RPI run game leads Engineers to 44-14 win over Buffalo State
TROY » The memory of Buffalo State’s halftime comeback last season was fresh in the RPI Engineer’s mind Saturday afternoon at the East Campus Stadium on the RPI Campus.
“We talked about that at halftime,” said RPI Football head coach Ralph Isenia. “They have the ability to come back. You saw that with their skill guys. Don’t give them any room, or even if you do give them the room, the quarterback is going to throw it up there and they have the ability to make plays.”
With the memory still quite vivid in the back of the En- gineer’s mind, they powered their way to a 44-14 Saturday with a massive help from the run game.
“A lot of parts of our offense work off the run game,” said Isernia. “We though the key to the game on both sides of the ball was to win the line of scrimmage of battle. We need to run the football
and run the football with effectiveness. Defensively, we needed to stop the run.”
RPI racked up 342 total rushing yards on the ground with the big gains coming from senior Nick Cella and freshman Joe Scaglione.
“Every week we are looking to get the run going,” said Cella. “Ouroffensive linedoes a good job of opening up the holes.”
Quarterback George Marinopoulos finished with 158 yard on eight completions over 13 attempts with two touchdowns.
“He put some balls in some nice tight windows today and threw the ball exceptionally well. Confidence wise, he’s where he wants to be — he’s playing at a nice high level right now,” said Isernia.
The Engineers took a 10-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a 19 yard pass by Marinopoulos to Danny Calabro. Calabro broke a few tackles and stumbled his way into the end zone show- inghis raw strength and football awareness.
Defensively, the Engineers were sound all game, and the first quarter was no exception. The rush off the edges did not give Buffalo State quarterback Kevin Torrillo much time to settle in the pocket, completing just three passes on seven attempts for 20 yards.
Torrillo finished with 118 yards on 16 completions over 28 attempts.
The Engineer scoring continued in the second quarter on a 13 yard Robert Law touchdownrun. Law muscled his way through the line, hit the right pockets, and found himself in the open end zone.
In the secondquarter, that defensive pressure continued, but the Bengals adjusted.
A fade pass down by the goal line from Torrillo to Jordan Evert scored the first Buffalo touchdown of the game.
At 6:47 in the second quarter, Cella found an open gap in the line, an empty secondary allowed him to show off his open field speed and burst for a 65 yard touchdown run.
“The offensive line opened up a huge hole and I closed myeyes andstarted running as fast as I could,” said Cella. “I saw a guy come from the inside but I just put a little extra something into it.”
Joey Gutkowski’s interception just a mere seconds later to open the Buffalo drive setup Marinopoulos’ second touchdown of the game at 6:26.
“The interception was definitely a confidence booster,” said Gutkowski. “The offense coming out with two one play drives that led to touchdowns was great for the confidence.”
Marinopoulos found Keaton Ackerman for 27 yards in open field to score off the possession change.
Scaglione punched in a two yard touchdown run at 11:22 in the third quarter to give the Engineers a 30 point cushion to kick off the second half.
Buffalo opted for Tony Maple at quarterback in the third quarter. Maple’s athleticism was evident by his start to quarter four. After breaking for a ten yard run, Maple tossed up a 23 yard pass to Evert, who once again made an athletic catch to come down with the score.
Senior JT Kelly rushed for his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter for the final touchdown of the game.
Kelly racked up 69 yards on 11 rushes .
“Whenever you have a chance to play some guys that really give their all in practice, and finally get a chance to get on the field and play, it’s good,” said Isernia. “That’s the way we’ve seen JT practice all year long. He runs hard. To finish off that drive with him getting into the end zone was important for me. I wanted to reward the effort.”
RPI gets a week off before traveling to Ithaca and beginning their string of Liberty League games.
Now at 4- 0, the rest will be key heading into conference play for the rest of the season.
“We’ve got to get some guys healthy this week,” said Isernia. “We want to rest, without having rust. We want to make sure we are healthy, obviously going into this next game and the Liberty League Schedule.”