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THE KICKOFF
Rensselaer plays its final non-league game of the regular season when it travels to Vermont to face Castleton at noon on Saturday. The Engineers are 1-1, having defeated Norwich in week one (in Vermont), 29-9, and losing to Alfred, 34-31, in the home opener last Saturday.
 
Castleton, which features two former Rensselaer coaches as its coordinators in Kevin Trigonis (offensive) and Blaise Zambrano (defensive), was idle last week. The Spartans began the 2014 campaign with a 20-13 overtime victory over Plymouth St. at home. Castleton is coming off a 1-9 season in which it won its first game, also against Plymouth, before dropping the rest.
 
THE SERIES
This is the fourth all-time meeting between the Engineers and the Spartans with RPI posting victories in each of the first three contests. Rensselaer is 1-0 at Castleton, which began playing football in 2009.
 
ALL-TIME RESULTS:
Date                                RPI Result                   Location
Sept. 17, 2011          W 51-21                      Troy
Sept. 15, 2012          W 56-35                      Castleton
Sept. 21, 2013          W 23-8                         Troy
 
NON-LEAGUERS
Saturday's loss to Alfred snapped a six-game winning streak against non-league opponents for Rensselaer. The most recent loss prior to that was a road defeat to the Saxons in 2011, 48-17. In the last five years, RPI is 9-3 in non-league games. Rensselaer was 3-0 last season and 2-0 two years ago. In the last 10 years, the Engineers are 21-5 in non-league games, including three ECAC Championship Game victories and an NCAA Tournament loss.
 
BALANCED
In the first two games, Rensselaer scored 29 and 31 points, respectively. The Engineers have 343 rushing yards and 355 passing yards. They had 190 yards on the ground and 185 yards through the air in Saturday's game against Alfred. In both games this season, RPI had at least seven different ball carriers and five with at least one reception. Defensively, there were 12 student-athletes with multiple tackles against the Saxons and nine at Norwich.
 
AFTER A LOSS
The Engineers were 2-3 following losses during the 2013 season.
return 15 starters (7 offense, 7 defense, 1 special teams) and 36 letter winners. There are 42 newcomers. On the offensive/defensive two-deep, which is the same as week one, there are 10 seniors (5 offensive), 18 juniors (9), 12 sophomores (6), three freshmen (1) and one grad student (1).
 
ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD: Rensselaer and Castleton have played three, all coming in the previous three seasons ... The Engineers have won by average scores of 43-21 ... Last season marked the lowest number of points RPI has scored against the Spartans (23) and the fewest allowed to Castleton (8).
 
IN 2012: Senior Mike Hermann was on target all day, completing 16-of-24 passes for 331 yards and five touchdowns in a 56-35 win at Castleton ... He also rushed nine times for 66 yards and a pair of scores ... As a team the Engineers had 605 yards of offense ... After the Spartans got on the scoreboard first, following RPI's opening drive that ended with a missed 23-yard field goal, Hermann answered on the ensuing drive, connecting with Nick Weber for a 51-yard touchdown on 3rd-and-nine as the first quarter expired ... The touchdown was the first of three long strikes to Weber as Hermann worked the play-action fake to perfection ... RPI stretched its lead to 21-7 midway through the second quarter on the strength of a 26-yard Hermann run and a 44-yard Hermann-to-Weber hook up ... The Spartans cut the lead to 21-14 but the Engineers answered quickly with a T.J. Strunk 5-yard touchdown run ... The Engineers then marched 72 yards in the third quarter to stretch its lead to 35-14 on a Hermann touchdown run from four yards out ... The Spartans reeled off 14 straight points on a pair of Shane Brozowski touchdown passes, cutting the deficit to 35-28 entering the fourth quarter ... The momentum was short-lived however, as RPI intercepted Brozowski twice and rattled off three straight touchdowns to put the game out of reach ... Weber's three touchdown catches were part of a team-high 135 yards ... Nick Borkowski had nine tackles.
 
RPI LAST WEEK: Sophomore quarterback Tyler Johnson threw for 203 yards and two touchdowns and he ran for 166 yards while the Alfred defense held on a first-and-goal in the waning minutes as the Saxons defeated Rensselaer, 34-31, in a rainy non-league game.

The game was back-and-forth throughout and RPI had an outstanding chance to take the lead or tie the game late in the fourth quarter. Trailing 34-31 with 8:08 left in the fourth quarter, the Engineers drove from its own 47 yard line to the Alfred two. On first down, quarterback Jeff Avery rushed to the one-yard line. He attempted another rush on second down but was kept out of the end zone. A personal foul penalty by the Engineers after the play resulted in 3rd and goal from the 16 yard line and a pass into the end zone went incomplete. RPI tried a 33-yard field goal to tie the game with 3:12 remaining in the fourth quarter, but Andrew Franks saw his kick go wide left and Alfred took over.

Johnson capped his performance by driving Alfred to the RPI 28 yard line with only 10 seconds left. He rushed every play, totaling 60 yards on seven carries and Rensselaer's last ditch effort from its own 20 yard line was unsuccessful.

Both teams started off quickly as 38 points were scored in the first 15:36 of the contest. The visitors opened the scoring on the first drive of the game when they marched 75 yards on eight plays, culminating with a 17-yard pass from Johnson to classmate Brendan Buisch. The Engineers answered on their first drive when Franks hit a 39-yard field goal with 9:28 left in the first quarter.

The Saxons went into their bag of tricks on their next possession as wide receiver Rodney Etienne took a lateral to the right and found a wide open Bobby Broddus down the right sidelines for a 14-3 lead at 9:28. Alfred immediately dug back into their bag with a successful onside kick, but the Saxons could not convert and was forced to punt. Thanks to a kick that went minus-1 yard, Rensselaer cut the deficit to 14-10 in just two plays and 38 seconds later when Avery found Reggie Colas from 36 yards away. Avery's second touchdown pass of the quarter, this one to junior Logan Gaddar from eight yards away, put RPI ahead, 17-14, with 3:42 remaining in the first quarter.

The Saxons used only 36 seconds of the second quarter to regain the lead, 21-17, thanks to a three yard run by freshman running back Willie McFadden. Avery and Gaddar hooked up for a second time midway through the second quarter, this time from 26 yards down the middle of the field, and the Engineers led 24-21 at the half.

RPI opened the second half with the ball and put together a 14-play, 75-yard drive that ended with an acrobatic, seven yard touchdown reception from Colas. The graduate student made a one-handed catch with his left hand while rotating his body from right-to-left while in the air. Johnson led the Saxons down the field, however, beginning with a 51-yard run on the first play of the ensuing drive for the visitors. Three plays later, McFadden pulled Alfred to within four points with a 17-yard run. The point after attempt failed.

It was early in the fourth quarter that Johnson found Buisch for the 82 yard touchdown down the right side as the signal caller avoided a blitz and aired the ball to his wideout, who ran underneath and away from the coverage.

For the Engineers, Avery completed 11 of 24 passes for 185 yards and four touchdowns. He was intercepted once, late in the second quarter. Colas finished with five catches for 71 yards, two rushes for 18 yards and four kickoff returns for 84 yards. Gaddar had a team-high 85 receiving yards on three catches. Junior Nick Schlatz led the ground game with 69 yards.

RPI was led defensively by senior Nick Borkowski, who had nine tackles, including five unassisted and one for a three yard loss, with a pass breakup. Junior Anthony Pilla added five tackles, incluidng a six yard sack, along with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
 
WEEK ONE: The Rensselaer defense allowed only 45 rushing yards, intercepted three passes and gave up just nine points in a rainy season opening 29-9 victory at Norwich University at a rainy Sabine Field ... Ten student-athletes collected mulitple tackles in the win, including junior Mark Grimes, who also scored on a 20-yard interception return ... The Cadets managed just 187 yards of total offense, while RPI gained 323 total yards ... RPI junior quarterback Jeff Avery ran for a touchdown and threw for another to lead the offense ... Norwich got on the board first with a field goal, but RPI answered right back when Avery hooked up with junior running back Austin Amery for a 20-yard touchdown pass on 3rd and 12 to give the Engineers a lead they would never look back from ... RPI worked methodically on its next possession, marching 59 yards on eight plays in 3:06, capped off by a 14-yard QB draw from Avery right down the middle and into the end zone to increase the lead to 13-3 ... Franks then hit a 22-yard field goal to make it 16-3 with 7:34 to play in the half ... Grimes' interception return for a touchdown midway through the third quarter prompted Norwich to pull its starting quarterback ... In addition to Grimes, sophomore Ryan Buss and junior Brandon Cook also had interceptions in the victory.
 
DEEP: In last week's 29-9 win at Norwich, RPI had seven different ball carriers, five different pass catchers and nine different players record at least two tackles.
 
BACK & FORTH: The schedule has RPI alternating between road games and home games throughout the entire year ... November 1 is the Engineers' bye.
 
TEN-GAME SLATE: This year marks the second straight, and second in the last 27, that Rensselaer is playing a 10-game regular season schedule ... RPI was 5-5 under then head coach Kevin Earl in 1987 ... The Engineers were 5-5 last season.
 
COACH I: The Engineers are led by second-year head coach Ralph Isernia, who joined the Institute from Ferrum in Virginia in March 2013 ... He is a veteran of more than 20 years in collegiate coaching at a variety of levels ... Isernia (pronounced EYE-sern-ee-ah) was the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Ferrum for two seasons ... He spent the six years prior at the University of Charleston, where he was an assistant head coach, the offensive coordinator and interim head coach ... He has also coached at Bucknell (2004-05), Mansfield (2001-04), Defiance (2000-01), Methodist (1994-00) and Western Connecticut State (1991-94).
 
TEAM CAPTAINS: Graduate student Reggie Colas and senior Nick Borkowski are the team captains for the 2014 Engineers ... Colas, a running back, returns to the field for RPI after missing last season with an injury, while Borkowski, a defensive back, suits up for his fourth varsity season after earning All-Liberty League First Team honors as a junior.
 
COACHING CHANGES: Head coach Ralph Isernia has several new assistant coaches ... After four years as offensive coordinator at Bates College, Daryle Weiss takes on the same duties with the Engineers ... Also joining the staff is wide receivers coach Billy Bonneau, running backs coach Steven Harris and defensive backs coach Ryan Turnbull.