PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Junior captain
Daniel D'Ippolito recorded his second hat trick of the season on Saturday night, scoring three times in a 30-minute stretch to lift Fordham to a 3-0 win over Duquesne in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Men's Soccer Championship at Rooney Field.
With the win, Fordham (8-4-5) will travel to face Dayton in the semifinals of the A-10 Championship on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The Rams, who will return to the semifinal round for the first time since 2021, will make their 11
th appearance all-time in the A-10 semifinals dating back to 1996. Fordham has now punched a ticket to the A-10's final four for the eighth time in the last 11 seasons.
Having already scored three times in a game this season against Santa Clara on Sept. 5, D'Ippolito became just the fourth player in Fordham history and the first in 42 years to register two hat tricks in the same season, as John Shannon last accomplished the feat in 1982. D'Ippolito became the second Ram to record a hat trick in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, as Eric Ohlendorf also did so against Duquesne in 2016.
D'Ippolito now has 13 goals on the season, the most by a Fordham player since John Wolyniec scored a school-record 25 times in 1998 before being drafted seventh overall in the 1999 MLS College Draft. Entering the evening, D'Ippolito's 27 points (10 G, 7 A) were tied for 10
th in the country.
Bennett Leitner,
Kamran Mojabi,
Luke Pompliano and
Luca Bernoth registered assisted on Saturday evening.
Graduate student
Carter Abbott made three saves to log his fourth solo shutout of the season. The Rams improved to 8-3-3 on the season in games started by Abbott.
With the match still scoreless after 45 minutes, Fordham wasted no time jumping ahead in the second half. Just over a minute into the action, Bernoth sent a long ball from the other side of midfield down the right side for D'Ippolito. The junior took possession before moving into the middle of the field and unleashing on a ball at the top of the box, putting it in an impossible spot to goalkeeper Zoltan Nagy's right and giving Fordham a 1-0 lead.
D'Ippolito struck again in the 62
nd minute with another goal from distance. The sequence began when Mojabi sent a long ball down the left side that ricocheted off a few bodies before finding Pompliano. The Villanova transfer touched it toward the middle of the field for D'Ippolito, who took just two steps before firing from 30 yards out. The ball seemed to defy physics, as it appeared destined for the top-left corner of the net before taking a sudden turn to the right, stalling Nagy and giving Fordham a 2-0 advantage.
D'Ippolito wrapped up his night in the 76
th minute, as another long pass from Mojabi and a touch in traffic from Leitner set him up at the top of the box. He took two steps to his right before blasting a right-foot shot inside the right post and completing his hat trick.
Fordham's semifinal match against Dayton will be the second meeting of the year between the two teams, as the Rams took down the Flyers, 4-2, on Oct. 12 at Baujan Field. It was one of only two regular season losses for Dayton (11-2-3), which is currently ranked fifth in the United Soccer Coaches poll.
