Better yet, the Shotglass may have found its permanent home. Coast Guard will be leaving the Liberty League after this season, and this weekend may have been the last time the two teams square off.

Senior running back Jay Bernardo led the Engineers to victory by turning in a 146-yard performance on 29 carries. Although he didn’t run for a score, he did recover a fumble in the opponents end zone, preventing a disastrous turnover and salvaging an Engineer touchdown.

It was the defensive unit’s turn to shine this weekend as they held the Bears to under 100 yards on the ground, allowing only three points.

“We went back to the basics,” Head Coach Joe King admitted. “We tried not to blitz all that much and we didn’t give up the plays we did last week.”

RPI’s opening drive of the game saw a good mix of run and pass plays, and the unit marched right down the field to get on the board. Bernardo ran for 35 yards, and caught a pass from freshman Jimmy Robertson for 18 more. Robertson capped the scoring drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jon Branche.

The drive was set up by a 26-yard kickoff return by Adam LoGiudice. In four games, the dual-sport athlete has racked up 232 return yards on nine attempts.

“We just have to give him a little bit of room.” King put it bluntly, “He’s dangerous.”

As it turns out, that score was all the Engineers needed. The defense did not allow a point in the first half, coming up with some big plays to stop some Coast Guard opportunities. On the Bears’ first possession, they drove to the RPI 17-yard line, but senior linebacker Armin Warner stripped the ball from Lance Lynch, and freshman Mark Sangiorgi recovered for RPI to end the threat.

Sangiorgi also intercepted a pass from Coast Guard quarterback David Garden late in the third quarter. He made the catch at midfield, ending a Coast Guard bid to take the lead when they were down only 7-3. The rookie defensive back’s contributions to the strong RPI defensive effort landed him Rookie of the Week honors from the Liberty League.

The next scoring opportunity for Coast Guard came early in the second quarter, again on the 17-yard line. After a 23-yard gain by Lynch, the defense stopped three consecutive rushes to force a fourth-and-nine. The Bears set up for a field goal, but Graham Boyd got the better of their offensive line. The junior wide receiver deflected the 34-yard attempt, and then had the presence of mind to recover the ball as well.

“He’s 6’5’’ and jumps pretty well,” King said of Boyd. In each of the last two games, the Engineers have successfully blocked a field goal and King is as excited as the team. “The kids are really taking pride in it.”

The Engineer offense sputtered a bit in the second quarter until, finally, on their last possession of the half, they found their rhythm. Starting with decent field possession, RPI moved the chains, thanks in large part to a 30-yard reception by Branche, and drove to the Coast Guard 11-yard line. There, King was faced with a decision on a fourth-and-one, and elected to go for it. Bernardo punched through, converting the fourth down. He lost the handle on the ball, but recovered his own fumble, and RPI had the ball on the five yard line with a first-and-goal.

With only nine seconds left on the clock, Robertson tried to force the ball in the end zone and a Bear defender made him pay. Justin Andrews picked off the pass, and prevented RPI from expanding their lead before the half.

Coast Guard finally got on the board with their first drive of the second half, but it could have been worse for the Engineers. The Bears stalled at the 12-yard line, and were forced to settle for a field goal making the score 7-3. If Boyd had been able to get one gap wider because the ball was kicked from the hash, King thought, “He could have blocked that one too,”

RPI answered right back. On a big fourth-and-eight play, Robertson hit Brendan McGowan for a 14-yard gain to keep the drive alive. McGowan finished with a team-high six catches. Two plays later, Robertson saw some daylight and took off with the ball towards the end zone. Stopped at the one, he fumbled the ball, but Bernardo was in the right place at the right time and jumped on the ball for an Engineer touchdown, putting his squad up 14-3.

King acknowledged that had Bernardo not recovered that ball and put RPI up by two scores, the game might have ended differently. “They were only one play away from taking the lead,” he said on Tuesday.

RPI added some insurance later in the game with a 33-yard field goal by Drew Taranto, and the defense put on the finishing touches. First, they made a big fourth-down stop at the RPI 18-yard line, and then LoGiudice added an interception with less than 40 seconds left to seal the game.