Fresh off an upset, ready for another
RPI travels to face Johns Hopkins for spot in the NCAA semifinals
Sixteen is sweet, and eight is elite, but the RPI football team isn’t ready to end its journey just yet.
The Engineers, for the second time in program history, are into the quarterfinals of the Division III NCAA football playoffs. They left Friday morning for Baltimore, stopping at Rutgers University to get in one final practice before their game at noon Saturday against Johns Hopkins.
One of 32 teams in the initial tournament bracket, RPI (11-1) advanced to the round of 16 by defeating Husson 34-14, then pulled the biggest surprise of the second round last Saturday with a 21-13 victory over Brockport, which was ranked third nationally.
“It was great to beat Brockport,” senior defensive lineman Rohan Cherian-ashe said, “but we still have the goal in mind of being able to compete for a national championship.”
RPI is in the NCAAS for the sixth time. The goal, at least for now, is to match the accomplishment of the 2003 team, which made it into the semifinals.
“We had a great game against Brockport and we won, and they were the No. 3 team in the country and all,” senior wide receiver Keaton Ackerman said, “but if we were to lose this week, it would be like, yeah, we won, but we didn’t do anything with it after that.”
Johns Hopkins (11-1), 13th in the final regular-season American Football Coaches Association poll (RPI was 23rd), is coming off an upset of its own, knocking off No. 6 Frostburg State, 58-27. The Blue Jays are flying with the top-ranked offense in Division III, averaging 568 yards per game.
Junior quarterback David Tammaro has completed 68 percent of his passes for 3,577 yards with 34 touchdowns and only five interceptions. The Engineers faced a similar challenge against Brockport with its quarterback, Troy native Joe Germinerio, but held him to 94 yards passing.
“He’s similar to Joe,” RPI defensive coordinator Jeff Dittman said of Tammaro. “The difference is he can be a little more disciplined with what he wants to try to do. Joe was a little more of a gunslinger. This young man will hang in the pocket and make the throws he needs to make down the field. He will scramble, but they protect him to make the throws easier for him.”
Unlike Brockport, which had five common opponents with RPI, Johns Hopkins played no one familiar to the Engineers. The Blue Jays, who are in the NCA A playoffs for the ninth straight year, absorbed their lone loss at Susquehanna 37-35 in the second game of the season.
“It’s like what they do in a boxing match,” RPI coach Ralph Isernia said. “It’s about styles. You’re looking at the style of offense, style of defense, and see where they’ve had success and where they’ve been challenged a little more. You only get a couple of films on them to take a look at that stuff, and you hope it’s in games they’ve been challenged, but so far in the playoffs they haven’t.”
Before the Frostburg State triumph, Johns Hopkins blanked MIT, 49-0. The Blue Jays average 48.7 points per game, fourth nationally. RPI ranks 37th among 247 Division III schools in scoring defense, allowing 16.5 per game.
RPI’S offense is built on balance and consistency. The Engineers average 28.3 points (104th nationally), 152.8 yards rushing (109th), 207.4 yards passing (122nd) and 360.2 yards total offense (123rd). They are tied for 22nd in turnover margin (plus-11).
No matter what the numbers show, the Engineers appreciate the opportunity they have and don’t seem satisfied with what they have done so far.
“Every game we get is another game for our seniors,” junior linebacker Jack Fallon said. “That’s huge because these guys have been here for so long, and they’ve given so much for the program.”
“That’s one of the things you can see every single day with our guys,” Isernia said. “It’s a passion, it’s a drive, it’s determination, it’s all those real good coaching words. You can see that’s the step our guys took, and that didn’t start three weeks ago. That started last offseason, after the (playoff ) loss to Wesley, where our guys really committed to going further. They’ve got some lofty goals that are higher than just making the playoffs.”