Holy Cross took a 21-20 lead into halftime, but Fordham shut down the Crusaders in the second half as the Rams won 26-21 to open the Patriot League season.
With Fordham and Holy Cross both desperately seeking their first wins of 2025 and the Ram-Crusader Cup on the line, there was plenty to play for when the Patriot League rivals met Sept. 27 at Moglia Stadium at Jack Coffey Field.
The Crusaders put up their highest point total of the season, but the Rams shut them out in the second half and snapped an eight-game losing streak against HC with a 26-21 victory.
Fordham trailed, 21-20, at halftime, but Bennett Henderson, who missed a field goal and an extra point in the first half, connected on a pair of field goals for the Rams in the second half.
Holy Cross, which was playing its league opener, fell to 0-5 for the first time since 2004, former coach Tom Gilmore’s first year at HC.
HC had won seven straight Patriot League openers. Fordham (1-4, 1-1) ended the Crusaders’ PL road winning streak at 19 games.
HC sophomore quarterback Cal Swanson completed 18 of 27 attempts for 186 yards and a touchdown. He also scored a rushing touchdown.
Swanson gave way to junior quarterback Braden Graham late in the third quarter. Graham was 9-16 for 57 yards and a game-ending interception. Andrew Osmun picked him off at the Rams’ 35 with 13 seconds left.
Holy Cross junior running back Jayden Clerveaux carried 17 times for a season-high 84 yards and a TD.
HC had 234 of its 345 yards in the first half.
The Rams put up a season-high 422 yards.
The matchup pitted the Patriot League’s lowest-ranked scoring offense (HC) against its lowest-ranked scoring defense (Fordham). The Crusaders came in averaging 12.5 points per game, the Rams allowing 50 per game.
Things did not start great for HC.
On the game’s opening possession, Fordham went 80 yards in two plays and scored less than a minute in on Ricky Parks’ 45-yard TD run.
The Rams scored on three of their first four possessions and led, 20-7, seconds into the second quarter.
Late in first quarter, HC got ball at midfield following a kickoff out of bounds and a Fordham unsportsmanlike penalty and put together an all-rushing drive, culminating with Swanson’s 2-yard TD run.
Three straight Clerveaux runs yielded 30 yards and a pair by senior Nyeoti Punni 18.
Swanson, who completed 70% of his attempts in the first half, led a pair of second-quarter scoring drives.
Midway through, the Crusaders went for it twice on fourth down inside the Rams’ 20, including Swanson’s 6-yard TD throw to sophomore Mason McSweeney on fourth-and-3 with 7:07 left.
Swanson’s 37-yard completion to junior Charlie Mullaly helped set up Clerveaux’s second touchdown of the season, a 5-yard rush, and Holy Cross led by one at halftime.
In the third quarter, after Fordham went up, 23-21 on Henderson’s 36-yard field goal, a flag for an illegal blindside block negated what would have been a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by sophomore Alijah Cason. Cason had a 97-yard KOR return for a TD earlier in the season.
The Crusaders ended up driving to the Fordham 26 on the possession, but Fordham blew up a handoff to Cason for a 7-yard loss, and after an incomplete pass on third-and-long, HC punted and pinned the Rams at their own 7.
Fordham went three and out and punted from the end zone. Senior Max Mosey returned the kick 18 yards to the Rams’ 33, but two penalties against Holy Cross, for holding during the return and for unsportsmanlike conduct after it, pushed HC back to its own 34.
In the fourth, junior Carlo Crocetti’s 9-yard sack of Fordham quarterback Gunnar Smith made the Rams settle for a 35-yard field goal and a five-point lead with 8:28 left.
Holy Cross got the ball back twice. The first possession ended when Graham, facing a blitz, threw an incompletion on fourth-and-8 from the Fordham 35.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Second-half surge sends Fordham past Holy Cross in Patriot League opener
Category: General Sports
