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KICKOFF: The Engineers (8-2; 4-1 Liberty League) continue their season in the NCAA Playoffs, traveling to No. 13 Wesley College (9-1; 9-0 NJAC).
 
FIRST MEETING: Rensselaer has never faced Wesley on the gridiron, regular season or post-season.
 
STREAKING: Both teams are riding winning streaks heading into Saturday's game ... RPI has won its last five games, while the Wolverines have won nine consecutive contests.
 
HOW THEY GOT HERE: RPI earned the automatic berth by winning the Liberty League title with a 4-1 conference mark ... The Engineers actually tied Ithaca College, but earned the right to the national tournament based on a head-to-head victory ... Wesley won the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) outright for an automatic berth.
 
NCAA HISTORY: Rensselaer has played in the NCAA Playoffs four times with the most recent being in 2007 ... The other years were 1999, 2001 and 2003 ... Wesley is making its 13th straight NCAA Tournament appearance and 14th in the past 15 years.
 
FOURTH FIRST ROUND: Saturday's game is the fourth time RPI has played a first round game, having earned a bye into the second round in 2001 ... The Engineers are 1-2 in first round games ... They defeated Curry in 2003 and lost to Rowan in 1999 and TCNJ in 2007 ... Each of those three games were played in Troy.
 
ALL-TIME IN NCAA GAMES: Rensselaer is 3-4 all-time in the NCAA Playoffs, including a trip to the National Semifinals in 2003 ... The Engineers defeated Curry, Springfield and Ithaca before losing at eventual national champion St. John's in Minnesota.
 
POST-SEASON STREAK: Including this season, Rensselaer will have played in the post-season in each of the past four years ... The Engineers qualified for ECAC Bowls in 2014, 2015 and 2016, going 2-1 ... They defeated SUNY Maritime, 38-6, last year.
 
ALL-TIME IN POST-SEASON: RPI has played in the post-season 16 times, all since 1992 ... It has 12 ECAC games and four NCAA Playoff appearances ... The Engineers are 10-2 all-time in ECAC Bowls and 13-6 in the playoffs.
 
RENSSELAER THIS SEASON: The Engineers began the season with three straight wins before suffering two straight losses ... They bounced back to win their final five contests.
 
EIGHT WINS: Rensselaer's eight wins are the second most in the regular season in school history ... Eight other teams have accomplished the feat with the most recent being in 2015 ... The school record is nine, which happened in 1999 (9-0) ... The school record for overall wins is 11, which happened in 2003 (11-2).
 
LEAGUE & NON-LEAGUE: RPI was 4-1 in the Liberty League and out-of-conference ... The league wins were against Ithaca, St. Lawrence, Rochester and Union ... The loss came at Hobart ... Rensselaer's non-league wins were against William Paterson, WPI, Western New England and Alfred ... The loss came at Buffalo State.
 
HOME & AWAY: Rensselaer was 4-0 at East Campus Stadium and 4-2 on the road ... The road wins came at WPI, Alfred, St. Lawrence and Union ... The losses were at Buffalo State and Hobart.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Saturday is the seventh road game for Rensselaer, which will surpass 1000 miles this season ... Before Saturday's game, the longest was to Buffalo (292 miles) with Alfred (271) the second longest ... Dover, Delaware, where Wesley is located, is 19 miles farther than Buffalo ... Both Geneva (197), where Hobart is located, and Canton (195), home to St. Lawrence, are nearly 200 miles ... The trip to Union was by far the shortest (14).
 
AS A TEAM: Rensselaer averages 29.4 points per game while allowing 16.5 ... It rushes for 186.5 yards and throws for 161.80 per contest, while the opposition has posted 81.4 rushing yards and 222.5 passing yards ... The Engineers are +12 in turnover margin.
 
OFFENSIVE DEPTH: RPI has had 17 different ball carriers and 14 different receivers.
 
GROUND GAME: Senior Mike Tivinis leads the team with 606 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 103 carries ... Classmate Ethan Wells has 399 yards and three TDs on 77 carries and junior Nick Cella has 355 yards and five scores on 75 attempts.
 
RECEIVING CORPS: Junior Keaton Ackermann is first on the Engineers in catches (23), receiving yards (320) and touchdown receptions (6) ... Senior Johnny Ramsdell has 19 catches for 218 yards and two TDs ... He has also run the ball 20 times for 90 yards.
 
UNDER CENTER: Freshman quarterback George Marinopoulos has started each of the last five games ... In six total contests, he has completed 74 of 112 passes for 804 yards ... He has nine touchdowns and three interceptions with a passing efficiency rating of 147.53.
 
LEADING TACKLERS: Senior safety Bryan Hayes is first on the team in solo (42), assisted (30) and total tackles (72) ... He also has two interceptions and four pass breakups ... Classmate Brandt Beck, a linebacker, is second with 64 total stops, including 5.5 tackles for lost yards (26), two sacks (19 yards lost), an interceptions, four pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
 
TFLs: Senior Malik Joseph is first on the team in tackles for lost yards (6.5 for 20 yards) and is tied for first in sacks (3.0 for 11 yards) ... Linebacker Brandt Beck is second with 5.5 tackles for lost yards (26), followed by Jack Hoggard (4.0 for 20) and freshman Amaechi Konkwo (4.0 for 22) ... Konkwo, a down lineman, also has 3.0 sacks for 21 yards lost.
 
BALL HAWKS: Senior Sean Egan has the most interceptions on the team with seven ... He is one of five players with multiple INTs ... The others are Rory McCarthy (4), Bryan Hayes (2), Jack Hoggard (2) and DJ Stefonsky (2) ... All are defensive backs except Hoggard, who is a linebacker.
 
KICKING GAME: Senior Christian Kapp has made 7 of 12 field goals and 37 of 37 point-after-touchdowns ... The team's leading scorer (60 points), he averages 63.0 yards per kickoff with 31 touchbacks.
 
RETURN MAN: Junior Conor Davies is the Engineers' return specialist with 22 punt returns for 266 yards and seven kickoff returns for 165 yards.
 
ALL-LEAGUE: RPI had 18 All-Liberty League student-athletes, including the Co-Special Teams Player of the Year in Conor Davies and the Coaching Staff of the Year, led by Ralph Isernia ... Davies, a return specialist, was one of eight on the First Team ... Eight others were chosen to the Second Team and two were Honorable Mention.
 
FIRST TEAM: Rensselaer had three All-Liberty League First Team choices on offense, four on defense and one on special teams: Mike Tivinis (RB), Bobby Boos (OL), Chris Neu (OL), Malik Joseph (DL), Brandt Beck (LB), Sean Egan (DB), Bryan Hayes (DB) and Conor Davies (RS).
 
SECOND TEAM: Rensselaer had three All-Liberty League Second Team choices on offense, three on defense, one athlete and one on special teams: Keaton Ackermann (WR), Scott Black (OL), Aaron Castillo (OL), Diego Cuitino (DL), Jack Hoggard (LB), Rory McCarthy (DB), Johnny Ramsdell (Ath.) and Christian Kapp (K).
 
HONORABLE MENTION: Rensselaer had two All-Liberty League Honorable Mentions with Amaechi Konkwo, a defensive lineman, and Zac Montrief, a punter, being tabbed ... They are both freshmen.
 
REPEATS: Mike Tivinis, Chris Neu, Malik Joseph, Sean Egan, Conor Davies, Keaton Ackermann, Diego Cuitino, Johnny Ramsdell and Christian Kapp have now been All-League in multiple seasons ... Joseph is a three-time honoree with two First Team selections.
 
ALL-ACADEMIC: Rensselaer landed 22 student-athletes on the Liberty League All-Academic team (3.30 cumulative GPA as at least a sophomore) ... They are Keaton Ackermann, Angelo Aita, Sam Barrett, Matt Boone, Nick Cella, Diego Cuitino, Conor Davies, Nick Esposito, Jakob Grant, Bryan Hayes, Jack Hoggard, Oliver Kaija, Christian Kapp, Maliek Kelly, Paul Marinan, Rory McCarthy, Johnny Ramsdell, John Sadak, Nick Smith, Ed Trimpert, Luke Watanabe and Brendan Zotti.
 
ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT: The recently revealed CoSIDA Academic All-District teams included six Engineers ... They are Johnny Ramsdell (WR), Jakob Grant (OL), Christian Kapp (K), Diego Cuitino (DL), Oliver Kaija (LB) and Rory McCarthy (DB) ... They are each studying engineering with five different programs represented.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Rensselaer's defense allowed only 245 yards of offense - just 28 rushing - and forced four turnovers as the Engineers defeated Union, 20-14, in the Dutchman Shoes Trophy Game at Frank Bailey Field ... The win gave RPI the coveted trophy for the fifth straight season as well as securing the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs ... RPI jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead, but fell behind 14-13 at halftime ... The Engineers scored the only points of the second half when George Marinopoulos threw the go-ahead score from 15 yards out to Keaton Ackermann with 5:19 left in the fourth quarter ... RPI's defense held Union to just 62 yards of offense - 13 rushing, 49 passing - in the final 30 minutes.
 
HONORED: Defensive back Sean Egan, running back Mike Tivinis and quarterback George Marinopoulos were all honored by the Liberty League for their performances at Union on Saturday ... Egan was the Defensive Performer of the Week, while Tivinis and Marinopoulos were selected to the Weekly Honor Roll.
 
NATIONAL TEAM: Sean Egan was chosen to the D3football.com Team of the Week after making six tackles, including two unassisted, with a pair of interceptions at Union ... He also deflected a long pass deep in RPI's territory that ended up being intercepted by a teammate in the fourth quarter.
 
COMMON OPPONENT: RPI and Wesley have one common opponent in William Paterson ... The Engineers blanked the Pioneers, 45-0, in the season opener (Sept. 2) in Troy ... The Wolverines beat their league foe in New Jersey, 66-0 on September 23. 
 
WESLEY IN 2017: Wesley is ranked 13th in the latest D3football.com and AFCA Division III Coaches' Top 25 polls ... The Wolverines are 9-1 with the lone loss coming in the opener, 24-19 at Delaware Valley, which is currently No. 7 in the nation, according to D3foootball.com and No. 5 by the AFCA.