end Isaiah Searight who caught eight passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns. The 139 receiving yards is a Fordham school record for a tight end.
 
Fordham never trailed in the game and broke a 21-21 tie with a six-yard pass from Anderson to Searight late in the third and then took a ten-point lead, 31-21, on an Andrew Mevis 29-yard field goal early in the fourth.
 
The Rams led by three again late in the game, 38-35, but Palladino gave the Rams some breathing room with a 48-yard scoring run with 2:24 remaining.
 
Takeaways
The Rams held Lehigh wide receiver Troy Pelletier, who entered the game leading the Patriot League in receptions/game (8.7) and receiving yards/game (125.0) to just five catches for 19 yards.
 

Fordham also held Lehigh quarterback Brad Mayes to 257 passing yards, well below his season average of 353.6 yards/game.
 
The Rams won despite having 20 fewer offensive plays than Lehigh (the Mountain Hawks ran 86 plays to 66 for the Rams), but Fordham averaged 8.0 yards/play to 6.4 for Lehigh.
 
Fordham did not turn the ball over for the second straight game.
 
Junior quarterback Austin King, a transfer from Indiana, threw his first pass from scrimmage since his senior year in high school in the third quarter, an incompletion in the end zone.
 
Junior Colton Smith, who served as the backup running back today, gained six yards on two carries.
 
The Rams scored on their first offensive possession for the first time in 2017.
 
The game featured nine scoring drives of two minutes or less (six by Fordham and three by Lehigh) and six of one minute or less (three by each squad).
 
Fordham has now taken four of the past five meetings with Lehigh.
 
The Rams improved to 30-4 on Jack Coffey Field since the 2012 season.
 
By the Numbers
3 – Number of wide receivers who recorded a reception for the Rams today (Searight, Noah Nix and Joe Ferraro).
 
4 – Turnovers forced by Fordham.
 
6, 75 – Receptions and receiving yards for Noah Nix, both career-highs (previous highs were three catches and 33 yards).
 
8 – Total tackles for loss for the Rams in the game, tying the Fordham season-high.
 
8, 139 – Receptions and receiving yards for Isaiah Searight, both career-bests (previous highs were seven catches and 133 yards at Bryant earlies this year). The 139 yards was one more than Stephen Skelton's school mark for a tight end.
 
10 – Pass breakups recorded by the Rams, a season-high.
 
11, 4 – Number of total tackles and sacks by freshman linebacker Glenn Cunningham, both team-highs.

 

25 – Times the Rams have scored 40 or more points in a game since 2012.
 
41.6 – Punting average for Andrew Mevis who punted five times for 208 yards with three of his five punts being downed inside the Lehigh 20.
 
43 – Career touchdown passes for Kevin Anderson, a school record.
 
297 – Rushing yards by D'Angelo Palladino, the third best single game total in school history.
 
576 – Career completions for Kevin Anderson, third best on the Fordham career list.
 
7,623 – Career passing yards fort Kevin Anderson, third on the Fordham all-time list.
 
What's Next?
The Rams welcome fellow Jesuits, the College of the Holy Cross, to Jack Coffey Field for a Patriot League game on Saturday, November 4, at 1:00 p.m.
 
The game will be the annual battle for the Ram-Crusader Cup.
 
It will be the 54th meeting between the two schools with Holy Cross leading the all-time series, 27-24-5.
 
Fordham has taken the past five meetings, including a 54-14 win at Yankee Stadium last November.
 
The Rams lead the all-time Ram-Crusader Cup series, 16-15.