{"id":299769,"date":"2025-11-21T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299769\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T18:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:30:09","slug":"football-closes-out-season-at-merrimack-on-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/299769\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Closes Out Season at Merrimack on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                        Football&#13;<br \/>\n                        11\/21\/2025 1:20:00 PM&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;\n                    <\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                James Conway looks to add to NCAA career tackles record&#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<br \/>\n                &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                    Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                 BRONX, N.Y. &#8211; \u00a0The Fordham University Rams close out the 2025 season, Fordham&#8217;s 125th varsity season, by traveling to North Andover, Mass., to face the Merrimack College Warriors at Duane Stadium on Saturday, November 22, at 12:00 p.m.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with John Avino (p-b-p) and Jacob Van Ryan (analyst) announcing and broadcast live on WFUV (90.7 FM) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WFUVSports\/streams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WFUV YouTube channel<\/a> with Tucker Austin (p-b-p) and Thomas Tisdale (analyst) handling the announcing chores.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFordham grad student linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/james-conway\/14344\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14344\" target=\"_blank\">James Conway<\/a> enters the game with 585 career tackles, a new NCAA Division I record. He broke the old mark of 577 set by Troy&#8217;s Carlton Martial from 2018-22. Conway also has 149 stops on the season, a new Fordham single season record, surpassing the former record of 145 set by Mark Blazejewski in 1991. Earlier this year Conway broke the NCAA FCS record of 550 career tackles set by Boomer Grigsby of Illinois State from 2001-04 (the NCAA has recorded tackles as an official stat since 2000).<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFordham enters the game with a 1-10 record, 1-6 in the Patriot League, and is coming off a 14-0 League loss at Georgetown last Saturday while Merrimack, an NCAA FCS independent, enters with a 3-8 overall record following a 42-37 loss at Sacred Heart last week.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIt will be the second meeting between Fordham and Merrimack on the gridiron. The Warriors took the first meeting, 19-3, on November 23 last year as Ayden Pereira completed 12 of 15 passes for 131 yards and also ran for 136 yards in the season finale for both teams.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nA few notes on the game:<br \/>\n\u2022 Fordham grad student linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/james-conway\/14344\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14344\" target=\"_blank\">James Conway<\/a> was named one of 16 finalists for the <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/news\/2025\/10\/22\/football-fordhams-james-conway-named-william-v-campbell-trophy-finalist.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025 William V. Campbell Trophy\u00ae<\/a>, college football&#8217;s premier scholar-athlete award that annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance, and exemplary leadership<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 Conway is also one of 13 finalists for the <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/news\/2025\/11\/13\/football-james-conway-named-a-fedex-doris-robinson-award-finalist.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FedEx Doris Robinson Award<\/a>, which honors an FCS student-athlete who exemplifies excellence on the field, in the classroom and across the community.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 Conway leads all NCAA Division I tacklers with 149 on the season.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 Fordham junior quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/gunnar-smith\/14984\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14984\" target=\"_blank\">Gunnar Smith<\/a> is enjoying a successful first season for the Rams.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 Smith has completed 226 of 398 passes for 2,428 yards and 13 touchdowns.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 He leads the Patriot League and is 23rd in the NCAA FCS in passing yards\/game (220.7), leads the League and is ninth in the NCAA FCS in completions per game (20.40), and is fifth in the conference in points responsible for per game (9.5).<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 In three-plus years, grad student punter <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/will-haslett\/14359\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14359\" target=\"_blank\">Will Haslett<\/a> has punted 181 times, seventh on the all-time list, for 7,727 yards, fourth on the Rams&#8217; career list.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u2022 Fordham is represented by five captains in 2025: senior tight end <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/jaden-allen\/14335\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14335\" target=\"_blank\">Jaden Allen<\/a>, grad student linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/james-conway\/14344\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14344\" target=\"_blank\">James Conway<\/a>, senior defensive back <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/alex-kemper\/14372\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14372\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Kemper<\/a>, senior offensive linemen <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/duke-leonard\/14376\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14376\" target=\"_blank\">Duke Leonard<\/a>, and senior defensive lineman <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhamsports.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/claudy-robinson\/14400\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14400\" target=\"_blank\">Claudy Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Football&#13; 11\/21\/2025 1:20:00 PM&#13; &#13; &#13; James Conway looks to add to NCAA career tackles record&#13;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-299769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}