It’s the Shoes
RPI and Union face off in the 68th annual Dutchman Shoes Trophy Game Saturday, Nov. 10
TROY - This season Dutchman Shoes Trophy game between RPI and Union has a lot of flowing around it. RPI coming in is undefeated, fighting for sole possession of the Liberty League Championship, and trying to earn a home game in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
“We’re treating it like a first round playoff game because we don’t know if we are going to be at home, we don’t know if we will be on the road, we don’t know our opponent, the only thing you can control is your upcoming performance in this game,” said RPI Head Coach Ralph Isernia. “The fact that it is the rivalry game, that it is the shoes game, it’s not going to be hard to get guys excited for that game.”
RPI comes in to the game 8- 0 and 4- 0 versus Liberty League opponents. Union found early success in the season, driving to an early 4- 0 record until a two week skid with losses to Hobart and Ithaca forced the Dutchmen to a 6-2 record and 2-2 in Liberty League competition.
“We’re very proud of how we have done and we are continuing to build the program right now,” said Union Head Coach Jeff Behrman. “Everybody in the league right now is trying to reach RPI’s level right now. They have the premiere program.”
RPI has owned the Shoes Trophy for the last five season and they look to make it six. The senior class for the Engineers have not experienced a season where they lose the game and possession of the coveted clogged trophy. Last season was a 20-14 win for the Engineers.
“Not only for this week, but [leadership] is what we’ve seen this entire season,” said Isernia. “That senior leadership, that many guys, who can share the load as leaders in the locker room. I mean, you have a leader in every locker.”
RPI will honor 24 seniors who
have sported the cherry and white for the whole RPI tenure prior to the game Saturday.
The fact that RPI’s seniors have had the trophy for their whole career isn’t lost on the the Union leadership group and captain Bobby Law.
“I started my freshman year so every year for the next year we have been saying ‘remember this one, remember this one’ and the next season ‘remember this when you are working out in the winter,’ said Law. “I started thinking about this literally since the end of last year’s game.”
Of those 24 seniors for RPI is Shaker alumni Sean Egan, who will be returning to playing time after breaking his forearm in the the Engineer’s third game of the season against Utica.
“I feel great and feel pretty rested,” said Egan. “We see it as right now we don’t have the trophy. Every year we are not defending it, we are trying to win the trophy. That’s our mentality coming into it.”
At quarterback, despite the size of the leadership groups on both sides, it’ll be a battle between sophomores.
RPI’s George Marinopoulos enters the final week of the regular season with 134.7 percent efficiency rating, completing 122 passes on 214 attempts for 1627 yards. Marinopoulos has tossed 12 touchdowns this season while throwing five picks.
Union’s Will Bellamy comes in with a 148.89 efficiency rating, throwing 156 completions on 244 attempts for 1837 yards. Bellamy has racked up 20 touchdown passes while limiting himself to just seven interceptions.
This will be Bellamy’s first shoes game, but Marinopoulos has experience from last season’s game. Marinopoulos had made five starts as the starting quarterback before last season’s game. Now, the sophomore feels more settled and understands his role better than last year.
“I feel good,” said Marinopoulos. “Last year I was taking it one game at a time. This year I feel more confident, even as a college student. Last year being my first semester, still trying to get to know all the guys, and now I feel more settled in coming into this one.”
Union does not lack confidence with Bellamy back under center either.
“He’s been very consistent for us week in and week out,” said Behrman. “He’s well liked by the team and he’s a really hard worker. He has a really strong knowledge of what we are doing right now.”
Bellamy’s weapons this season have been running back Ike Irabor (718 yards on 125 carries, eight touchdowns) and Andre Ross Jr. (847 yards on 52 catches, 12 touchdowns).
For RPI, it is a little harder to isolate one or two offensive leaders, because of how spread out the offensive contributions have been.
“That’s always been our philosophy on offense — to get a lot of different guys touches and to get a lot of different guys to run the football and have five, six different guys out there to throw the ball to,” said Isernia. “If I know I’m only going to be playing 20-25 plays, those are going to be the best 25 anyone is going to see, and I am not going to be tired, I’m going to be fresh.”
At running back, Nick Cella has been a stud with 521 yards on 121 carries with four touchdowns, but RPI has six rushers who have totaled over one hundred yards this season.
On the receiving end, athletic Connor Davies has made 28 catches for 273 yards for three touchdowns. Keaton Ackerman isn’t too far behind with 248 receiving yards and three touchdowns, and down the list is the athletic Nick Smith, who has only made nine catches this season for 151 yards, averaging the team high 16.78 average yards per catch and has three touchdowns.
So yes, a third of Smith’s catches this season have resulted in touchdowns.
RPI has been versatile all season on offense, and by offense, I mean has mixed in some trick plays, including utilizing Davies at the wildcat position even and Ackerman hurling up a pass or two off of a pitch.
Isernia noted he will not be hiding anything in his bag of tricks from future tournament opponents on the field Saturday.
“I don’t think either team is going to be hiding anything,” said Isernia. “You empty the bag in a game like this and you’re looking for any advantage that you can get.”
On the defensive side of the ball, both teams have strong athletic defensive cores.
“When you look at our front, it starts with our outside linebacker to the weakside, Jack Reilly,” said Behrman. “He is leading the Liberty League in tackles for loss and tied for sacks, and then up front you have to talk about Bobby Law, Vinny DiCaterino.”
Reilly leads the Liberty with 15 tackles for loss, totalling 81 yards. DiCaterino isn’t too far on that list with six and has totaled 39 total. Law comes in with 16 tackles.
RPI is once again hard to lock down to one leader. Jack Hoggard is second in the Liberty League in tackles (77). Behind him on the RPI leading tackler list is John Sadek, who has 55 tackles and three picks.
Joey Gutkowski and DJ Stefonski add three picks, Egan and Luke Watanabe add two, and Andre Guisasola adds one to help the Engineer’s to a Liberty League leading 15 picks.
The thing is, all of the stats seem almost pointless in a Union-RPI football game. The game will come down to who wants it more, while also being who can control their emotions more.
“We want our guys playing at a high level. Whatever their highest level of ability is, that’s where we want them playing at every single time,” said Isernia. “With our guys, we want to be consistent performers, we want to always be performing at that high level.”
Kick off on Saturday is at Noon at the East Campus Stadium at RPI.