RPI wins Transit Trophy with 25-14 win over WPI
TROY » RPI Football’s last home loss was on October 22, 2016 against Worcester Polytechnic Institute on a cold rainy Saturday.
RPI took that memory into Saturday afternoon’s match up with WPI.
“That was in the front of our minds,” said RPI Head Coach Ralph Isernia “That was 308 days ago.”
That memory fueled a 25-14 win for the RPI Engineers Saturday afternoon that kept the Transit Trophy in Troy, New York.
“Definitely still remember that loss pretty clearly,” said RPI Captain Sean Egan. “It’s hard to walk past that trophy case when it is gone, so it’s nice to have it back.”
RPI hit the ground running against WPI. Two touchdowns in the first quarter created a cushion early on that allowed the offense to feel in control and poised.
“Give credit to them because that is a really good defense,” said Isernia. “They’re coming off a shut out a week ago. Defensively they were advertised, we needed to go out and make plays.”
Quarterback George Marinopoulos found Conor Davies four yards out in the end zone to get the first touchdown in the quarter at 9:35 to end a 52 yard drive.
Marinopoulos found success again on the very next series and connected with Nick
Smith on a beautiful ten yard pass that Smith had to go up and get.
Marinopoulos ended the first quarter with 85 passing yards and the game with 210.
“We needed to do a little bit better protection wise for him and guys need to be able to make some catches,” said Isernia. “I thought he was poised. He’s a guy that I don’t know if his blood pressure ever rises to a level where he is going to be over excited or amped. He’s even keel and you like that in a quarterback.”
Marinopoulos wasn’t done feeding Smith just yet either.
In the second quarter, the sophomore wide out again made an end zone catch, this time from four yards out.
Both touchdown catches were not only Smith’s first touchdowns, but also, the first two catches of his RPI career.
“When the opportunity calls,” said Smith. “It was my time, I was in the end zone, and they turned out for touchdowns.”
Those catches were a long time coming for Smith. The wide out missed last season sidelined by injury and was forced to put off his RPI career to the 2018 season.
“He’s a great kid. I felt so good for him and for him to be able to produce,” said Isernia. “To get on the field and make some plays. He’s overcome so much adversity with his injury and worked so hard to get himself to a point where he’s going to be a factor on the field. He’s one of the hardest working guys on the field.”
Defensively, it looked as if RPI would hold a shutout going into the locker room for half time. RPI had forced a fumble in the first quarter and had forced WPI to punt in their first drive. In the second quarter on fourth down on and WPI’s third drive of the game, Luke Watanabe made the clear headed decision to not intercept a deep air ball from WPI Quarterback Julian Nyland, but to bat it down for better field position up the field.
“I actually heard someone yelling ‘ knock it down Knock it down,’” said Watanabe. “That’s what we pride ourselves on — playing smart.”
The WPI offense did eventually figure out the RPI defense.
At 1:19 in the second quarter, WPI’s Sean McAllen punched in a one yard touchdown run to close off the 75 yard drive.
McAllen had a similar run from two yards out at 9:14 in quarter three to make the score 19-14 with a whole ton of football remaining.
John Sadak’s clutch interception for RPI in the third quarter was the last score of the game from either team. Sadak’s pick led him to open field and a 28 yard run into the end zone to earn the score and give RPI 25 points.
WPI made several more efforts for the end zone in an effort to battle back. Interceptions from both Watanabe and Andres Guisasola suffocated WPI’s efforts.
In the end, RPI earned the Transit Trophy in a hard fought battle against WPI that ended in a 25-14 final.
“We play two trophy games every year and one trophy is not more important than the other trophy,” said Isernia. “When we look at our goals for the season obviously winning the transit is one of our goals. We’ve got a space for it in our trophy case and I let our guys know that when they came to the facility today, that trophy will not be in that case. So make sure you take a look at that empty trophy case and see how that makes you feel.”