Lions Fall to Rams in Season Opener

The Liberty Cup changed hands on Saturday night, as Columbia fell to Fordham, 27-10, at Jack Coffey Field in the Bronx.

The Columbia offense had trouble establishing itself early on, garnering just five first downs in the first half. The Rams, meanwhile, had anything but trouble on offense, especially on the ground. Fordham had shown itself to be a throwing team in its last two games, averaging 251 passing yards and 137 rushing yards per game. The Lions defense held quarterback John Skelton to only 51 yards through the air and 4 of 15 passes, but had no answer to Fordham’s rushing attack.

On the backs of running tandem Xavier Martin and Jonte Coven, Fordham racked up 323 rushing yards against the Lions. In his first collegiate game Martin led the team with 157 yards and three touchdowns, while Coven contributed 139, as both routinely shed Columbia tacklers all night long.

“They handed off and did whatever they wanted,” head coach Norries Wilson said. “Our first tacklers didn’t do a good job tackling, our second tacklers didn’t do a good job tackling.”

The Lions got the ball to start the game and drove to the Fordham 30-yard line, but stalled there. Jon Rocholl’s first field-goal attempt of the season, a 47-yard field try, was wide right.

Columbia had another chance to take the lead in the first quarter. With the Rams facing third and four on the Columbia 33-yard line, freshman linebacker Alex Gross picked off a Skelton pass and returned it to the Fordham 32. But the play was called back, because the Lions had jumped the snap a little early. The penalty gave the Rams a first down and second life. They would capitalize four plays later, when Martin scampered 14 yards to score his first career touchdown.

Columbia’s defense had a tough time stopping the run, mainly due to poor tackling. On a 51-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Martin seemed to be curtailed when a host of Lions met him at the line of scrimmage, but he ducked and spun outside and was not touched again en route to the end zone.

“We just didn’t tackle .... We beat ourselves,” said senior captain and cornerback JoJo Smith. “There were a number of times where we made plays in the backfield where we had one, two, sometimes three guys at the point of attack .... It’s just fundamental football.”

After a 20-yard field goal with 16 seconds left in the first half to lift the score to 17-0 in favor of the Rams, wide receiver Austin Knowlin returned a kickoff to the Fordham 36, setting up an eventual 49-yard field goal by Rocholl—a career long for the junior.

The Rams chalked up 10 more points in the third quarter on a Martin touchdown run and a 32-yard field goal.

In the fourth quarter, the Lions’ offense started clicking. Senior captain and quarterback Craig Hormann—who was not expected to play—led the Lions on a nine-play, 94-yard drive, with the touchdown coming on a seven-yard pass to Knowlin. Hormann ended the night with 254 yards through the air on 23 of 43 passing, including a touchdown and two interceptions.

Knowlin was the star for the Lions, catching nine passes for 130 yards and their lone touchdown in the fourth quarter. He also had 74 yards on returns on special teams to give him 204 all-purpose yards for the night.