Engineers hold on, beat Buffalo State 28-26
TROY, NY >> Despite not having a win since October 5, Rensselaer Polytechnic Football remains undefeated at home this season with a nail-biting 28-26 win over Buffalo State Saturday afternoon.
“They are extremely happy about the win, you never turn your nose down at a win,” said RPI Head Coach Ralph Isernia on the locker room after the win. “We know how difficult it is to get a win. I also feel from our guys they are not happy where they are right now execution wise. We are going to get some things fixed and get some things corrected. We’ve got a really good nationally ranked team coming in this upcoming week. We know we have to play better and win better.”
RPI scored a touchdown every quarter en route to the win, but it wasn’t without it’s hiccups. Mental errors plagued the Engineers in the first half causing missed tackles and turnovers when the least expected them.
“We have got to clean everything up,” said senior captain and linebacker John Sadek. “It starts with the people up front, it starts
with the DB’s, it starts with the linebackers. Everyone has got to do their job.”
A 48 yard Peter Lombardi touchdown run opened the scoring for RPI at 9:13 in the first quarter.
Lombardi rushed for 57 yards and caught another 58 through the air to lead RPI in all-purpose yards in the win. The most yards the sophomore had rushed for prior to Saturday this season was three yards, also scoring his first rushing touchdown of the season.
“We really focus on the team aspect of the game, so whoever is touching the ball at that particular day is just who is the hot hand,” said Lombardi. “We keep going with what is giving us a chance to win.”
Just under three minutes later, Buffalo quarterback Martin Bailey connected with Joe Stewart for a 57 yard pass to knot things up at seven.
Bailey rushed a five yard run into the endzone at the very beginning of the second quarter to give Buffalo State the 14-7 for the first time in the game.
Marc Meislahn was able to punch a nine yard run in just under five minutes remaining in the quarter to tie the game at 14, where the game would stay as the half ended.
In the second quarter mistakes still plagued the Engineers and for all the good Lombardi did in the game for RPI, his teammates may not let him forget about the fair catch turnover he had to line up the Bailey touchdown run at the start of the quarter.
At 14:47 in the second quarter, a Buffalo State punt just caught the sun in the right spot, making returner Lombardi lose it for just one second. The reverberating chants of “poison” (voicing to the receiving RPI to not touch the ball) may have caught Lombardi off guard. The ball hit off Lombardi and Buffalo recovered, giving them a fresh set of downs.
“On that play I was running up to fair catch it and secure the field position, and I kind of lost the ball in the sun. it’s no excuse,” said Lombardi. “We have got to clean it up for next week.”
Tommy Carr kicked a 32 yard field goal for Buffalo State at 9:02 in the third quarter to give his team the lead once again, this time 17-14.
Joe Scaglione responded nearly 40 seconds later with a 40 yard run to give RPI the 21-17 lead once again at 8:25 in the third quarter.
Scaglione finished with 86 rushes on eight runs.
“It was a great game plan by the coaches and a great effort by the line up front,” said Scaglione on his day. “I’m adjusting to some pressure and the line did a good job of picking that up, which made my job a lot easier.”
Buffalo State scored one more touchdown at the end of the quarter to take a 2421 lead into the final frame.
George Marinopoulos threw his first, and only, touchdown of the game at 7:41 in the fourth quarter. Fortunately, it was the winning score. Marinopoulos found Lombardi for a 28 yard touchdown to cap off a ten play, 64 yard drive.
Marinopoulos finished with 186 yards on the day, completing 16 passes on 24 attempts.
“When we were executing today we did real well,” said Marinopoulos. “A lot of times we were shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties. A few holding calls, personal fouls that pushed us back, so we are trying to eliminate that stuff for the next couple of games.”
In the fourth, the mental mistakes that RPI struggled with earlier may have been contagious, affecting the Buffalo State offense.
At 7:20 in the fourth, Buffalo found themselves dealing with a first and 40 after a false start, a holding, and an illegal block all snowballed into a major loss.
RPI was able to hold Buffalo off from driving 40 yards, but a masterful punt by Buffalo’s Zacbary Sajdak placed the at the one, where Marinopoulos was downed for a safety on the first play of the drive. The safety made it 28-26, where the score would stay.
“It was tough, their punt team did a great job of getting down there and getting us down to the one,” said Marinopoulos on the safety. “When I saw the ball marker when I ran out there I saw it as close as it possibly could get to the end line. They blitzed us there and got us. Have got to move on.”
RPI will need to clean things up and clean them up quick. They have back-to back nationally ranked opponents in Ithaca and Union to end the season. RPI also will probably want to get the shoes back from Union after the Dutchmen won last year’s meeting, 34-10.