Palo Alto, Calif. – (December 6, 2024) – Though the match was delayed for about 20 minutes due to an issue with one of the goals, that did not distract the focus of the Fordham Rams. The Rams posted their first ever NC Championship tournament win on Friday night, 16-11, over Long Beach State at Stanford's Avery Aquatic Center.
With the win, Fordham (32-0) advances to the NC Championship semifinal on Saturday against second-seeded USC at 7:00 PM Eastern/4:00 PM Pacific.
The Rams opened the game with a 2-0 lead on goals from
George Papanikolaou and
Andras Toth just three minutes into the game, before Long Beach State answered with a pair of extra-man goals to tie the game at two. Papanikolaou then gave the Rams a 3-2 lead at the end of the quarter with an extra-man goal.
Long Beach State opened the scoring in the second quarter, tying the game at three, but
Lucas Nieto Jasny answered at the other end for a 4-3 edge.
Luca Provenziani then netted an extra-man goal for a two-goal edge, 5-3. The teams exchanged goals twice, keeping it a two-goal lead for Fordham at halftime, 7-5.
Fordham then pushed down the accelerator in the third quarter, scoring the first three goals of the quarter for a 10-5 advantage and forcing a timeout by Long Beach State. Toth had two of the three goals, completing his hat trick, while
Luca Silvestri scored with the man advantage for the other early tally. The Rams ended up scoring three more times later in the frame, for a 13-7 lead as both Silvestri and Papanikolaou both completed hat tricks with
Jacopo Parrella adding the third marker.
The Rams kept Long Beach State at bay in the final frame, getting three more markers for the 16-11 final.
For Fordham, Toth scored a game-high four goals to go with two assists, while Provenziani had three goals and three assists. Papanikolaou added three tallies, two assists and two steals with Silvestri having three goals. The remaining goals were scored by Nieto Jasny, Parrella, and
Balazs Berenyi. In net,
Thomas Lercari recorded six saves, two steals, an assist, and a penalty block.
Saturday's semifinal match can be seen on NCAA.com.
