BRONX, N.Y. – Daniel D'Ippolito tallied a hat trick in Fordham's 4-0 victory over Santa Clara men's soccer in the first ever meeting between the two schools inside Moglia Stadium at Jack Coffey Field on Thursday night.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• Fordham (3-0-1) played with a man advantage for the majority of the game when Itamar Efrat was issued a red card for a handball inside the box at the seventh minute mark.  
• Daniel D'Ippolito subsequently converted the penalty kick slotting the ball past Broncos goalkeeper Jackson Ozburn.  It was the first of two goals in the opening half for the junior midfielder when he powered home a shot from 20 yards out to double the Rams lead at the 23rd minute mark.  
• In the 32nd minute, Bennett Leitner made it 3-0 on a through ball from Louis Lehr, cut against the grain and the curled the ball in to the far post.
• The short handed Santa Clara (1-2) squad struggled to generate any offense in the first half as they were held without a shot and trailed 3-0 at the intermission. 
• The Broncos were credited with five shots in the second half with two of them on target but could not get one past Carter Abbott and Alex Dolce who combined to blank SCU.
• D'Ippolito completed the hat trick in the 69th minute for the final goal of the game.  

NOTABLE NUMBERS / GAME NOTES: 

• Fordham leads the series 1-0.
• Ozburn made his Bronco debut playing all 90 minutes and was credited with six saves. 
• D'Ippolito had a game-high five shots with four of them on goal.   

POST-GAME COMMENTS:

Head Coach Cam Rast on his takeaways from the game:
"For the first couple of minutes of the game, we settled in and I didn't feel we would be over matched.  We looked at a couple of options with our lineup and settled on the best option where it had the most experience at the center of defense.  The red card hurt us in two ways in that we had to go down a player but also a penalty kick was issued.  So we tried to fight out of it but we didn't figure out how to do that and make it difficult for Fordham.  Unfortunately, we took a second goal and the third before the half.  If you're behind by two, we can reorganize and push but the third goal made it even more difficult.  Overall, it was disappointing but we'll look at the film and start to get ourselves right.  We just have to perform in all areas.  We need to compete, get better and that's the challenge we put forth to the team after the match."

NEXT UP:

• The Broncos stay on the east coast and play at Boston University on Sunday at 3 p.m. PT. 

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