The #24 Hobart Statesmen hosted the RPI Engineers on Senior Day at Boswell Field. Early on it looked like the Statesmen would be on their way to their first Liberty League championship since 2008 when JR RB Bobby Dougherty gave Hobart an early lead. He found the end zone from one yard out, capping a 13 play, 79 yard drive with 6:09 to play in the first quarter.
The Statesmen extended their lead to 21-0 behind two touchdown passes from JR QB Nick Strang to JR TE Brent Matazinsky for 19 yards and SR WR Garth Muratori from six yards. The Muratori touchdown was the 17th in his career - tying him for fifth all time for receiving touchdowns at Hobart.
Although the Statesmen were up 21 points, JR QB Mike Hermann and the RPI Engineers managed to connect on a 46 yard touchdown pass to WR Steven Burpoe to pull within 14 with 6:59 to play in the half after the Andrew Franks point after was good.
Hobart would strike back as well after SO RB Steven Webb broke a 25 yard run for a touchdown to post the Statesmen to a 28-7 advantage. Hermann would waste little time, finding Mike Blais open for a 62 yard touchdown and driving RPI to connect on a 21 yard field goal to bring the Engineers within 11 points as RPI would trail 28-17 at the half.
The second half would prove to be all RPI as the Statesmen racked up first downs and yardage but were otherwise shut out on offense. Hermann would be the catalyst behind a one yard pass to Matt Wood and rush to score from 10 yards out in the fourth quarter to push the Engineers to a 29-28 advantage.
Although Hobart would threaten to take the lead, the RPI defense stood firm, blocking a short Stephen Bruening field goal and forcing the Statesmen to turn it over on downs before taking the victory formation and clinching a hard fought 29-28 upset victory.
Hermann lead the Engineers with 306 of RPI's 342 yards including three passing and one rushing touchdowns. Hermann's favorite target was Burpoe who hauled in five receptions for 71 yards and a score. Defensively the Engineers were lead by Ted Abriel with 10 total tackles.
Hobart outgained RPI by 131 yards and had twice as many first downs (30 to their 15) as the Engineers, but came up short when it mattered most. The Statesmen were lead by Strang with 271 yards passing and two touchdowns. Senior linebacker Reggie Robinson had a game high 11 total tackles and two tackles for a loss.
With the win RPI improves to .500 with a 4-4 overall record and 3-2 in the league. Hobart drops to 6-1, 4-1 in the league and will need to defeat Rochester next weekend on the road to clinch the league championship and accompanying NCAA automatic bid.
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