Spartan goaltender Carl Lorenz made 54 saves, but it was not enough as the defending MCHC Champion Fordham University Rams skated to a 4-1 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas College on Friday night at Sport-O-Rama.

The first period was by and large an evenly matched stanza, which saw STAC hold a 15-11 shots advantage. However, with just under six minutes remaining in the opening frame Michael Hatch got the visiting Rams on the scoresheet on a perfect pass from teammate Jack Tamburro to make it 1-0 Fordham, a lead they would take into the first period intermission.

In the middle stanza, Fordham doubled their lead to 2-0 on a goal by Joe Rocco with just under four minutes left. Anthony DiPerri picked up the assist and closed out the scoring for the second period.

Zach Brenner opened the third period scoring the first of his two goals at 16:55. The first was on the feed by Jack Flanagan to make it a 3-0 Rams advantage, followed by a power play tally with the assist going to Nick Gadowski with 6:59 left in regulation to push the Fordham lead to a comfortable 4-0 lead. However, the Spartans were not just going to go quietly into the late October night, as Zachary Teats tucked a rebounded shot by Douglas Harrison behind goalie Joe Sponenburg with 5:15 left play to get the maroon and gold on the board. Unfortunately, it was the only offense that STAC could muster on this evening, as Fordham shut down any thoughts of a comeback, closing out the game to pick up the victory.

Spartan goalie Carl Lorenz (L, 1-4) stopped 54 of 58 shots faced, while Rams netminder Joe Sponenburg stopped 37 of 38 shots to get the win.

Shots on goal for the game were 38 for St. Thomas Aquinas and 58 for Fordham.

St. Thomas Aquinas College travels to Queens, NY on Saturday, October 28 against SUNY Maritime College. Puck drop is set for 9pm at World Ice Arena.