H.S. rivals rematch in RPI win
RPI’s Guilderland grad Marinopolous tops Ithaca’s Shaker grad Nabi in QB battle
TROY, N.Y. » It had been 141 minutes and 19 seconds since RPI had last scored a point. That’s more than nine quarters. More than two full games. Since the first half of a loss on Sept. 23rd, nearly a month.
That’s when George Marinopoulos hit receiver Keaton Ackerman for a 7-yard touchdown to tie the game against an over-worked Ithaca defense. It was the first passing TD for the Guilderland graduate, going up against Wahid Nabi, an Ithaca QB and a freshman who graduated from Shaker.
It was the first of four touchdowns in that quarter for RPI, who won 27-14, in Marinopoulos’ collegiate debut.
“It’s one of the reasons I decided to come here, so I could be 20 minutes away,” Marinopolous said. “The most important play is the next one. That’s always our mantra.”
Marinopoulos and Nabi were good friends in high school. The joke that Nabi always used against Marinopoulos was that the Shaker grad was 2-0 against the Dutchman in high school. But Marinopoulos got his revenge in their first college meeting. It might be the first of several the two division rivals have against each other.
Nabi threw four interceptions to double his career total. Marinopoulos, mostly a pocket passing quarterback, was forced to run a little bit. And while he was far from spectacular, he controlled the game well enough to penetrate a Bomber defense that eventually was on the field way too long.
Marinopolous threw for 161 yards and 19-of-32 passing. He ran the ball four times for seven yards. RPI struggled to make big plays. It missed on two red zone opportunities. But Marinopolous got the win in front of a slew of family and friends who came to watch him play.
“I think what you saw from him today is he’s a guy who can make all the throws,” head coach Ralph Isernia said. “He had throws where he threw it into some tight windows. He was making those throws standing in the pocket. We even made him into a little bit of a runner today. He’s more poised than where his age is right now.”
Twice in the first half, RPI got deep in the red
zone. The first on the very first drive, but that resulted in a missed 23-yard field goal. The second resulted in a fumble inside the 10-yard-line.
The Engineers had the ball for 35 minutes, compared to just 25 minutes for Ithaca. So while the missed opportunities started to add up, so did the amount of time the Ithaca defense spent on the field.
By the time the fourth quarter came around, Marinopolous was finding his receivers with ease. Nabi looked lost on one interception when he threw it right into the hands of Alec Hazard,
a lineman who was five feet from his face. He tried to throw the ball over, but Hazard got the interception.
“It stuck, I don’t know,” Hazard said. “I knew he was looking right over me, and he’s a freshman quarterback, I know his reads aren’t that good. I know that was it for him, that’s where he was going to go with it. I tipped one earlier, I figured I’d try it again.”
Marinopolous said he texted Nabi on Monday in advance of the game. It wasn’t until Tuesday, though, that he found out he’d be starting. It set up perfect for two longtime friends to face off against each other. Two Section II Class AA rivals — a rivalry that was owned by Nabi.
That was, until Saturday afternoon. Marinopolous gave RPI a homecoming win. He beat his old rival. And he broke an epic streak of offensive futility, even if it took until the fourth quarter for it to come.
“It felt really good,” Nabi said. “We’ve been playing against each other since freshman year. I was smack-talking him a little bit. I think it’ll be a fun four years for us.”