Football Falls on Homecoming

BRONX – Even though the phrase "when it rains, it pours" may have been more apropos for last week's game at Central Connecticut it could also apply to today's Fordham match up with Stony Brook University at Moglia Stadium. For the Rams not only lost the Homecoming game to the Seawolves, 27-21, but also lost starting quarterback CJ Montes to an injury in the third quarter.
 
With the loss, Fordham drops to 0-3 on the season while Stony Brook improves to 2-1.
 
The Rams were led by their defense with the unit scoring not one, but two touchdowns on interception returns. The defense was led by grad student linebacker Mike Courtney, who led all tacklers in the game with 12 stops, six solo, and he had two pass breakups while grad student linebacker Jackson Barletta added eight tackles, six solo, including one sack, and junior defensive back Alex Kemper had seven tackles, five solo, including two for loss, and he returned an interception for a score.
 
Offensively senior running back Julius Loughridge came up a yard short of his third straight 100-yard game, finishing with 99 yards on 13 carries while junior running back Ricky Parks picked up 54 yards on eleven rushes.
 
Fordham was called for just three penalties in the game but it was the second one that proved costly. Trailing 27-21 the Rams had a first and goal situation at the Stony Brook four where Loughridge appeared to score to tie the game with 6:47 remaining. But the play was nullified by a holding call on Fordham and two plays later, junior quarterback Jack Capaldi's pass was tipped and intercepted by the Seawolves on the Stony Brook eleven.
 
The Rams had one last chance for the win, taking over on their own 38 following a Stony Brook punt with 3:14 on the clock. Capaldi managed to move the Rams to the Stony Brook 43 but a fourth down pass was just off the fingertips of grad student wide receiver Garrett Cody with 1:29 remaining.
 
The Rams took a 7-0 lead with 2:05 left in the first on an eleven-yard scoring run from Montes before a Stony Brook field goal early in the second made it a 7-3 game.
 
The Seawolves took a 10-7 lead midway through the second on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Knoop to Roland Dempster with 9:23 left in the half but the Rams got the score back when Peter Chalhoub tipped a pass at the line before catching it and going six yards into the endzone to put Fordham up 14-10 with 6:49 remaining.
 
Stony Brook took the ensuing kickoff and drove 75 yards on 13 plays, capping the drive with a one-yard scoring plunge to take a 17-14 lead into the break.
 
In the third quarter Kemper stepped in front of a Stony Brook pass and returned it 55 yards for a score to give the Rams a 21-17 lead with 9:03 left in the quarter.
 
The game remained 21-17 until a six-yard touchdown run with 12:40 left in the game gave the Seawolves the lead for good, 24-21.
 
Stony Brook added a 41-yard field goal midway through the quarter for the 27-21 final.
 
Takeaways
• Sophomore wide receiver KJ Reed led the Fordham wideouts with three catches for 65 yards, with 25 of his receiving yards coming after the catch.
 
• Senior punter Will Haslett landed four of his eight punts inside the Stony Brook 20.
 
• Kemper was the last Ram to return an interception for a score, doing it in 2022 at Bucknell.
 
• Fordham has not thrown a touchdown pass in each of the past two games, the first time since 2011 that the Rams went without a scoring strike in back-to-back games.
 
• The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Rams over the Seawolves.
 
• The all-time series is now tied, 4-4.
 
• The loss also breaks a three-game Homecoming winning streak for Fordham
 
• One of the Stony Brook quarterbacks, Tyler Knoop, was very familiar to the Ram as he played at Georgetown the past four years.
 
• The Rams play the next two games on the road which means they will have played four of their first five contest away from Moglia Stadium
 
By the Numbers
6 – Quarterback hurries for senior defensive lineman Matt Jaworski, a career-high.
 
9- Tackles for loss recorded by the Rams.
 
13 – Career 100-yard games for Julius Loughridge, fourth all-time at Fordham.
 
16 – NCAA FBS transfers on the Stony Brook roster
 
26 – Total transfers on the Stony Brook roster.
 
44.6 – Punting average for Will Haslett.
 
104 – Rushing yards or Stony Brook, a season-low for a Fordham opponent.
 
2,380 – Career rushing yards for Julius Loughridge, eighth on the Fordham career list.
 
What's Next?
• The Rams continue the 2024 season by traveling to Hanover, N.H., to face the Dartmouth College Big Green on Memorial Field on Saturday, September 21, at 1:00 p.m.
 
• It will be the fifth meeting between Fordham and Dartmouth on the gridiron, the first since 1997.
 
• The Big Green lead the all-time series, 4-1, and have taken the past four meetings.
 
• Fordham took the first meeting, 14-6, at Dartmouth in 1951.
 
• The Rams have won ten of the last 12 meetings with Ivy League schools.
 
• It will be Fordham's first game against an Ivy League opponent since a game at Yale in 2019.