Xavier Martin had 125 rushing yards and one touchdown in Saturday night's win over Bryant. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari, Fordham University's Sports Information Director)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

Each week, things seem to be getting better for the Fordham Rams. And though the Rams have beaten two teams – Old Dominion and Bryant – who combined have less than two years of experience in Division I football, you still have to go out and win the games. As last week proved, even a team like Old Dominion, playing football for the first time since 1940, can give you a scare. Saturday night at Jack Coffey Field, the Rams made sure that didn’t happen again as they got out to an early lead against Bryant University, led at halftime 28-0, and cruised to a 35-7 win over the Bulldogs in front of a sparse crowd of 2,557 at Jack Coffey Field.

“I thought we finally played a complete game,” Fordham head coach Tom Masella said after his team improved to 2-3. “Offensively, defensively, and on special teams, our kids played well. It’s good to see us go out and play a complete football game. Our kids played hard. It’s something we can build on and move toward next week.”

The Bulldogs, currently in year two of reclassifying from Division II to full-time Division I (it’s a four year transition that will result in Bryant becoming a full-time member of the Northeast Conference in 2012), were overmatched from the start. The first half was all Fordham, with the Rams scoring 14 points in both the first and second quarters thanks to 308 total yards of offense, compared to Bryant’s 85. The Rams rushed for 161 yards in the first half – 87 from Xavier Martin – and quarterback John Skelton was sharp, completing 14 passes to five different receivers. He also ran for 42 yards in the half.

“It gave us a little more freedom to do what we like, but for the most part we stuck with our game plan to establish the run, and then threw,” Skelton said about the importance of getting the early lead. “Our defense did a great job. It was a good overall performance.”

Fordham’s first scoring drive came after a three-and-out by Bryant to start the game. Starting at their own 45, the Rams went on an eight-play, 55-yard drive that culminated in a 28-yard touchdown run by Martin that put them up 7-0. Fordham would add to its lead on its next possession as Darryl Whiting ran the ball in from six yards out to put the Rams ahead 14-0 with 4:49 to go in the first quarter. It was clear that, for the second straight game, Fordham would get major contributions from its running attack.

“When you can run the football, it’s going to keep you in games,” Masella said. “You don’t have to force things when you’re balanced on offense.”

“The offensive line had another [great] game,” Martin said. “We were seeing how the defensive ends were crashing every time so we just ran sweeps and counters – misdirection plays – on them that were effective.

Fordham's defense had another solid game, limiting the Bulldogs to 219 yards of offense. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari)

The Rams added to their lead in the second quarter as Skelton showed why he’s drawn the attention of NFL scouts. First, he scored on a 34-yard run where he broke tackles at the line of scrimmage before making a nifty move to the outside, then eventually down the left sideline. Then, with 26 seconds left in the half, he found Stephen Skelton in the endzone for a one-yard touchdown reception that gave the Rams a 28-0 halftime lead. Stephen Skelton, who’s become his brother’s favorite target, had five receptions for 45 yards in the first half.

“He creates matchup problems for linebackers and safeties with his size, and he’s a big guy who can run,” Masella said about Stephen Skelton. “He’s a tremendous player in his own right.”

It would be unfair to say that Fordham coasted the rest of the way, but the game was never in doubt in the second half. The Bulldogs would finally get on the board with one minute to go in the third quarter on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Mike Croce to Tim Mastrino. But Fordham would respond on its next possession, on another Skelton-to-Skelton hookup, this time an 18-yard touchdown pass to put Fordham ahead 35-7. From that point on, there would be no defensive meltdown, and Masella turned the game over to backup quarterback Douglas Papy with 6:06 to play.

John Skelton finished 18-of-32 for 183 yards, connecting with six different receivers. Stephen Skelton had eight catches for 74 yards. Martin rushed for 125 yards on 19 carries, and Whiting had 56 yards on eight carries. The Rams had 427 total yards on offense, while the defense held Bryant to 219 yards. Jamal Haruna (11 tackles) and Cliff Stuckey (10 tackles) led the defense.

“There’s one thing about this team: our kids play hard,” Masella said. “It’s good to see hard work pay off. Hopefully we can start to click and go forward.”

“To put our second win in a row together feels great,” John Skelton said. “I think where we are now feels a lot better than where we were three or four weeks ago. We stumbled coming out of the blocks. Now that we’re clicking and firing on all cylinders, it feels good.

“Next week we have a challenge to go on the road against Cornell. If we can get that win we’ll be back into conference play and hopefully keep the ball rolling.”

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Special thanks to Joe DiBari, Fordham University’s Sports Information Director, for providing the photos used with this story.

Michael Hickman's forced fumble secured Fordham's win over Old Dominion. (Photo courtesy of Fordham SID Joe DiBari)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

Nothing has come easy for the Fordham Rams at the start of this college football season, and Saturday afternoon was no exception. But no matter how close things may have gotten at the end of yesterday’s game, what mattered most for the Fordham Rams (1-3) was that they picked up their first win of the season, a much-needed victory over Old Dominion (3-2), a school fielding a football team for the first time since 1940. After some harrowing moments, Fordham escaped with a 34-29 win in front of a Homecoming crowd of 3,673 at Jack Coffey Field.

“We sure make it interesting, I can tell you that,” Fordham head coach Tom Masella said afterward. “It was another great college football game we were involved in that came down to the bitter end. Sometimes hard work and perseverance pay off. I give our kids credit because we’ve had three tough games. They continue to work hard [and] they continue to come out and play. Today when it looked like we may have let another one slip away, they found a way. It’s a credit to all our players. It was a good win.”

And not a win that was easy, though when Fordham went up 25-7 in the third quarter things certainly looked good. The Rams were playing against an Old Dominion team that has freshmen and sophomores lining their roster, a young team playing this year as an independent before making the move to the Colonial Athletic Association in 2011.

It took a clutch scoring drive late in the game for the Rams to get their first win. With 3:01 to play in the game and Fordham trailing 29-28, the Rams went on a five-play, 81-yard drive that was executed to perfection. Starting at their own 19, quarterback John Skelton hit Jason Caldwell with a pass for 11 yards. Then Brad Pierre caught a 47-yard pass down the middle of the field that proved to be the biggest play of the game. It was Pierre’s only catch of the game and only his sixth catch of the season, but it put the Rams in excellent position at the Old Dominion 23-yard line. From there, running back Xavier Martin, who had a breakout game, took over. The junior gained nine yards on his first carry, 11 on his next run, then ran it in for a score from three yards out to give the Rams a 34-29 lead. After three penalties on Fordham, the Rams attempt at a two-point conversion was unsuccessful.

“John made some big time throws,” Masella said about his senior quarterback on that game-winning drive. “I know Brad made a big catch on that drive. Xavier was a big part of that drive. They executed that last drive. There’s no better person to put [the ball] in his hands when you need a score than John.”

Actually, the offense was impressive throughout the game, showing far more balance to their attack than they had in previous games. The Rams finished with 687 total yards, 402 passing yards by Skelton and 285 rushing yards. Skelton connected with nine receivers, and found his brother Stephen 10 times on the day. Stephen Skelton finished with 138 yards and a touchdown, while David Moore caught six passes for 132 yards, and Caldwell had five catches for 54 yards. Still, it was the running game that needed to get going and yesterday Martin and Darryl Whiting got the opportunities with Fordham ahead for much of the game, and they delivered. Martin finished with 187 yards on 25 carries. Whiting, who also scored a touchdown, had 101 yards on 14 carries.

“That’s how I envisioned it for a long time,” Masella said about the strong performance of his two top running backs. “We’ve got two pretty good backs. As fast as Xavier is, Darryl’s as powerful and strong. Both of them are terrific players. What happened in the first three games, especially the first two, was that we were so far behind the running game got put on the shelf. Today we got the lead and we were able to run the ball. We want to be balanced and today we were able to do that.

“We feel we have talented kids on offense,” Masella continued. “The explosiveness is there if we just go out and execute and let our abilities take over, and certainly that happened today on offense.”

The game did not start well for Fordham as Old Dominion scored on its first drive to go up 7-0 just one minute and thirty-six seconds into the game. Fordham responded with a field goal, then got their offense going on their final three possession of the half as the defense forced nine consecutive punts. Fordham would take a 9-7 lead thanks to a seven-play, 91-yard drive that took two minutes and sixteen seconds. Stephen Skelton’s 29-yard touchdown pass gave Fordham their first lead of the game, though the extra point was blocked. On the Rams’ next drive, Skelton hit Moore for a 36-yard touchdown pass. The point-after attempt was no good, but the Rams would get the ball back before the half, and with six seconds remaining Kevin Heinowitz hit a 17-yard field goal to give Fordham an 18-7 lead going into halftime.

A 58-yard touchdown run by Whiting gave the Rams a 25-7 lead with thirteen minutes and twenty two seconds left in the third quarter, but then things got interesting. The rain picked up and the ball got more and more difficult to hold onto. The Rams fumbled three times in the second half, allowing the Monarchs to get back into the game and eventually take the lead before the game-winning Fordham drive. It really wasn’t until Michael Hickman forced a fumble that was recovered by Bryson Wilson with 51 seconds to play that the Rams could celebrate.

“I thought it was going to be tough to rebound after the Colgate game, but our kids are resilient,” Masella said. Fordham lost to Colgate, 20-12, last Saturday on a controversial ruling as time expired. “As disappointing as our start [to the season] has been, this one is that much more enjoyable.”

While Masella will take the win, he still would like to see more improvement from his team.

“We have to clean up things,” he said. “We almost gave this one away. As great as this win is, we have to play better. We didn’t play as well as we can. We’ll build off this, but there’s certainly things we need to clean up.”

One area of improvement Saturday was the defense. Considering the yardage and scores they had given up the first three games, especially against Rhode Island and Columbia, allowing 152 rushing yards and 240 passing yards has to be considered an improvement. They also held the Monarchs to 3-of-13 on third-down conversions.

“I thought our defense did a heck of a job today,” Masella said. “After that first drive I thought they settled in and played very good football.”

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Special thanks to Joe DiBari, Fordham University’s Sports Information Director, for providing the photo used with this story.

Joe Flacco

The comparisons between John Skelton and Joe Flacco started before the season. Flacco was drafted out of Delaware, a 1-AA school, by the Baltimore Ravens with the 18th pick in the 2008 draft, while Skelton is likely to be drafted next spring as he currently finds himself on the radar of a number of NFL teams. After today’s 34-29 Fordham win over Old Dominion at Jack Coffey Field, Bobby Wilder, the Monarchs’ head football coach, added his thoughts on the comparisons between the two quarterbacks.

John Skelton

“I coached against Joe Flacco when I was at Maine. He’s better than Flacco at this stage,” Wilder said about Skelton. ”And the biggest reason is because he’s more mobile. They have the same mechanics. They have the same delivery. They can both make that NFL throw from one hash to the opposite sideline in that 15 to 20-yard range. But Skelton can run. He can flat out run. If you look at his statistics, a lot of his runs come in situations where it’s third-and-eight, third-and-nine. You’re blitzing him and he gets out and there he goes.

“In my opinion he’s going to have a very successful career in the NFL.”

When Skelton was told by a reporter what Wilder said, he smiled, then offered this response:

“I’ve been getting those comparisons all year. To hear it from an opposing coach who’s actually played him is gratifying. To be mentioned with him (Flacco) is a great honor.”

Charles Costello