Dan Cole broke three of his own school records as he completed 35 passes, threw for 474 yards, and compiled 516 yards of total offense.

“Dan got the ball to everyone today,” said Rensselaer Coach Joe King. “This was definitely one of his best games.”

Yet despite Rensselaer and Cole’s record breaking day, it was actually Rochester who appeared to dominate the game early on.

Rochester, after stopping the Engineer offense on fourth down of the game’s opening drive, scored first as Aaron Molisani connected with David Ferris for a 71-yard touchdown.

However, RPI quickly evened the score as Cole capped a five play, 60-yard drive with a nine yard touchdown pass to wide out Pat Hughes.

After the Rensselaer defense forced the Yellowjackets to go three and out, the Engineer offense drove down to the Rochester two yard line and appeared poised to break the game open.

On the next play fortune struck for Rochester as Otis Williams fumbled a pitch from Cole, which sent the ball out the back of the end zone resulting in a touchback for the Yellowjackets.

On the ensuing drive, Rochester again made two big plays as running back Jeff Ardnt broke out for a 27 yard run, which was followed shortly by a 42 yard pass from Molisani to Patrick Roman to get the Yellowjackets down to the Rensselaer one yard line.

Ardnt later finished the drive plunging in from one yard out to put Rochester ahead 14-7 late in the first quarter.

With the momentum swinging in their favor Rochester went on to increase their lead on yet another big play.

Roman got behind the RPI defensive backs and Molisani hit him in stride to complete a 40 yard touchdown pass and extend the Rochester lead to 20-7 after the missed extra-point.

“The big play hurt us,” said King. “We changed coverages and made some other adjustments late in the first half and in the second half to slow them down.”

RPI responded well after the Rochester touchdown, as Williams finished off a 12 play, 86 yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run, making the score 20-13 at half time.

At half time both teams found themselves in familiar predicaments.

Rochester has led every game this season at the half while Rensselaer trailed at half-time for the second straight week.

“I was animated at half time,” said King. “I raised my voice and tried to get the guys going. I hate when we play poorly.”

And whatever King said to his players at half time certainly worked.

The Engineers came out and simply dominated the second half on both sides of the ball. Rensselaer scored on seven of their eight possessions as they outscored Rochester 34-6 in the second half on a balanced offensive attack.

On Rensselaer’s first possession of the half, Matt Verenini hit the first of two field goals to narrow the Rochester lead to 20-16.

The Engineers took the lead on the next possession and never looked back.

Hughes caught a five yard touchdown pass from Cole giving Rensselaer the 23-20 lead.

Cole was unstoppable in the second half—he found the open receiver on every play. Hughes also had 12 receptions and 113 yards to go along with his two touchdowns.

Fellow wide receiver Flynn Cochran also had 12 receptions, 213 yards receiving, and a touchdown of his own for RPI.

Cochran was at times a regular highlight film, making several spectacular diving catches at crucial times for Rensselaer.

“Flynn is just unbelievable,” said King. “We have some great kids. We have more weapons than a lot of other teams.”

The passing attack was not the only thing clicking for the RPI offense.

Running back Williams rushed for 104 yards on twelve carries and scored two touchdowns.

“We have a lot of playmakers,” said Cochran. “Otis, Pat, and Dan are great. No one can stop us when we are on.”

Defensively, the Engineers were able to contain the Rochester deep threat in the second half forcing the Yellowjackets to put a solid drive together, something they were not able to manage until the very end of the second half. Brett Hanson led the RPI defense with seven tackles, and Scott Loudis added five tackles.

With the win, Rensselaer remains undefeated with a 4-0 record and 1-0 in UCAA action while the loss drops Rochester to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the UCAA.

However, despite the convincing victory, all was not smiles in the RPI locker room after Saturday’s game.

With the Engineers coming out slow for the second straight week, both the players and the coaches alike are expressing their concerns.

“I don’t know why we do that,” said Cole. “We had a few breakdowns in the first half which really hurt us.”

Cochran was also baffled by the team’s consistently sluggish starts: “I have no idea why we play like that, but whatever it is, hopefully we can work it out in practice this week.”

King echoed his players’ concern, but seemed optimistic that his team would be ready going into the game against Union next week.

“If we can’t get pumped up for the Union game, then something is wrong with us,” said King.

“We need to play better early and stop squandering opportunities.”