This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in October 2018.
It was another Saturday in the fall, and it was another frustrating loss for Fordham’s football team.
Fordham lost to Georgetown University 23-11, its fifth loss in a row to start the season. The Rams had their chance to win this one, but it ultimately went down as a loss in the first Patriot League game of Fordham’s season.
Both offenses got off to extraordinarily slow starts, with the first four drives of the game all ending in punts. Georgetown was doomed by multiple false start penalties, and Fordham freshman quarterback Tim DeMorat was nearly intercepted on one occasion.
Georgetown started their third possession on their own 28 with 5:27 left in the first quarter and finally got to work. After Winston Jackson Jr. ran it twice for 11 yards, the Hoyas completed a screen pass for 12 yards to Brandon Williams. Williams got another 12-yard catch just two plays later, and Georgetown kept the drive alive with a 29-yard screen play to Jay Tolliver. The Hoyas finished the drive when Gunther Johnson hit Cameron Crayton in the end zone after senior defensive back Dylan Mabin fell down in coverage. After the score, Georgetown ran one of the wildest trick plays you will ever see, as the long snapper flipped the ball diagonally to Christian Tate, who ran it into the end zone to make it 8-0 with 59 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Fordham’s next drive started out much like their others, but the offense reclaimed some momentum with a 32-yard strike down the sideline to senior Isaiah Searight on a third and long. Two plays later, fill-in running back, junior Tyriek Hopkins (both junior running back D’Angelo Palladino and sophomore Zach Davis were out) broke off a 15-yard run to set up the Rams at Georgetown’s 13.
Hopkins got the ball on every play the rest of the drive and finished the series with a 2-yard score. Sophomore kicker Andrew Mevis missed his third extra point of the season, however, and the score was 8-6 with 12:50 left in the half. Yes, you read that right: 8-6.
Both teams went three-and-out and punted on their ensuing drives. Georgetown’s possession featured a frustrating play on a quarterback keeper. Quarterback Gunther Johnson kept the ball on a read option, instead of handing it to his running back, who got destroyed on the play. The referees thought Johnson had given up possession, so they blew the play dead after Johnson had gained five. It looked like he had a chance at a lot more, but the inadvertent whistle killed the play, and the Hoyas were forced to punt.
Georgetown’s snap went awry and punter Brad Hurst launched the ball from his own five-yard line out of the back of his team’s end zone for a safety. This already-bizarre game got even weirder, and Fordham tied it at eight.
Three more punts followed, and Georgetown got it back on its own 21 with 1:32 left in the half. Williams made back-to-back acrobatic catches to get Georgetown to the Fordham 32. Then, on the next play, Williams dropped a pass that went right off his hands and would have gone for a touchdown if he had caught it. A short run and a sack came next; Johnson fumbled on the sack but Georgetown recovered. After a penalty for running into the kicker, Georgetown went for it with 25 seconds left in the half. A short pass to Jackson Saffold fell four yards short of the marker, and the teams went into the locker room tied at eight.
The second half started with a punt from each team, with Georgetown punter Brad Hurst fired a 60-yard bomb to flip the field early in the third quarter for Georgetown. Fordham took that drive and made something of it, but with possession at the Hoya 43, senior Tristan Nevotne picked up a holding penalty on first-and-10. That didn’t stop the Fordham offense, and DeMorat converted a third-down toss to senior receiver Austin Longi to move the sticks. The drive stalled at the Georgetown 19, as DeMorat was unable to connect with Corey Caddle on third-and-nine. Senior kicked Kyle Facibene was called upon in lieu of Mevis to attempt the 36-yard field goal, and he drilled it with flying colors to give Fordham an 11-8 lead. Facibene’s one kick of the day was impressive, and it will be interesting to see where that position goes moving forward.
On the next drive, Georgetown running back Herman Moultrie ripped off a 41-yard run to get the Hoyas down to the Fordham six yard-line. Two plays later, Moultrie punched it in to give Georgetown a 15-11 edge with 36 seconds left in the third quarter. The Hoyas did not concede the lead for the rest of the game.
Hopkins set the tone for Fordham on the next drive, as he nearly broke off a touchdown run and got another first down. DeMorat hit Searight for an 18-yard pass to get the Rams inside Georgetown’s 35-yard line. However, Fordham couldn’t get anything going from there, and senior backup running back Colton Smith suffered a right leg injury on a third-down run that got no yards. Fordham tried to go for it on fourth down, but a false start penalty on freshman Austin Glazier forced a Mevis punt instead. His kick went about 15 yards in the air before rolling dead at the Georgetown two-yard line.
After two positive running plays, a third-down pass from Johnson was intercepted by junior defensive back Jesse Bramble as he fell out of bounds at the Georgetown 28. Fordham only got one yard in the next four plays, though, and DeMorat’s fourth-down pass attempt to Jordan Allen fell harmlessly to the turf. Fordham’s defense got yet another stop on the next drive and gave the ball back to the offense with 7:09 left on Fordham’s 28. The Rams couldn’t take advantage.
“It’s very frustrating,” head coach Joe Conlin said of his team’s inability to take advantage of the opposing team’s mistakes. “If you want to be a great team, you gotta play complimentary football.”
Fordham’s next drive was emblematic of the game up to that point: DeMorat’s first pass was rushed and incomplete to junior receiver Joe Ferraro and his second was deflected then intercepted by Jethro Francois. Georgetown got down to the Rams’ one-yard line before being shut down on fourth-and-goal trying to run a trick play eerily reminiscent of the Eagles’ “Philly Special” Super Bowl play. A fumble by wide receiver Josh Tomas was recovered by sophomore defensive lineman Anthony Diodato, and Fordham took over at its own five-yard line with 2:21 to play and a chance to win it.
And then, to start that drive, an old face returned to the Fordham offense.
Senior backup quarterback Luke Medlock was sent to the bench after the Stony Brook game in favor of DeMorat. Conlin was looking to catch lightning in a bottle by bringing Medlock back in; the move had nothing to do with DeMorat’s health.
“Timmy was a little late on some reads,” Conlin said. “We just wanted to give Luke a chance, see if he could change something up, see if he could drive us down the field.”
It didn’t quite work out that way for the Rams.
Medlock’s second pass of an supposed game-winning drive was easily intercepted by Francois on the Georgetown sideline. Moultrie punched in a touchdown after Francois’ return went all the way back to the Fordham one-yard-line, and despite a botched extra point that was laden with hilarity after Georgetown’s long snapper illegally completed a pass into the end zone for a two-point conversion (it was called back), the score was 21-11 in favor of Georgetown with only two minutes left in the game. A safety on the next drive, which featured DeMorat instead of Medlock, made it 23-11, and that would be the final.
“Obviously, a frustrating loss,” Conlin said. “I thought the defense played tough. With the exception of one drive, I thought those guys did a great job. It seems to be a common theme, we just put them in too many difficult situations.”
It was another rough week for Fordham’s offensive line, as it conceded five sacks for the third time in the last four games.
“We have to do a better job of protecting our quarterbacks, and I think our quarterbacks have to help themselves out with staying on their reads and getting the ball in play faster,” according to Conlin.
The loss drops the Rams to 0-5 on the season, and things do not get easier from here. Next up for Fordham is the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, who were picked to finish second in the preseason Patriot League poll and are currently 1-4 following a 66-7 loss to 23rd-ranked Princeton. After that, Fordham faces Bryant, Lafayette and Colgate to close out its home slate and enter November.
Fordham has not won a game this season. After today’s loss, Coach Conlin pinned the blame on himself, but a team does not lose its first five games in this fashion with only one person to blame. This has been a collective failure to this point in the season for the Fordham Rams, and the team disappointed in its most winnable game to this point in the season.
Fordham is 0-5. Lehigh is next. The Rams hope that more losing is not in the offing. The precedent has been set, and it isn’t good.