Men’s Soccer Takes on St. Francis Brooklyn in NCAA First Round Action

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Bronx, N.Y. – For the third time in four seasons, the Fordham men's soccer team is once again in the NCAA Championship.  After receiving the Atlantic 10's automatic bid in 2014 and 2016, the Rams received an at-large berth for the first time in program history, after finishing the year at 12-5-2 overall with an NCAA RPI ranking of 26.
 
Fordham will have another first on Thursday, as the Rams will host its NCAA first round match-up on Jack Coffey Field against the NEC Champion, the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers.  Previously in 1996, Fordham did host an NCAA Play-In game against Loyola (Md.) on Edwards' Parade, defeating the Greyhounds, 3-2, but the NCAA deemed the following game for Fordham against St. John's as the first round of the NCAA Championship.  Coffey Field though is no stranger to hosting NCAA first round games, as it has hosted opening round NCAA FCS football games in 2013 and 2014.
 
This game will be a rare all-New York City match-up in the NCAA Championship between the Rams and Terriers with the winner moving on to face #11 seed Virginia in Charlottesville on Sunday, November 19th.
 
St. Francis Brooklyn is 14-4-1 on the year after winning the Northeast Conference Championship for the fourth time in five seasons and received the conference's automatic bid.    The Terriers enter Thursday on a seven-match win streak and are 9-0-1 in their last ten contests. The team has been solid at both ends of the field, posting eight shutouts defensively, while recording 32 goals on offensive.  Ali Tounkara has a team-high eight goals and 18 points, while Dominick Falanga is one behind him with seven goals.
 
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the 25th all-time meeting between Fordham and St. Francis Brooklyn.  The Terriers lead the series, 15-9-0, in a series that dates back to 1970.  However, the two teams have not met since September 7, 2002, which was a 3-1 Fordham win on Edwards' Parade.
 
RAMS IN THE RANKINGS (11/13): For the fourth straight week, Fordham is among United Soccer Coaches Midwest Region Poll rankings.  This week, the Rams fell to eighth after being a season-high seventh in last week's poll.
 
In the final NCAA RPI rankings, the Rams fell two spots to #26 from #24 in this week's RPI report.  Fordham is one of three Atlantic 10 teams in the top 26 teams, along with VCU (#13) and UMass (#18).  All three squads are in the NCAA Championship, marking the first time since 2012 that the conference has gotten at least three bids.
 
RAMS AMONG NATIONAL LEADERS: As of November 13th, the Fordham Rams are among the nation's top 30 in four categories this season.  The Rams are 13th in shutout percentage, 19th in goals against average, 19th in save percentage, and 28th in won-lost-tie percentage.
 
Individually, juniors Rashid Nuhu and Janos Loebe are also among the national leaders.  Nuhu is fifth in the nation in shutouts (10), 23rd in goals against average (0.72) and save percentage (.808), while Loebe is 11th in total assists (9), 17th in game-winning goals (4), 27th in assists per game (0.47), and 30th in shots per game (3.37).
 
LAST TIME OUT: UMass' Konrad Gorich scored in the 95th minute of overtime off a feed from Davis Smith to give the top-seeded Minutemen a 1-0 win over #5 seed Fordham in the semifinals of the 2017 Atlantic 10 Championship, held at Baujan Field in Dayton, Ohio.

 
It was a hard fought match between the Rams and Minutemen, having played each other just nine days ago.  The first 45 minutes saw UMass with the best scoring chance in the 37th minute, as Konrad Gorich put a shot toward the Fordham goal, but goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu was right there to make the stop, right before the goal line.
 
The biggest play of the game though came late in the second half, as a ball was played into the UMass box that Fordham's Eric Ohlendorf deflected off his heel and inside the right post for a goal.  However, after a long discussion by the officials, the play was deemed offside, as Joergen Oland leaned forward on the play, though did not make a play on the ball.
 
Without that marker, the game went to overtime, where Fordham had another golden opportunity on a header by Matthew Lewis to the top right corner of the goal, but the shot was just in reach of UMass goalkeeper Bardia Asefnia for the save.
 
Then in the 95th minute after a Fordham offside call, Asefnia took the free kick, sending it to Davis Smith, who headed the ball forward to Gorich.  Gorich finished the play from four yards out past Nuhu for his third of the season and the game-winner.
 
Nuhu finished the game with three saves, while Asefnia had two.  Following the conclusion of the tournament on Sunday, Jannik Loebe was named to the All-Championship team for the fourth straight season.  Loebe is only the second Atlantic 10 player to be named to the All-Championship team four times, joining URI's Nicholas McCreath (1998-2001).
 
WHO'S NEXT: If the Rams win on Thursday, the Rams will face #11 seed Virginia on Sunday, November 19^th in Charlottesville, Virginia.