Men’s Soccer Travels Back to Dayton for Atlantic 10 Semifinal Against UMass

Game Notes | Atlantic 10 Championship Central
 
Dayton, Ohio – The Fordham men's soccer team is back to defend its Atlantic 10 Championship, qualifying for the tournament for the fourth consecutive year.  After defeating Dayton in the quarterfinals, the Rams are looking for their third league title in the last four seasons.  The Rams are looking for their fourth Atlantic 10 title overall.
 
The Rams entered the tournament as the #5 seed, and defeated #4 seed Dayton, 3-2, on Saturday night to advance to the semifinals.  Senior Jannik Loebe broke a 2-2 tie with a goal in the 83rd minute for the game-winner.  UMass, the top seed in the tournament, advance to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon.
 
GAME COVERAGE:
Fordham vs. UMass – 4:30 PM – Live Stats | Live Video* | Follow on Twitter @FordhamSoccer
 
* - Make sure to have the latest Adobe Flash Player plug-in enabled on your browser to view game. Having trouble, go here http://www.atlantic10.com/ViewArticle.dbml?KEY=WCMUTKPYWPNSYXF.20170907212142&DB_OEM_ID=31600&ATCLID=211668810
 
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the 23rd all-time meeting between Fordham and Massachusetts.  The Minutemen lead the series, 14-8, but it was Fordham that came away with the win during the regular season.  The Rams won 3-2 in the regular season finale, handing UMass its only home loss of the season.  In that game, Janos Loebe, Joergen Oland, and Christopher Bazzini scored for Fordham, while Rashid Nuhu had a season-high eight saves.
 
RAMS AMONG NATIONAL LEADERS: As of November 8th, the Fordham Rams are among the nation's top 30 in four categories this season.  The Rams are ninth in shutout percentage, 15th in goals against average, 17th in save percentage, and 22nd in won-lost-tie percentage.  Individually, juniors Rashid Nuhu and Janos Loebe are also among the national leaders.  Nuhu is third in the nation in shutouts (10), 21st in goals against average (0.70) and save percentage (.812), while Loebe is eighth in total assists (9), 15th in game-winning goals (4), 19th in assists per game (0.50), and 26th in shots per game (3.39).
 
RAMS IN THE RANKINGS (11/4): Following the Rams' wins over then-#25 UMass and the Atlantic 10 quarterfinal win over Dayton, Fordham men's soccer has propelled upwards in the NCAA RPI rankings, as well as in the National Top 30 and Regional Polls.  Fordham is in the receiving votes section of both the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 Poll and the College Soccer News Top 30 Poll.  The Rams also moved up from tenth in the United Soccer Coaches Midwest Region Poll to seventh.
 
In the NCAA RPI rankings, the Rams have slid up from #34 last week to #24 in this week's RPI report.  Fordham is one of four Atlantic 10 teams in the top 34 teams, along with VCU (#19), UMass (#27), and Rhode Island (#34).
 
A-10 ANNOUNCES ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS (11/8): As four teams converge on Dayton, Ohio for the 2017 Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Championship, the Atlantic 10 Conference announced its men's soccer All-Conference Teams and major award winners on Wednesday.  Eight Fordham Rams were among the honorees, led by senior defender Matthew Lewis (Kansas City, Mo.), who named Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Atlantic 10.
 
Joining Lewis on the All-Conference First Team are senior midfielder Jannik Loebe (Kierspe, Germany), junior forward Janos Loebe (Kierspe, Germany), and junior goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu (Accra, Ghana), while sophomore defender Joergen Oland (Drammen, Norway) earned Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors.  Senior midfielder Eric Ohlendorf (Merrick, N.Y.) received All-Academic honors for the second consecutive year with freshmen midfielders Andron Kagramanyan (Thornhill, Ontario) and Jacob Bohm (Berlin, Germany) being named to the conference's All-Rookie Team.   The eight players honored are the most for the Rams, since joining the Atlantic 10 Conference, surpassing the seven acknowledged in 2011.  For full story, go here.
 
ERIC OHLENDORF NAMED CoSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT (11/9): The 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-District® Men's Soccer Teams have been released to recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom.  Among the District 1 honorees is Fordham senior midfielder Eric Ohlendorf.  He is the first men's soccer player to receive Academic All-District honors since Jannik Loebe in 2015.

 
Just a day after receiving Atlantic 10 All-Academic honors for the second straight year, Ohlendorf picks up his first regional accolade.  A Biological Sciences major with a minor in Psychology, he has a 3.82 GPA, and a three-year member of the Atlantic 10 Commissioner's Honor Roll, as well as a member of Fordham's Dean's List.  This season, he has appeared in 15 games in 2017, making eight starts and recording one assist, which was against Saint Louis.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Fordham senior Jannik Loebe has proven over the course of his career to be one of the all-time clutch players in Fordham history, netting multiple game-winning goals in each of the three previous seasons and scoring goals at each of the last three Atlantic 10 Championships.  Loebe kept that "big-time player" tag on Saturday night, as he scored the game-winning marker in the 83rd minute to give Fordham a 3-2 win over the Dayton Flyers in the quarterfinals of the 2017 Atlantic 10 Championship at Baujan Field.
 
A wild scoring affair began in the 35th minute, when Fordham tallied the first goal of the game.  Connor DeFillips and Bart Dziedzic played passes to each other up the right side, finishing with Dziedzic having possession in the box.  Dziedzic quickly turned and shot the ball far post, netting his second goal of the season.
 
Dayton almost replied with the equalizer in the 40th minute, as Jonas Fjeldberg hit the post leaving the game as a 1-0 score after 45 minutes.  The Flyers would find the tying marker in the 65th minute off the boot of Thor Helgason.  Rok Taneski worked his way to the endline, sending a cross back toward the penalty spot.  The ball deflected off Kyran McGhan-George right to Helgason for a sliding finish past Fordham goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu.
 
Ten minutes later, Fordham recaptured the lead at 2-1 in the 75th minute.  Dayton cleared out a Fordham corner kick to Rams' defender Vincenzo Zuccala, short of midfield.  Zuccala played a long ball right into the chest of Matthew Lewis, deflecting the ball to Joergen Oland.  Oland immediately fired the ball into the left side of goal for his career-high fourth goal of the season.
 
The Flyers responded with another rally to knot the game at two in the 78th minute as the back-and-forth affair continued.  Ben Leba took the initial attempt, deflecting off a Fordham defender to Nick Hagenkord.  Hagenkord got the ball to James Haupt for a volley shot to the upper right side of goal for his fourth of the year.
 
Fordham, the defending Atlantic 10 champion, would not be denied the win however, coming up with the game-winning marker in the 83rd minute.  Janos Loebe found his way down the left side, putting a perfect cross into the box for Jannik Loebe.  Jannik finished into the left side of goal from seven yards out for his sixth goal of the season.  It marked Jannik's second game-winning goal of the season (ninth of his career), and the fourth consecutive Atlantic 10 Championship that he has scored a goal in.
 
In net, Nuhu made two saves to record his 12th win of the season, while Federico Barrios has one save over the final 45 minutes of action for Dayton.
 
WHO'S NEXT: If the Rams win on Friday, the Rams will face the winner of VCU/Rhode Island for the 2017 Atlantic 10 Championship on Sunday, November 12^th at noon.