The University of Richmond football team barely defeated Fordham University 17-14 on Saturday Nov. 1.
This was the first game for the Spiders since the team’s narrow loss to the College of the Holy Cross on Oct. 18 during their homecoming game.
This is the fourth match for the Spiders against the Rams and brings their record to 2-1-1. The team’s most recent match against the Rams was in 2019, where Richmond was defeated 23-16 by Fordham.
The game started off strong for the Spiders, with senior quarterback Kyle Wickersham making several solid passes in the opening minutes, which ended with him connecting with senior wide receiver Ja’Vion Griffin for Richmond's first touchdown of the game.
They continued this success by forcing the Rams to punt, but Fordham was able to recover the ball muffed by UR. The Rams followed it up by scoring their first touchdown within the same minute. The quarter ended with the Spiders making it into Fordham’s territory, but not being able to get points, keeping the score 7-7.
The Spiders continued their previous drive into the second quarter, but were forced to settle for a field goal in the first minute after failing to get the first down. The two teams would exchange the ball for the remainder of the quarter even though Richmond was able to record two back to back sacks by senior defensive linemen Camden Byrd and Donovan Hoilette.
In the last play of the half, graduate kicker Jayden Alsheskie attempted another field goal, but was blocked by the Rams bringing the score to 10-7 for the Spiders in the first half.
After halftime, the two teams returned to the field and continued to go back and forth with the ball for the first few minutes. Alsheskie attempted another kick soon after, but was blocked for a second time.
Fordham kept the ball in its possession for the next several minutes, until sophomore defensive back Lee Bruner IV intercepted the ball in the last six minutes for a 25 yard run. After connecting with sophomore wide receiver Isaiah Dawson for another 42 yards, Wickersham scored the second touchdown of the game in the last four minutes.
The Rams attempted to get back on the track, but sophomore defensive lineman Daniel Sellers scored another sack and forced Fordham to fumble the ball which sophomore linebacker Peyton Seelmann recovered. The Spiders attempted to build off this, but were intercepted by Fordham in the last minute, with the score at the end of the third being 17-7.
The teams continued their back and forth, until Fordham, building off a pass interference penalty for Richmond, scored its second touchdown about halfway through the fourth quarter. The game remained stagnant until the last minutes, when Fordham started gaining some momentum. However, this was stopped as Bruner IV made his second interception of the game, effectively ending it.
“It feels amazing, any time you win in college football it’s special and it takes a lot of hard work,” Wickersham said in a postgame press conference. “If we start finishing these drives in the red zone, then we’re not gonna have to be in these stressful games, so we’re just gonna keep working at it”.
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Richmond decimated the Rams in yards, with 323 compared to Fordham’s 161 led mainly by Wickersham and followed by junior running back Aziz Foster-Powell.
“Our defense won the football game” Head Coach Russ Huesman said in a postgame press conference. “We gotta clean so many things up if we wanna keep winning”.
The Spiders will be on the road to face Georgetown University at 1 p.m. on Nov. 8.
Contact sports writer Liam Gunawardena at liam.gunawardena@richmond.edu
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