“They said it went out of bounds,” admitted Head Coach Joe King. He added that the game should not have come down to that last ditch effort anyway.

The Engineers’ demise began late in the first half, with RPI holding on to a 28-21 lead. Union running back Tom Arcidiacono ran in a score, knotting the game, and rookie quarterback Jimmy Robertson made a costly error with less than a minute on the clock, fumbling the ball while trying to avoid a sack, giving Union 59 seconds to work with. Dutchmen quarterback Anthony Marotti made it count, leading the team down the field to a score and sending the Engineers into the locker room down seven points.

“That hurt,” King put bluntly.

The scoring started early, and the first half was a shootout with the teams combining for 63 points. At halftime, the match was already the highest scoring game in the historic 103-year rivalry between the two Route 7 squads.

“If you like offensive football, you’d like that one. Personally, I’d have liked to see some defense,” commented King.

Junior running back Jay Bernardo echoed King’s sentiments. “Both offenses really came to play,” he said.

RPI got on the board first even though Union received the opening kickoff. After the defense stopped the Dutchmen on a fourth down try, the Engineers drove deep into Union territory, but stalled at the 13-yard line. Taranto nailed a field goal from 30 yards out, and RPI jumped in front 3-0.

Robertson, playing in his first Dutchman’s Shoes Trophy Game, shrugged off the pressure and the hostile crowd early, hitting tight-end Jon Branche on a 19-yard post route on his first pass.

“It was exciting,” the freshman quarterback explained. “This is what you play football for.”

Senior Adam LoGiudice was involved early, running back a Union kickoff to the 9-yard line, setting up a Graham Boyd touchdown catch. On the next defensive play, however, LoGiudice, in at corner and still tired from the return, got beat deep down the sideline and Marotti made him pay, completing a 64-yard bomb to set up yet another score, giving Union a 14-10 advantage.

The defense made three big stands late in the first and early in the second to keep RPI in the game. First, after a fumble on a Union kickoff gave the Dutchmen the ball at the Engineers’ 11, the defense forced a field goal attempt that sailed wide left.

On Union’s next two possessions, grad student Jimmy Motzkin and senior linebacker Grant Cochran each picked off a Marotti pass, and the offense scored 10 points off the turnovers giving RPI a 20-14 lead.

Bernardo picked up his first score of the day, bouncing off defenders for a 15-yard touchdown one play after the first interception. Taranto added his second field goal of the day, this one from 22 yards out after the second.

Taranto earned Special Teams Performer of the Week honors from the Liberty League with his performance. In addition to the field goals, he was perfect on extra points, and almost gave RPI a chance to win with his onside kick at the end of the game.

In the third and early fourth quarters, the two rivals traded touchdowns, but the Engineer offense started to look sluggish.

“They made some good adjustments at halftime,” Robertson commented on the Dutchmen defense, “but we stopped ourselves.”

After Marotti ran for another touchdown, Robertson and Bernardo put together a nice drive for RPI to get back in the game at 42-35. On his first carry of the season, Brett Perron, a junior defensive back, took it in from a yard out to cap the drive.

Arcidiacono, who King compares to a Division I-AA back, took over in the fourth, as the defense just couldn’t stop the run. “He was too much for us,” admitted King.

He broke a 45-yard run late in the game to put Union on top 49-35, and exceeded the 200 yard barrier on that carry. The fourth leading rusher in the nation racked up 205 yards on the ground to Bernardo’s 94.

The Engineers were down but not out. Robertson capped a 52-yard drive with a nine-yard touchdown to Eren Savalsi with just over a minute on the clock. After the Taranto point after, RPI was within a score. Robertson finished 20-for-35 for 214 yards and two touchdowns.

With 1:16 on the clock, Taranto tried to work his magic. No Union players touched the ball, but after an Engineer recovered the ball, the referees ruled it had bounced out of bounds. Enter Marotti to kneel down.

In the end, the receiving corps of Steve Angiletta and Ryan Twitchell, as well as Arciadacono out of the backfield, were just too much for the Engineers to overcome. Both of Union’s top receivers accumulated over 100 yards of receiving, whereas only Brendan McGowan managed to top that number for RPI.

“It was disappointing,” Robertson said of the loss, “but it’s something to use as motivation.”

Thirteen Engineers were given league honors for the season. Robertson, who earned five Rookie of the Week awards in the eight games he started, won Rookie of the Year. McGowan, Branche, and junior offensive lineman Jake Russell were named to the First Team. Russell’s linemate Terrence Bynum, Honorio Borba, Motzkin, Cochran, and Bernardo were named to the second team. LoGiudice was named to both teams, first for his special teams play, and second on defense. Senior defensive back Tim Frame and Robertson were given Honorable Mention.

Union (10-0, 7-0 LL) will host Ithaca in the first round of the NCAA playoffs this weekend. The Engineers (7-2, 5-2 LL) qualified for the ECAC Northwest Championship with their play this season. It is the ninth time in the last 14 years they have been selected for postseason play, and the sixth time for the ECAC championship game. The Engineers have won all five of their appearances.