Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Shoes fit for RPI

It wasn't pretty, but RPI made it three in a row on Saturday, defeating Union 25-12 and retaining the Dutchman Shoes Trophy.

“There’s nothing better than the feeling of winning the Shoes,” sophomore receiver Patrick McCarthy said.

The Engineers are now 7-0 and have only two games remaining.

McCarthy's big return is what set up RPI's comeback after they feel behind 12-7 on a 65-yard touchdown run by Chris Coney.

“We needed something,” RPI coach Joe King said. “We needed a jumpstart, now we’re trailing, they just had a 70-yard run and we hadn’t done too much offensively.”

Who would have thought that 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior defensive lineman James McLaughlin would have a catch before senior wide receiver Eren Savasli.

McLaughlin and Savasli both caught touchdown passes from senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson to put the Engineers up for good.

“I’m happy for (McLaughlin) because he’s been working hard all year and wanting coach to call his number,” Robertson said.

Savasli averages more than seven catches a game, but his one on Saturday was deadly; a 55-yard touchdown strike.

“You know he’s going to get one of those,” McCarthy said. “He’s a big playmaker and you give him an opportunity, he’s going to take it.”

“(Savasli) didn’t have a lot of opportunities today,” King said. “They really did a good job taking him out and we went to some other kids a little bit.”

While RPI's offense didn't play their best, their defense was up to the challenge.

I was also impressed Union's defense played as well as they did.

“I don’t know if we came out flat,” McCarthy said. “They played really well on defense.”

Coney finished with 128 yards, but was limited except for the big touchdown run.

“I wish we could have given it to him more,” Union coach John Audino said. “We got behind a little bit in the second half and obviously, with seven minutes to go in the game, it’s difficult to give your bread-and-butter guy the rock.”

Here's what some of the particpants had to say after the game....

“Between the misplays and the turnovers, it gives a good team an opportunity to get some easy scores and that’s what happened,” Audino said.

“I played all right, but not to the best of my ability,” Coney said. “There are no moral victories.”

“They made some plays on defense in the first half,” Robertson said. “They were really stopping us, shutting us down and taking away those big plays we’ve had all year. In the second half, Coach made a couple good calls and we just executed.”

“That’s what this team is all about,” Savasli said. “We have playmakers and we expect everyone to go out there and make plays.”

RPI has taken it one game at a time and next week is huge when they take on Hobart in what almost becomes a Liberty League championship game.

“We kept everything exactly the same as far as meetings and times, there was nothing special (this week) and it’ll be the same thing next week,” King said.

“We treated this game just like a playoff game and that’s what we have to do next week,” Robertson said.

“All week we’re going to come focused and prepare for that," Savasli said. "We know we have two more steps to attain our preseason goal of going undefeated. Being the last game on ’86 (Field) there is going to be a lot of emotion and everybody is going to have to bring their ‘A’ game to come out with the victory against Hobart.”

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Monday, October 20, 2008

RPI football moves up to No. 25

The RPI football team is finally ranked in the top 25 according to d3football.com.

I used the word finally, but that doesn't mean I think they should have been there before this point - it's more of the fact that they're still undefeated (5-0) and it's getting colder out (meaning the end of the season is getting near).

I've seen RPI play only once, but they looked good against WPI. They looked good this week against Susquehanna. They didn't play great against Utica and overall, I'm not sure how good they are, but we'll find out coming up.

10/25 @ St. Lawrence (I was at the Union/St. Lawrence game this week and the Saints, who are 0-6, looked like world beaters in the first quarter when they jumped out to a 14-0 lead; and this game is on the road)

11/1 vs. Union (The Dutchmen are down, but throw the records out the window during when the Dutchmen Shoes are up for grabs)

11/8 vs. Hobart (This team is dangerous and four points from being 5-0 themselves. This also will be the last game ever at '86 Field barring playoff home games)

Senior quarterback Jimmy Robertson earned Liberty League honors for the second time this season. After throwing for 354 yards and two touchdown, Robertson earned co-Offensive Player of the Week honors with Union's sophomore running back Chris Coney.

Robertson is on course to replace Dan Cole '04 in a number of spots in the RPI record books.

If my math is correct, Robertson needs 13 completions, 120 attempts, 598 yards, 19 touchdowns and 840 total yards after this weekend's results.

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