As they approached the most important games of the season, the Engineers picked up speed with a 24-0 win over the Pioneers last Saturday. The important victory came as the RPI defense gave up just 131 yards and zero points. The win puts the team’s record at 2-0 as it heads toward a game against Liberty League-rival Hobart College next weekend.
With 304 yards and two touchdowns, junior quarterback Jimmy Robertson was on his game again. During the game, Robertson passed the 5,000 yard career mark to join Dan Cole ’04 and Matt Robbens ’00 as the third in the select group. Robertson was also named Offensive Performer of the Week by the Liberty League.
“The receivers played real well all game and [Robertson] did a great job distributing the ball around and finding us open throughout the game,” said junior Eren Savasli. “This receiver group is very talented and has a lot of depth, and we’ll only continue to get better as the season continues which is going to be trouble for opposing defenses.”
Having given up just 10 points this season, the defense, led by senior linebacker Tom Rayhill, is off to an excellent start. Rayhill had a team-best eight tackles, including two for lost yardage and a fumble recovery. “We’re off to a good start, been strong on defense as far as shutting down the run,” said Head Coach Joe King. “Defensively, we’re playing well as a unit,” he added.
“The defense was also a big positive,” said Savasli. “They held Utica to very few yards rushing and made plays all game. They showed their ability to shut out the opponent and they’ll continue to wreak havoc on opposing offenses.”
Early in the season, many freshmen have been thrust into play on this young team and are taking advantage of their given opportunities. “During the game, I made my first field goal of my college career, which was very exciting,” said freshman kicker Nick Lalumia, who was named Rookie of the Week by the Liberty League. “As a freshman, I am still getting used to kicking field goals off of the ground as opposed to high school where I was able to kick them off of a one-inch block. Also this year a new rule was put into use that has moved kickoffs to the 30-yard line, which is a 10-yard difference. However, I feel that I am adjusting to the new rules very well and I’m hoping that it will be a successful freshman year for me.”
Preparing for the road trip to league-rival Hobart will be the goal of this week’s practices, as the importance of this game is hard to overestimate. “We come prepared to play every game, but anytime we play Hobart, we have to step it up a notch,” said Savasli. “They’re a very good team and we’re going to get after it all week at practice to make sure we’re well prepared to go out and play at our best on Saturday. We definitely want to start off league play with a win this year. The past two seasons have been very close games with Hobart and losing them has left us with some displeasure, so we’re going to make sure we do everything we can to be on the winning side this time.”
“Hobart may be the best team we’ll play all year,” agreed King.
