Amherst, Mass. – (March 24, 2021) – It was a tight affair all night long where one play was going to make the difference. That one play came in the second overtime period, when
Brandon Golden was fouled on the run in the box followed by a
Sameer Fathazada penalty kick goal, giving the Fordham Rams a 2-1 men's soccer victory over the Massachusetts Minutemen on Wednesday night.
With the win, Fordham improved to 3-0-0 on the season, 1-0 in the Atlantic 10, while Massachusetts took its first loss of the year at 5-1-1, 1-1-1 in the league. This marks the seventh time in Rams' history that the squad has started 3-0 in a season with the last coming in 2018.
The Rams opened the scoring in the tenth minute of action. Lennart Keßner cross the ball down the right side to
Florian Deletioglu for the left footed goal, his second marker of the season.
The score stayed that way until late in the frame, when a Massachusetts player was fouled in the box, awarding a penalty kick to the Minutemen in the 43
rd minute. Filippo Begliardi Ghidini converted the penalty kick for his fourth goal of the season to knot the game at one.
The second half saw the goalkeepers take center stage, as Fordham's
Josh Levine and Massachusetts' Marvyn Dorchin each held the other team's offense at bay. Levine made five saves in the second half with Dorchin having two, forcing the game into overtime.
Each goalkeeper added one more save to their ledger in the overtime sessions, but the play of the game came in the final minute of the second overtime period. Fordham's
Brandon Golden went on a run, dribbling into the box and got fouled with the referee awarding the second penalty kick of the match.
Sameer Fathazada then stepped to the penalty spot and converted for his third goal of the season to win the match for the Rams. It was his third game-winning goal of the season and the sixth of his career.
Levine finished with a season-high seven saves for the Rams with Dorchin having four stops for the Minutemen.
The Rams are next in action on Saturday, March 27
th, when they host Rhode Island for a 3:00 PM match on Jack Coffey Field.
