Football | 11/8/2019 8:39:00 AM

GAMEDAY: The Engineers play at East Campus Stadium for the final time during the regular season as Ithaca visits for a Liberty League contest.

SENIOR DAY: Rensselaer celebrates 16 senior student-athletes and their families prior to and after the game ... The pre-game ceremony begins at 11:30am on the field.

ALL-TIME VS. ITHACA: RPI and Ithaca have played five times with four taking place in the Capital District ... The Engineers lead 3-2-0 thanks to wins in the last three games ... Two of the meetings were NCAA Playoff contests.

Oct. 26, 1946 Menands 17-6 L
Nov. 24, 2001* Troy 27-10 L
Dec. 6, 2003** Troy 21-16 W
Oct. 14, 2017^ Troy 27-14 W
Oct. 6, 2018^ Ithaca 10-9 W
* - NCAA Tournament Second Round
** - NCAA Tournament Regional Final
^ - Liberty League game

LESS THAN TWO: In the five meetings between the Bombers and RPI, Ithaca has outscored Rensselaer by only nine points, 83-74, which is an average difference of only 1.8 points per game.

CO-CHAMPIONS: Rensselaer and Ithaca tied for the Liberty League title in each of the past two seasons with identical 4-1 records ... RPI earned automatic berths into the NCAA Playoffs based on its head-to-head victories over the Bombers (27-14 in 2017; 10-9 in 2018).

2018 CONTEST: In Ithaca, the Engineers held off the Bombers 10-9 in the Liberty League opener ... RPI jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a 23-yard field goal by Sanjay Krishnan ... Rensselaer later went ahead 10-3 on a 2-yard, third quarter touchdown run by Nick Cella ... The Bombers pulled to within a point on a deflected touchdown catch with no time left in regulation but they failed on an extra point kick (blocked) and a two-point conversion attempt ... Cella finished with a game-high 73 yards rushing on 23 carries ... John Sadak led the Engineers with 11 tackles, including five unassisted and one for a 5-yard loss, along with an interception.

2017 MEETING: RPI scored four touchdowns in the fourth quarter and the Engineers held Ithaca to -3 rushing yards while intercepting four passes in a 27-14 victory at East Campus Stadium ... Trailing 7-0 since the first series of the game, the Engineers put together a game-tying drive of 88 yards on 13 plays with George Marinopoulos finding Keaton Ackermann in the back of the end zone from seven yards out early in the fourth quarter ... The game remained tied until there was 3:56 left and it quickly became 21-7 for the Engineers with 3:39 remaining ... Maliek Kelly scored on a 6-yard sweep to finish a 4-play, 24-yard drive and Mike Tivinis ran up the middle immediately following a turnover for the 14-point lead ... Ithaca drove the ball 75 yards on 11 plays, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass with just 36 seconds left to make it 21-14 ... DJ Stefonsky landed on a fumble in the end zone for the final tally. 

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS: Rensselaer's defense forced five turnovers, led by senior Bryan Hayes, who made 11 tackles (4 solo) with 0.5 for lost yards (1), an interception, two pass breakups and a blocked field goal, last year against the Bombers ... George Marinopoulos, making his first career start, finished 19 for 32 for 161 yards and a touchdown ... Keaton Ackermann had five catches for 33 yards.

BY COMMITTEE: Eleven RPI players combined to rush for 112 yards last year against Ithaca.

DEC. 6, 2003: Playing for the first time ever in the month of December, Rensselaer scored on long pass plays on its first two possessions and held off the visiting Bombers in a game played in blizzard conditions ... Quarterback Dan Cole recorded 268 yards passing and three touchdowns while wide receiver Pat Hughes had 12 receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown ... Jon Branche added four receptions for 82 yards and two scores ... Dylan Cooper led the defense with a game-high 11 tackles.

NOV. 24, 2001: Following a Rensselaer field goal, Ithaca scored three straight touchdowns and controlled the clock on its way to victory ... RPI, which was playing its first-ever NCAA Second Round game after earning the top seed and a first round bye, saw running back Flynn Cochran rush for 34 yards and a touchdown while his brother, Evan, a wide receiver, made nine catches for 147 yards ... Marc Blevins had 16 tackles (9 solos) and an interception and Ed Petkovsek added 12 tackles (5 solos) and a forced fumble.

OCT. 26, 1946: Ithaca scored two touchdowns and added a safety for a 17-6 win ... Art Beard, a captain, put RPI in front with an 88-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, but the visitors tied it in the third ... Ithaca scored again in the fourth with an interception returned for a touchdown while later adding a safety.

RPI LAST WEEK: Rensselaer rushed for 198 yards and three touchdowns to defeat Buffalo State 28-26 ... Sophomore Peter Lombardi had a 48-yard touchdown to open the scoring and then added a 28-yard TD reception to put RPI ahead for good midway through the fourth quarter ... He finished with 57 rushing yards on two carries and 58 receiving yards on four receptions ... Senior Marc Meislahn (43 yards on 7 att.) added a 9-yard touchdown in the second quarter and sophomore Joe Scaglione (team-high 86 yards on 8 att.) scored from 40 yards away in the third ... George Marinopoulos completed 16 of 24 passes for 186 yards, including 14 yards on three catches by Meislahn ... Senior defensive back Andres Guisasola led the Engineers with eight tackles, including five unassisted and one for lost yards (1), while John Sadak made seven stops (3 unassisted) ... Francis Perry had six unassisted tackles.

DEPTH: The Engineers had seven different ball carriers and nine different receivers in their win over Buffalo State.

STOUT: RPI which limited Buffalo State to 94 rushing yards on 27 attempts on Saturday.

WEEKLY HONOR ROLL: Rensselaer's Peter Lombardi and Zac Montrief (5 punts for 201 yards; two I20) were named to the Liberty League Weekly Honor Roll based on their performances against Buffalo State.

HOME COOKING: With its win over the Bengals on Saturday, Rensselaer improved to 5-0 at East Campus Stadium this season ... The Engineers are 14-1 in their last 15 games in Troy over the past three years.

POST-SEASON ELIGIBLE: With its win over Buffalo State on Saturday, RPI is eligible to compete in the post-season ... Rensselaer has played at least one game after the regular season ended every year since 2013 ... There have been three ECAC Playoff appearances (2014, 2015, 2016) and two NCAA Tournament trips (2017, 2018) ... RPI is 4-3 in that span.

GAME AFTER: The Engineers are 2-2 in games after a win in the previous week ... They are 2-1 following losses.

BOMBERS TO DATE: Ithaca won its first seven games beginning with non-conference victories over Saint Vincent (66-28), Alfred (27-9) and St. John Fisher (38-35) ... Four straight Liberty League wins over St. Lawrence (59-20), Buffalo State (48-14), Hobart (34-0) and Rochester (59-0) was followed by a loss to Union (31-21).

ITHACA LAST WEEK: No. 8/7 Ithaca racked up 497 yards of offense, but the Bombers turned the ball over three times with a pair of interceptions and a fumble and lost to nationally-ranked Union 31-21 ... The Dutchmen dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 36:44, including nearly 12 minutes in the third quarter ... Union ran the ball 50 times for 223 yards with 181 of those from Ike Irabor, who scored three touchdowns ... For Ithaca, senior Joe Germinerio threw for 397 yards on 38-of-60 passing with two touchdowns ... He also notched a rushing touchdown and ran for 40 yards ... Junior Andrew Vito was on the receiving end of 12 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns ... Will Gladney caught 11 passes for 79 yards ... Defensively, senior Nick Garone logged 16 total tackles, while sophomore Miles Haynes has 11 stops.

BOMBERS NATIONALLY-RANKED: Ithaca enters Saturday's game ranked No. 17 in the latest D3football.com Poll and No. 19 (tied) in the AFCA Poll. 

COMMON OPPONENTS: RPI and Ithaca have four common opponents in Rochester, Hobart, St. Lawrence and Buffalo State ... The Engineers defeated Rochester and Buffalo State, but lost to SLU and Hobart ... Ithaca went 4-0 against that foursome.

SOS: Rensselaer has played the 199th-ranked strength-of-schedule to date, according to D3football.com ... The Bombers' slate ranks 95th.

BROTHER VS. BROTHER: Rensselaer first-year defensive line coach Rob Barbieri and Ithaca defensive line coach Marc Barbieri are brothers ... They both suited up for the Bombers before getting into the coaching ranks.