Men’s Soccer Set to Host A-10 Championship at Jack Coffey Field

Bronx, N.Y. – (November 14, 2019) – After securing its sixth consecutive berth in the Atlantic 10 Championship, the Fordham men's soccer team will continue yet another run at a league title this weekend.  The fifth-seeded Rams kicked off the championship by knocking off the fourth-seeded Saint Louis Billikens, 1-0, at Hermann Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, in the quarterfinal run.
 
Fordham (7-10-2, 5-2-1 A-10) will now play in their fifth championship semifinal in the last six years on Friday, when the team takes on top seed Rhode Island at 1:00 PM on Fordham's Jack Coffey Field.
 
This is the first time that Fordham will play host to the Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Championship, having previously hosted part of the women's basketball championship (opening round), as well as the entire cross country (once), softball (four times), and baseball (four times) championships.
 
Rhode Island (13-3-2, 7-1-0 A-10), who is receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 Poll, enters the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals after a wild 7-3 win over Davidson in the quarterfinals. 
 
URI is led by Filippo Tamburini, who is the team's top scorers with eight goals and four assists for 20 points. Stavros Zarokostas is right behind him with seven goals and five assists with Edvin Akselsen having three goals and 12 assists for Rhode Island.  In net, Stefan Schmidt has played every second for URI (1693:00), recording a 1.01 goals against average with five shutouts.
 
GAME COVERAGE:
Friday – #5 Fordham vs. #1 Rhode Island – 1:00 PM ET – Game Notes | Live Video (ESPN+) | International Stream | Live Stats | Tickets | Follow on Twitter @FordhamSoccer
 
RAMS AT THE A-10 CHAMPIONSHIP: Overall, this is Fordham's 12th appearance in the Atlantic 10 Championship since joining the league in 1995.  The Rams have won the Atlantic 10 crown and the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship three times in 1996, 2014, and 2016.  Currently, Fordham is on a run of six straight appearances in the championship, having made at least the semifinals in five of those six tournaments.
 
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the 28th all-time meeting between Fordham and Rhode Island.  Rhode Island extended its lead in the series to 16-9-2 earlier this year, defeating Fordham, 3-1, up at the URI Soccer Complex in Kingston on October 5th.  In that game, Fordham took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Johannes Pieles in the fourth minute, but Rhode Island answered with three goals, which included a goal and two assists by Edvin Akselsen.
 
LAST TIME OUT (11/9): One moment, one chance.  It was all the Fordham Rams were looking for on Saturday afternoon in their Atlantic 10 Championship quarterfinal match at Saint Louis.  The Rams ended up getting that moment when Filippo Ricupati scored the lone goal of the contest in the 87th minute to send Fordham to the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals with a 1-0 win over the Billikens at Hermann Stadium.

The first half featured a couple of highlight reel saves from the starting goalkeepers for both teams, keeping the match scoreless.  In the fourth minute, Saint Louis' John Klein made a run that Fordham goalkeeper Konstantin Weis came out to challenge and made the stop to the left side.
 
Then in the eighth minute, Fordham had a golden chance, as Sameer Fathazada made a run into the box and was fouled, awarding a penalty kick to the Rams.  Joergen Oland stepped the spot, but his attempt was saved by Patrick Schulte toward the right post.  Schulte came up with another big stop in the 16th minute, as a Fathazada cross found Pieles for a header that Schulte punched over the bar.
 
Pieles had another chance to get Fordham's first tally in the 32nd minute, as he noticed the goalkeeper out from his goal.  Pieles wound up a shot from distance, just outside the center circle and hit the crossbar.
 
At the other end, Weis added three more saves to his total for the 0-0 score at the half with his best in the 36th minute.  A free kick was put into the box for a header by Mujeeb Murana to the top left corner, which Weis was able to punch over the bar.
 
The second half began similar to the first half with a penalty kick attempt.  This time, Saint Louis was the beneficiary, getting the chance in the 46th minute.  Devin Boyce stepped to the spot and shot left, which Weis stopped with the rebound coming back into play.  The second chance went wide of goal, keeping the game scoreless.
 
The next prime chance for either team came in the 77th minute on a Saint Louis free kick that Weis was again up to the task, making a diving save to the right side, his sixth of the match.
 
Then, in the 87th minute, Fordham capitalized on a Saint Louis turnover for the lone goal of the game.  Murana attempted a play back to his keeper, but ended up playing the ball right to Fordham's Filippo Ricupati, who touched it past the Saint Louis goalkeeper inside the right post for his team-leading sixth goal of the season.  The Rams (7-10-2) then bled out the final three minutes of the contest to secure the 1-0 win and advance to the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals.
 
PIELES NAMED TO CoSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM (11/8): The 2019 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 forward Johannes Pieles.  He is the first Fordham men's soccer player to receive Academic All-District honors since Eric Ohlendorf in 2017.
 
Pieles, who holds a 3.94 GPA in Finance, has appeared in 18 of 19 games this season for the Rams, making 17 starts.  He has recorded two goals for four points on the year and notched one game-winning goal.  That game-winning tally came recently in a victory over George Mason on October 26th.  He also ranks second on the team in shots (46).  This is Pieles' second Academic All-District honor in his career, having received the same honor in 2017, while playing at Syracuse University.

 
CLIMBING THE RANKS: In the George Mason match, senior defender Joergen Oland cracked the top ten in both games played and games started at Fordham.   Currently, he has started all 75 games he has appeared in netting 15 goals and three assists for 33 points in his career.  His 75 games played are tied for eighth all-time at Fordham with Harris Tsangaris (1995-98), while the 75 starts place him in seventh by himself.
 
I'll TAKE TWO PLEASE: With Tomer Zloczower scoring twice in the Rams' 2-0 win at Saint Louis on Saturday, he is the fourth different Ram to have a multi-goal game this season.  Both Joergen Oland and Luke McNamara had two-goal performances for the Fordham Rams against Holy Cross, while Filippo Ricupati had a two-goal match against George Mason.
 
WEIS AMONG NATIONAL LEADERS (11/14): As of November 14th, Fordham goalkeeper Konstantin Weis is among the national top 50 leaders in three categories.  He ranks fifth nationally in minutes played (1808:53), tied for 32nd in shutouts (6), and tied for 42nd in total saves (64).
 
WHO'S NEXT: With a win, Fordham will play the winner of Dayton-VCU at 1:00 PM on Sunday for the Atlantic 10 Championship and the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Championship.