Last week the Rams beat Poly Prep 14 - 4 before heading up to Rhode Island for a pair of rematches from their trip to the Ocean State last year. The Prep fell to Moses Brown by a goal, its second one goal loss of the season, before rebounding to beat Barrington HS by three goals.
After a sluggish start against Poly, the Prep owned the second quarter 5 - 0 leading to a 8 - 2 score at the half. Solid play on both sides of the field led to the 14 - 4 final and Will Freel ‘26 (Manhattan), Drew Pagen ‘26 (Rye), and Aidan Pymm ‘27 (Rye) all netted hat tricks while Nicholas Marciano ‘26 (Eastchester) added two pole goals. The Prep and Moses Brown played a tight first two quarters, knotted up at 3 - 3 at the half, but second half penalties hit the Rams and gave the Quakers too many chances. After the Rams went up by two in the middle of the fourth quarter some unfortunate penalties gave Moses Brown opportunities to score three straight and take the lead and win 7 - 6. The boys shook off the tough loss and played an all around solid game against Barrington HS, winning 8 - 5.
Congratulations to defenseman Jakob Gilbert ‘26 (Bedford) who scored his first career goal in the Barrington HS game.
League play starts this week as the Rams face Cardinal Hayes tomorrow for the Duffy Cup and Kellenberg comes to the Bronx on Saturday. Hayes is a program on the rise and has moved up this year to the CHSAA “AA” division alongside Fordham, Iona Prep, and Stepinac. The Rams have beaten the Cardinals the past two years, including a 12 - 8 win last year behind Paul Olivo ‘26’s (Crestwood) 3G/2A and Pagen ‘26’s (Rye) 3G/1A effort. Don’t sleep on Hayes as they have been closing the talent gap the past few years and will be fired up for this game. They are 6 - 0 this season.
Long Island’s Kellenberg has been a formidable foe over the years and the teams have evenly split their last 20 meetings going back to 2008, including six one goal games and three two goal games. For those around the program long enough to go back to 2015, the Rams beat the Firebirds in a six overtime regular season thriller before falling to them in OT in the CHSAA playoffs. Kellenberg comes into the matchup at 2 - 4 with a 7 - 5 win over Stepinac.
The JV Rams picked up another win, dominating Monsignor Farrell 10 - 1, and are now 2 - 1 on the season. Their game against Xavier this week has been postponed but they face Hackley and Riverdale Country School on Wednesday and Friday.
Poly Prep Recap: W 14 - 4
The Rams looked a little sluggish to start off the game, allowing Poly to grab an early lead until Dima Athanason ‘26 (Mamaroneck) tied it up driving from X on a restart. The Blue Devils answered on its next possession to take the lead to one again. A man-up opportunity for Fordham late in the quarter allowed Will Freel ‘26 to feed a cutting Aidan Pymm ‘27 who deposited the rock past the Poly goalie to tie it back up. One more from Drew Pagen ‘26 in the waning seconds gave the Rams a 3 - 2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter opened up with a Rams score, with Pagen ‘26 feeding from X to a cutting Freel ‘26, and on the ensuing faceoff Owen Iannarone ‘27 (New Rochelle) won the face to start a fast break for a textbook tic-tac-toe score with Athanson ‘26 finishing on the crease. A Ryan Bracchitta ‘27 (Scarsdale) crank from 15 yards out at the nine minute mark started a run of three straight Prep goals to make it 8 - 2 at the half. The Rams started where they left off in the third quarter with Pymm ‘27 netting the Prep’s ninth goal before Poly stopped the bleeding to make it 9 - 3 two minutes into the half. Another Pagen ‘26 tally put the rams up 10 - 3 at the end of three quarters.
The fourth quarter started with the Blue Devils scoring off the faceoff, which ended up being their last of the game. Fordham owned the rest of the game with Pagen ‘26, Pymm ‘27, and Freel ‘26 netting their third each and Nicholas Marciano ‘26 scoring two pole goals, which all added up to a 14 - 4 victory.
Stat Line: Freel ‘26 3G/2A, Pagen ‘26 3G/1A, Pymm ‘27 3G/1A, Athanason ‘26 2G/1A, Marciano ‘26 2G, Bracchitta ‘27 1G/1A, Denning ‘28 1A, Gilbert ‘26 5GB, Iannarone ‘27 10FOW/6GB, C. Waters ‘27 6GB, Berner ‘27 8 saves, Pe. Olivo ‘28 1 save
Moses Brown Recap: L 7 - 6
Fordham dominated possession the first five minutes of the game but stellar defense by Moses Brown kept them off the board until Drew Pagen ‘26 fed Aidan Pymm ‘26 in front of the crease for a quick stick goal at the 7:02 mark. The Rams found themselves a man down with three minutes left and the Quakers capitalized tying the game at 1 - 1. After a great penalty kill by the Prep defense a Paul Olivo ‘26 coast-to-coast clear was rewarded by Pagen ‘26 picking up a ground ball and dumping it in to make it 2 - 1 at the end of the first quarter. Moses Brown tied it up 30 seconds into the second quarter and then took the lead 3 - 2 with just over four minutes left in the half. The Prep answered under a minute later when a Jakob Gilbert ‘26 clear found John Denning ‘28 (Bronxville) up top, who dished it to Pymm ‘27 on the wing, burying a low-to-high shot to tie it up, where it finished at the half.
The majority of the third quarter had both defenses playing solid but the Rams found themselves man-down at the 4:30 mark and Moses Brown made them pay to take a 4 - 3 lead. The Prep wasted no time as 30 seconds later Pymm ‘27 scored his third of the day off a Will Freel ‘26 feed from X and then followed that up with his fourth while man-up a minute later giving the Rams the lead again 5 - 4. A Freel ‘26 goal at 9:34 in the fourth gave Fordham its largest lead at 6 - 4, but the Quakers cut it to one at 7:30, and tied it up at 5:09. Another man-down situation for the Rams allowed Moses Brown to score at 4:21 and take the lead. The Prep had a few chances to tie the last few minutes but some clutch Moses Brown saves sealed the 7 - 6 loss.
Stat Line: Pymm ‘27 4G/1A, Freel ‘26 1G/1A, Pagen ‘26 1G/1A, Denning ‘28 2A, Gilbert ‘26 9GB, Iannarone 11FOW 73%/7GB, Berner ‘27 12 saves