BRONX, N.Y. (Sept. 7, 2023) – The Fordham men's soccer will put its unbeaten record on the line twice in the coming days, beginning with a 7 p.m. match at UMBC on Friday night. The Rams will then return to the Bronx for a Monday afternoon showdown against another Baltimore school in Loyola Maryland. Kick-off for that contest is set for 4 p.m.
Both matches will be available to stream on ESPN+. Monday's match against the Greyhounds will also air on MSG Network and MSG+.
Fordham enters the weekend on the heels of a stunning comeback against Georgetown on Monday afternoon in Washington. Playing in heat with real-feel temperature north of 100 degress, the Rams scored three goals in the final 31 minutes of the match to erase a 3-0 deficit and draw with the reigning BIG EAST Regular Season Champs.
Timo Hummrich and
Andre Insalaco each provided a goal and an assist while Daniel D'Ippoltio scored the equalizer on a header with just 10 seconds remaining in match.
Jed Dixon,
Kai Griese and
Florian Deletioglu also added assists for the Rams. Georgetown, the 2019 national champion, has lost only one match on the season to Stanford, the current no. 1 team in the country, and was coming off a 4-1 victory over then-No. 8 Pittsburgh three days prior.
Georgetown is not the only impressive result secured by the Rams in early September, as Fordham took down reigning Ivy League Champion Penn, 2-1, on Sept. 1 in the Bronx.
Liam Salmon scored his first goal as a Ram off a brilliant assist from D'Ippolito to open the scoring before Hummrich netted his second game-winning goal of the campaign on a penalty kick.
Alex Dolce made his first collegiate start against the Quakers, recording three saves on his way to his first Fordham victory.
The Rams are unbeaten through four games for the first time since the spring of 2021, when Head Coach
Carlo Acquista led the men of Rose Hill to a 7-0-2 record before falling in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament to eventual national champion Marshall in overtime.
Fordham and UMBC will meet for just the fourth time in the history of the two programs when they square off on Friday night. The series began in 1990 with a 4-3 UMBC win at Hofstra and each of the two subsequent meetings resulted in draws, including a 2-2 tie last fall in the Bronx.
The Retrievers have yet to lost a match this season, entering the weekend with a record of 3-0-1. UMBC is undefeated against the A-10 so far, defeating George Mason, 4-3, in Fairfax on Aug. 24.
Three Retrievers have logged multiple goals on the year, led by Taylor Calheira's four. Three of those came in the form of a hat trick in that season-opener against the Patriots.
Monday's match with Loyola Maryland will mark the sixth meeting all-time between the two Jesuit institutions, a series in which the Rams are 1-3-1. Last fall, Fordham and Loyola Maryland played to a scoreless draw in the Bronx. The Rams' lone win in the series came in 1996 in the NCAA Tournament Play-In game, a match that Fordham won 3-2.
The Greyhounds (0-1-3) have yet to record a victory in 2023, but have logged three ties against formidable opponents in North Carolina, Virginia Tech and NJIT, the first two of which came on the road. Before heading to the Bronx, Loyola will host Princeton on Friday night.
