This past Saturday brought a picture-perfect day for football to Canton, New York as the St. Lawrence Football Team took the field against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Despite a slip in the team’s record from last year, the Saints have still played hard in a majority of their games and have been competitive throughout the year. The team has also had an unfortunate stretch of injuries, which has led to some younger players being forced to play bigger roles than expected this season. Even with some of their struggles on the field this year, St. Lawrence took the field on Saturday hungry for their third win of the season.
The Saints were able to jump on RPI early in the game, with their first drive resulting in a touchdown. Quarterback, Sean Richardson ’18, had two completions for more than 30 yards, and Matt Cognetta ’20 was able to dive into the end zone from one yard out. This gave the Saints an early 7-0 lead at Leckonby Stadium. Just a few plays later, RPI tied the game at seven after a 31-yard touchdown from their lead running back. RPI punched in another touchdown to take the lead 14-7 early in the second quarter. A major bright spot for St. Lawrence, in the first half, came when Vincenzo Ferraro ’18 broke the school record for career receptions. His eight catches on Saturday brought his career total to 173, and he will look to increase that total in the next couple of weeks.
After some early offense from both sides, the defensive units for each team began to impose their will. The game went scoreless for a long stretch until kicker, Daly Hebert ’18, knocked through a 32-yard field goal to cut the Saints’ deficit to four. On fourth-and-one with just over two minutes to play, Richardson scrambled away from several RPI defenders and found Anthony Ferraro ’21 (Vincenzo’s younger brother) along the right sideline. He was able to scamper into the end-zone and give the Saints their first lead, 17-14, since early in the first quarter. Unfortunately, the celebrations were short lived. RPI quarterback George Marinopoulos was able to orchestrate an 11-play, 71-yard drive that culminated in a touchdown throw to the back of the end zone for the game’s final score.
Despite their competitive effort, the Saints fell to 2-6 on the season heading into the last two weeks of play. St. Lawrence will finish off their season, playing at Hobart this weekend and finishing out their regular season against SUNY Brockport at Leckonby Stadium the following Saturday.