At the beginning of the season, offensive coordinator Brian Surace said he “would love to be 50/50 run/pass,” with his offense. So far, he certainly appears to have gotten his wish.
The Engineers, criticized for being weak on the run last year, have rushed more often than they have passed in their first two games of the season. Wind, rain, and early-season mistakes hampered their performance last week at Utica, but RPI’s balanced attack completely dominated Saturday’s Shotglass Trophy game against the Bears of the Coast Guard Academy, posting a 44-7 victory for the Engineers in their home opener.
For the first time in five years, the Engineers had two players each collect over 100 rushing yards in one game: junior Otis Williams and freshman Jay Bernardo, who was named UCAA Rookie of the Week. The game also featured the return of Flynn Cochran, who finished with six catches, 70 receiving yards, and two touchdowns. Pat Hughes put up similar numbers, with seven catches for 75 yards and two scores.
Quarterback Dan Cole connected with five other receivers over the course of the game, en route to a banner day where he completed 23 of 31 passes for 306 yards, no interceptions, and five touchdowns, earning him UCAA Offensive Performer of the Week honors. The scores brought his total to 52 career touchdown passes, which eclipsed the previous record of 50 set by Matt Robbens in 1999. Cole now holds 14 school passing records.
The RPI attack did not feature many big plays—the Engineers simply moved the ball well on nearly every play, marching downfield with an almost military precision that Coast Guard could only try to emulate.
The Bears, for their part, were able to pass fairly effectively—several times the Rensselaer defense got beat in the middle of the field, including a 55-yard post pattern by Garrett Barker, who outsprinted several Engineers to the goal line for the Bears’ only score of the day.
Coast Guard, however, took itself out of the game with three turnovers, all of which led directly to RPI scores. Two of those also ended promising drives for the Bears, and the third came on the first play of the second half, effectively taking the Bears out of the game.
RPI’s special teams play was fairly solid, with only a few gaffes. In particular, kicker Ed Garcia had an excellent outing, putting several kickoffs into the Bears’ end zone and also saving a long return from coming all the way back for a Coast Guard touchdown.
Rensselaer’s next game is against another set of Engineers—WPI hosts the annual Transit Trophy game on Saturday. The Engineers from Worcester are 2-1 and coming off of a tough 19-16 loss at Union. Game time is 1 pm.
