The UR football team played its strongest game of the season on Saturday, possessing the ball for two-thirds of the game en route to a 16-10 upset over Rensselear Polytechnic Institute the 23rd ranked team in the country.
RPI scored the first touchdown of the game five minutes in, but UR still proved its defensive prowess early on, preventing RPI from taking a bigger lead by picking up a fumble on the Yellowjacket goal line.
On the offensive end, UR demonstrated its ability to control the clock.
The ‘Jackets doubled RPI’s overall time of possession, holding the ball 41:40, including holding the ball for 13:03 in the fourth quarter alone.
‘They had difficulty stopping our run game, and our quarterback and receivers made big plays on third downs to keep drives alive,” junior kicker Zachary White-Stellato said.
Meanwhile, the defense shut down RPI, only allowing the Red Hawks one first down in the second half.
Sophomore quarterback Braezen Subick completed 28 of 45 passes, and White-Stellato added three field goals. Junior running back Clarence Onyiriuka rushed for 147 yards.
‘Defensively, we performed the best I’ve seen,” sophomore quarterback Braezen Subick said. ‘They shut RPI out in the second half, and made one great play after another.”
The victory on Saturday was the ‘Jackets’ first win this season after suffering close losses to St. John Fisher College and Union College.
‘We’ve had difficulty finishing games this season,” White-Stellato said. ‘In our game against Union, we were winning with a minute left but didn’t finish strong, and they ended up beating us.”
UR certainly did finish this game. Head coach Scott Greene also noted this as one of the team’s greatest strengths of the game, saying in an e-mail that the men never gave up and competed throughout the four quarters.
‘I feel we are starting to come together as a team,” Subick added. ‘I can see chemistry on both sides of the ball. This game has proven that we can compete with anyone in this league.”
Leber is a member of the class 2011.
