Rams Face Iona Prep Tomorrow, Kellenberg Saturday Under The Lights On Senior Night

The Rams lost both their contests this past week falling to a strong Lohud.com top-10 ranked Bronxville team and #21 nationally ranked Chaminade.  After Bronxville jumped out to a quick 2 - 0 lead the Rams settled down with the defense playing its best team defense of the season - textbook slides, fighting through picks, opportunistic double teams.  The vast majority of Broncos goals came from unsettled situations and transition and Bronxville seemed to get all the right bounces.  On the offensive side the Prep had good possessions but were consistently stopped by the Bronco goalie, arguably one of the best in the area the past few years, and obvious why he’s heading to North Carolina next year.  The Rams were down 6 - 3 at the half and kept it within three goals until the fourth quarter when the Broncos put it out of reach with six goals for a 14 - 6 final.

Not a surprise the Prep was overmatched against Chaminade, a perennial national power with a roster chock full of college recruits, even in an “off” year for the Flyers.  Chaminade took an 8 - 0 lead after the first quarter before taking the foot off the gas on its way to a 15 - 2 win.  A rough day for the Rams but always important and a very good learning experience to play competition at the highest level.

Tomorrow, Fordham faces Iona Prep in New Rochelle for what will be another high intensity chapter of this rivalry.  The Gaels and Rams have had many dogfights and close games over the decades but Iona has had the Prep’s number of late, winning the past seven regular season and playoff contests.  Fordham’s last victory was a 10 - 9 win in the 2018 CHSAA City Championship with James Corasaniti ‘18 making a key save with 11 seconds left to preserve the win (recap).  Iona is ranked #4 by Lohud.com and comes into the game at 7 - 3 with a 14 - 7 win against Bronxville and its only losses to St. Anthony’s, Seton Hall Prep, and Don Bosco Prep.

On Saturday night the Prep takes on Kellenberg at Murphy Field under the lights for Senior Night - a great opportunity to fill the sidelines with supporters.  Kellenberg is 3 - 6 including a 12 - 7 loss to Iona Prep and a 17 - 9 loss to Chaminade.  The Firebirds beat the Rams last season 11 - 10 and have won six straight since 2019.

Congratulations to PJ Cunningham ‘24 (Bronx) on reaching the 100 career goals milestone against Riverdale Country School.  PJ now has 136 points (101G/35A) as a Ram and is currently eighth all-time on the career goals list (records).

We finally have the season stats as well as the JV roster and JV schedule/results up on the website.  You can check them out here (stats, JV roster, JV results).

Bronxville Recap:  L 14 - 6

Bronxville opened the scoring on its first possession and dumped in a second goal off an unsettled situation to take a 2 - 0 lead a minute thirty into the game.  The Rams then settled down and had a few good looks and shots that were saved (not going to get much past this keeper).  After some sloppiness with the ball the Rams had a great long possession but the Broncos’ goalie stonewalled them again.  A loose ball on the resulting clear found its way to a wide open Bronxville attackman who snuck it in from up close.  Shortly after, a rebound off a Prep save went right into the stick of another Bronco attackman, who dumped it in for a 4 - 0 lead at 2:29 left.  The Prep finally got on the board at 1:19 when Drew Pagen ‘26 (Rye) found Sebastian Zarkowski ‘25 (Hastings-on-Hudson) who deposited an off-stickside hip shot to make it 4 - 1.  45 seconds later the Broncos extended it to 5 - 1 and a few more Bronxville saves in the waning seconds kept the lead at four after one quarter.

The Rams were able to move it around well with Will Freel ‘26 (Manhattan) finding Pagen ‘26  from behind to cut the lead to three.  But the Broncos answered a minute later to take the score to 6 - 2 at the 8:23 mark.  With just over two minutes left in the quarter Pagen ‘26 scooped up a scrappy groundball and dumped it in to make it 6 - 3 at the half.  

A patient possession by Bronxville resulted in its seventh score until the 9:39 mark when Pagen ‘26 drove around the cage past GLE and stuck it past the keeper.  One minute later Zarkowski ‘26 followed with a solid bouncer to make it 7 - 5.  With just under two minutes remaining in the quarter a rebound off another nice save by Griffin Cooleen ‘26 (Briarcliff) went right into a Bronco stick (again!) for a goal and to end the third quarter at an 8 - 5 score.

The fourth quarter started with another Bronco save then score at 9:44 to take it to 9 - 5.  Bronxville then held possessions scoring two in a row until PJ Cunningham ‘24 drove from behind on a restart and muscled in a sidearm shot to make 11 - 6 at 6:52 remaining.  Bronxville continued to eat the clock, and another unsettled ball wound up in a Bronco stick who put it back in 12 - 6.   Two more late tallies gave Bronxville the 14 - 6 win.

Stat line: Pagen ‘26 3G/1A/3GB, Zarkowski ‘25 2G/1A, Cunningham ‘24 1G, Freel ‘26 2A, Spring ‘24 13FOW/6GB, O’Driscoll ‘24 3GB, Cooleen ‘26 7 saves