Richmond, Va. – (October 5, 2024) – Saturday night saw a gritty performance by the Fordham men's soccer team and the Rams were rewarded with a 1-0 conference win over the 23
rd ranked VCU Rams at Richmond Backers Stadium in Richmond, Virginia.
The win over an in-season ranked opponent is Fordham's first since 2017, when the Rams knocked off then-25
th ranked Massachusetts to close out the regular season.
The lone goal of the contest came in the 41
st minute for Fordham.
Daniel D'Ippolito played a long ball forward to
Bennett Leitner outside the box on the right. Leitner laid off a pass to
Andre Insalaco at the top of the 18, which was blocked.
Louis Lehr picked up the rebound and fired it just inside the right post for his first goal of the season.
VCU was denied all night long by
Carter Abbott, the Fordham defense, as well as themselves. VCU believed they scored twice in the first half, but both were disallowed on a handball by VCU and an offside call.
Abbott then made a fingertip save in the 51
st minute on a free kick by Andres Rodriguez from 20 yards that hit the crossbar and deflected away. Then in the 61
st minute, Abbott was in scramble mode, stopping an initial shot by Kai Feng, where the rebound shot from Sulaiman Abdul-Mateen glanced off the post, off a head, and out of play.
Abbott picked up two more saves on shots by Andrey Salmeron in the 72
nd and 77
th minutes, keeping Fordham up by one, and giving him five for the night.
Fordham played up a man for the final nine minutes of the match, when VCU's Scott McLeod picked up his second card of the game and was disqualified. The defense held up the rest of the way, as Fordham improved to 4-3-3 on the year, 1-1-1 in the Atlantic 10, while VCU fell to 4-3-3, 1-1 in the league.
The Maroon and White are back at home for the team's next match on Wednesday, October 9
th, as Fordham welcomes Saint Louis to Moglia Stadium for a 7:00 PM match.
