Rams Go 2 - 1 in Tampa, Face Bergen Catholic (NJ) on Saturday

The Fordham Prep lacrosse season started this past week down in Florida with the team participating in the Jesuit Lacrosse Classic.  The squad almost came away with a clean 3 - 0 sweep with wins against Jesuit High School - Tampa (FL) and Rockhurst Jesuit (MO), but fell to Belen Jesuit (FL) by a goal in game one.  We’ve never been one to point fingers at refs, especially when the sport is in a ref shortage, but we heard the zebras down South call a very different game than their peers up here.  The Prep was called for 10 penalties versus zero for Belen just in the first half, and found themselves two men down twice.  Not surprisingly that led to the Rams getting into a 4 - 1 hole at the half.  They battled back in the second half, charged by two goals a piece from Paul Olivo ‘26 (Crestwood) and Will Freel ‘26 (Manhattan), and three assists from John Denning ‘28 (Bronxville), but eventually ran out of clock for a 6 - 5 final.  Cash Berner ‘27 (Rye) with 11 saves and Jakob Gilbert ‘26 (Bedford) with seven GBs and an assist kept the Rams in it on the defensive end.

The boys rebounded in their second game against Jesuit High School - Tampa (FL) coming away with a 9 - 8 victory against a very strong Tigers squad.  Three goals from Ryan Bracchitta ‘27 (Scarsdale) and a pair from Aidan Pymm ‘27 (Rye) paced the offense and an outstanding game in goal from Berner ‘27 with 15 saves, including three 1x1s, anchored the defense.  Game three against Rockhurst Jesuit (MO) was a total team effort as eleven Rams scored, led by Dima Athanason ‘26 (Mamaroneck) 4G/1A, Drew Pagen ‘26 (Rye) 2G/2A, and Denning ‘28 3G/1A.  The goalie corps of Berner ‘27, Peter Olivo ‘28 (Crestwood), and Ben Rose ‘28 (River Vale, NJ) combined for 25 saves.

Off the field the boys had some bonding time with a team dinner as well as dinner and mass hosted by Jesuit High School.  You can check out some great footage of the action down in Florida (here).

Congratulations to Nicholas Marciano ‘26 (Eastchester) and Colin Waters ‘27 (Manhattan) on scoring their first varsity goals in the Rockhurst Jesuit (MO) game, both pole goals no less!   Congrats to Owen Iannarone ‘27 (New Rochelle) and Gray Goldsmith ‘27 (Larchmont), who notched their first career goals in the game as well.  

Looking ahead to this week, today’s game versus Kennedy Catholic has been postponed due to a teamwide illness with the Gaels.  Hopefully a make up date will be scheduled soon.  So the only Varsity game this week will be Saturday when the Rams head over the bridge to face Bergen Catholic (NJ).  The Crusaders are 1 - 0 with a dominating 16 - 4 win over Parkland High School (PA) and the schools have only faced off against each other once, in 2022, with Bergen Catholic coming away victorious.

The Junior Varsity squad opens the season on Saturday at Pleasantville.  As we mentioned in last week’s season preview (here), the team schedules are up on the Top Corner Club website and can be found here - Varsity, Junior Varsity.