BACK AT HOME: Following a game at WPI last Saturday, Rensselaer (1-1) plays its second home contest of the season with Utica College (2-0) visiting East Campus Stadium for a non-league game.

NIGHT GAME: Saturday is a 6pm kickoff, marking the first home night tilt for the Engineers since 2014 when they defeated WPI 27-6 in a game that began at 7pm.

FIRST OF THREE STRAIGHT: Rensselaer is beginning a stretch of three consecutive home games ... It hosts Anna Maria on Reunion & Homecoming on September 28 (1pm) and Rochester on October 5 (12:05pm) ... The game with the Yellowjackets is the first league game.

TO DATE: A 52-14 win over Allegheny on September 7 and a 6-3 loss at WPI in the Transit Trophy Game put RPI's record at 1-1 ... Utica has played two Liberty League teams, having defeated St. Lawrence 40-14 in the season opener and Buffalo State 26-15 last week ... Saturday is the first road game of the season for the Pioneers.

RPI VS. UTICA ALL-TIME: Saturday's game against the Pioneers is the 12th meeting between the two schools with the first coming in 2002 ... The teams last met in 2018, but had not faced each other since 2011 prior to that.

EARLY SUCCESS: Rensselaer won seven of the first eight meetings with Utica, but the Pioneers won the 2010 and 2011 games.

IN TROY: The Engineers are 4-1 when hosting the Pioneers, who last visited in 2011 ... Utica won that game 38-28.

ALL-TIME SERIES:
Sept. 14, 2002: RPI 47, Utica 0 in Troy
Sept. 13, 2003: RPI 17, Utica 6 in Utica
Sept. 18, 2004: Utica 9, RPI 7 in Utica
Sept. 17, 2005: RPI 41, Utica 10 in Troy
Sept. 16, 2006: RPI 34, Utica 10 in Utica
Sept. 15, 2007: RPI 24, Utica 0 in Troy
Sept. 20, 2008: RPI 24, Utica 10 in Utica
Sept. 19, 2009: RPI 17, Utica 14 in Troy
Sept. 18, 2010: Utica 42, RPI 21 in Utica
Oct. 8, 2011: Utica 38, RPI 28 in Troy
Sept. 15, 2018: RPI 23, Utica 20 in Utica (3OT)

LAST SEASON: Kicker Sanjay Krishnan made two field goals in overtime and senior defensive back D.J. Stefonsky sealed the win with an interception in the end zone as RPI defeated Utica 23-20 in triple overtime ... The Pioneers had a chance to win the game with four seconds left in regulation, but RPI's Rohan Cherian-Ashe blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt to send the game to overtime.

RPI LEADERS: Engineers quarterback George Marinopoulos threw for 198 yards on 25 of 45 completions, while Dylan Burnett had a team-high 72 yards on 13 carries and one TD ... DJ Stefonsky finished with six solo tackles and two interceptions, both in the end zone ... Jack Hoggard had a game-high 16 tackles, including one tackle for loss.

PIONEERS LEADERS: Quarterback Logan Wilcox was 24 of 55 for 213 yards and one touchdown ... Malcolm Stowe had 158 yards on 27 carries, including a season-high 53-yard rush, along with four catches for 17 yards ... Peyton Miller had nine catches for 89 yards ... Kwasi Addo and Antonio Scala led the Utica defense with 12 stops each, while Anthony Beaubrun had 10 tackles and one interception.

ALL-TIME IN OVERTIME: Rensselaer is 2-5 in games that have gone extra time ... It is 2-3 in overtime contests on the road.

LONGEST: The six overtime possessions in last year's game between RPI and Utica tied for the most in Rensselaer history ... The Engineers and Hobart also combined for six possessions on September 24, 2005 ... The Statesmen won that game 56-48.

ON SEPT. 21: Rensselaer has played eight games on September 21, going 6-2-0 ... It defeated Columbia A.C. in 1912 (13-0), St. Lawrence in 1968 (14-10), Siena in 1991 (24-14), Rochester in 1996 (34-7), Coast Guard in 2002 (34-12) and Castleton in 2013 (23-8) ... RPI lost to Coast Guard in 1974 (3-0) and Albany in 1985 (40-7).

ONE OF TWO: The Engineers are 1-1 for the first time in four years ... In 2016 they beat Norwich on the road (31-17) and lost to Alfred at home (33-17) before defeating MIT in Cambridge (31-10) ... The most recent time RPI has been 1-1 and gone to 1-2 was in 2011 when it lost at Alfred (48-17), defeated Castleton in Troy (51-21) and lost at WPI (34-31) ... Rensselaer finished 4-5 in 2011 and 6-5 in 2016.

RPI IN WEEK 2: Junior Bryce Wade connected on two field goals, including the game-winner from 26 yards out with 3:52 left, to lift WPI to a 6-3 win over No. 19 RPI in the Transit Trophy Game ... After Wade put the hosts ahead, RPI drove to the WPI 35 but fumbled after a pass reception and the ball was recovered by WPI ... Wade also made a 25-yarder with 4:24 to go in the first quarter to put WPI up before junior Sanjay Krishnan nailed a 27-yard FG with 17 seconds left in the first quarter to tie the game.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS: Sophomore Joe Scaglione ran for 41 yards on nine carries, and classmate Spencer Merkel amassed 33 yards on five rushes for RPI ... Signal caller George Marinopoulos threw for 188 yards on 27 of 42 passing ... Senior linebacker John Sadak, sophomore cornerback Blake Battle and senior linebacker Jack Fallon all had six tackles to pace Rensselaer.

ONLY SECOND TIME: RPI's 6-3 loss to WPI was just the second time in school history the Engineers were defeated by that score ... The only other time was October 29, 1921 in a game at Rochester ... The Engineers finished 4-1-3 that season.

THREE POINTS: Rensselaer was last held to only three points on October 25, 2014 at Hobart, a game it lost 35-3 ... The Engineers were 6-5 at the end of that year.

RPI IN WEEK 1: Senior Marc Meislahn scored two 1-yard touchdowns and junior George Marinopoulos threw two touchdowns and ran for one as No. 19 Rensselaer defeated Allegheny 52-14 in a non-league game ... Meislahn, a slot receiver who missed nearly all of 2018 due to an injury, helped RPI to leads of 7-0 and 38-7 ... He finished with seven yards rushing along with 46 receiving yards on three catches ... Of Rensselaer's 502 yards of total offense, 356 came through the air with Marinopoulos connecting for 276 yards and two scores (1 & 19 yards) on 23 of 35 passing ... He had a 1-yard touchdown on the ground. 

DISTRIBUTION: RPI had 11 different pass catchers and 10 different rushers against the Gators ... Defensively, 29 Engineers had a hand in at least one tackle.

ON DEFENSE: Senior John Sadak led the Engineers in tackles with eight, along with an interception, while classmate Joey Gutowski had seven stops.

LEADING THE WAY: Selected to lead Rensselaer as captains are seniors Marc Meislahn, John Sadak and Grant Tragni ... Meislahn is a slot receiver, while Sadak and Tragni are both linebackers ... Tragni also plays extensively on special teams, including as the team's long snapper.

FAVORITES: Rensselaer sits atop the Liberty League Preseason Coaches Poll after collecting 32 points, including four first-place votes ... The Engineers are a point ahead of Ithaca, which garnered one first-place vote and 31 total ... Hobart (26) is third, followed by Union (25), St. Lawrence (15), Buffalo State (12) and Rochester (6) ... The Statesmen and Dutchmen both received one first-place vote.

NEWCOMER: This is the first season in the Liberty League for Buffalo State ... The Bengals are an affiliate member and compete only in football.

UP NEXT: The Engineers finish the non-league portion of their schedule when they host Anna Maria next Saturday at ECAV Stadium (1pm) on Reunion & Homecoming Weekend ... The visit to Troy will be the first for the Amcats ... RPI's final six games are Liberty League affairs.
FOLLOW THE ACTION: All Rensselaer football games are aired live on WRPI, 91.5 FM, and on the Internet at www.wrpi.org ... All home games feature live statistics at https://www.rpiathletics.com ... A free, live full production is available for the home games online at www.rpitv.org, thanks to RPI TV.

UTICA LAST WEEK: Led by two receiving touchdowns by senior JJ O'Connor (25 & 30 yards), a strong day by junior running back Jamarious Morgan (123 yards on 18 carries) and a stingy defensive effort, the Pioneers wiped out a 3-0 halftime deficit with a 26-12 margin in the second half as they posted a 26-15 victory over Buffalo State at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium ... Utica outgained the Bengals 328 to 319, including 157 to 116 on the ground ... John Nish and Antonio Scala both had team-highs of 10 tackles.