LATE HEROICS SAVE ‘NEERS
TROY, NY » Prior to Saturday’s game against Montclair State, RPI Football hadn’t played a regular season game in 651 days.
Saturday they shook off the rust with a good ole fashion walk off touchdown.
“I didn’t see a lot of rust,” said RPI Head Coach Ralph Isernia. “I saw two very good teams going head to head, toe to toe, especially in that first quarter we were playing lights out on defense and they were playing really stout defense. They were receiving Top 25 votes, we knew exactly who they were as a football team and we knew they were very good.”
RPI’s Riley Conboy made the game winning touchdown catch with just with just seconds remaining to nearly clinch the season opening win for the Engineers, 21-20.
“Right play, right time,” said Conboy. “We were throwing deep fades all game with that fake screen, a lot of them were getting tipped up. They threw the ball and I was in the middle and I wasn’t really near the ball. I thought I might as well peel back around and see if it is tipped. The tip came down, right place right time.”
Two key flags on the Montclair defense helped get the Engineers to that point. A roughing the passer call at 1:52 remaining was almost immediately followed up by a defensive pass interference flag moments later.
“It was being resilient. It was having the mental toughness of playing through that stuff and playing the next play for our guys,” said Isernia.
The catch was Conboy’s second of the game. Quarterback George Marinopoulos found Conboy earlier in the quarter to pull the Engineers within six.
“We saw earlier in the game that they were late lining up to some of our stuff and they were playing the straight man, so we cleared two sides out, and it was there,” said Conboy. “They were super late getting to there stuff, I don’t even think there was a guy on me.”
Throwing to Conboy was Marinopoulos, who uncharacteristically was sacked six times and also threw two interceptions that were turned around for touchdowns, one by Montclair’s Jalen Harris and another by Michael Stefkovich.
“There’s a lot of stuff we have to clean up, we have a veteran group,” said Marinopoulos. “We leaned on our vets and we had some players step up and make some awesome plays to help us down the stretch of this game.”
“I have got to be confident with the ball and everyone around me. I know those guys are going to make plays, it’s just on me to not take those sacks and go through my reads and my progressions and make plays. I’ll own all those sacks, I have to be better at that,” added Marinopoulos.
Marinopoulos finished with 292 yards with 24 completions on 49 attempts. Along with the two picks he threw three touchdowns. He finished with a 111.1 QBR.
“He had a key fourth down conversion in the second quarter,” said Isernia of Marinopoulos. “I think it was a combination of things. He’s more comfortable in an offense when he gets to his second, third, and fourth reads and stuff like that. We have guys that have the ability to get open so he is going to go through his progressions. They are playing with five defensive backs so their coverage was really good. I don’t think it was a protection thing. The offensive line is going to hold up for a set limit, I think it was being comfortable and going through his progressions.”
The first quarter was a defensive lock down. Neither team allowed much of anything and it wasn’t until RPI receiver Vinne McDonald strung a few long catches together in the second quarter were the Engineers able to score first. RPI’s 7-0 lead thanks to a 15 yard pass to McDonald lasted into the halftime, but the third quarter told a different story.
McDonald finished with seven catches for 139 yards and a touchdown in the win. Defensively, C.J Lyons finished with six tackles and Francis Perry added an interception.
20 unanswered Montclair points in the third quarter buried the Engineers. With two touchdowns off of pick-sixes and and another off of an RPI fumble late in the quarter, RPI proved they were able to keep the offense off the board, just not the defense.
RPI rattled off both the touchdowns to Conboy to escape ECAV Stadium with the week one win and keep Isernia’s season opening streak intact at now eight wins.