Behind the strong play of Ryan Meara in the pipes and a first-half marker from senior, Matt Courtenay, the Fordham men’s soccer team opened up Atlantic 10 play with an upset of #23 Xavier.  In the victory, Meara became the all-time shutout leader in Fordham history with 28 clean sheets, surpassing Jeff Knuth’s mark of 27.

The Rams last win over a ranked opponent on the road came on August 27, 2006, when Fordham defeated #9 South Florida, 2-1.  They also beat #9 Saint Louis, 1-0 on Sunday, October 12, 2008, but that game was at Jack Coffey Field.

Fordham had two scoring chances in the first 15 minutes as John Niyonsaba blasted a shot that Justin Marshall brought in for the save.  In the 16^th minute, Tim Richardson got his head to the ball, but Marshall turned that aside as well.  Richardson had another scoring chance in the 34^th minute.

The game turned in Fordham’s favor in the 36^th minute, as Niyonsaba put a through ball to Matt Courtenay, who blasted it into the upper 90 to give the Rams a 1-0 lead.  Meara, who sent the shutout mark, made all four of his saves in the second half of the game.

The Musketeers first challenged Meara in the 53^rd minute when Luke Spencer put a shot on net that Meara turned aside.  In the 64^th minute, Andrew Boisvert tried Meara, but Meara parried that one as well.  He turned aside two more attempts to record his 28^th career shutout, the most by any Fordham player.

In the game, the Rams outshot the Musketeers 13-12 and Niyonsaba and Julian Nagel each took three shots.  With the win, Fordham improves to 5-4-1, 1-0 in the A-10, while Xavier is 6-2-1, 0-1.  Fordham closes out its Ohio road trip on Sunday when the Rams face the Dayton Flyers at 1:00 PM.

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