Troy, N.Y. - November 7, 2015 - Despite a pair of touchdown runs from sophomore quarterback Jake Eglintine (Gansevoort, N.Y.), the Springfield College football program suffered a 17-14 loss to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in a Liberty League contest at East Campus Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, the Pride, which came into the contest as the No. 1 ranked rushing offense in the league, fall to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the league. However, with the win, the Engineers, which came into the contest as the No. 1 ranked defense in the Liberty League, improve to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the league,

Eglintine, the Liberty League's leading rusher, totaled 192 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns, senior fullback Keith Rodman (Northvale, N.J.) posted 50 yards on 11 carries, as Springfield racked up 270 rushing yards on the afternoon.

Springfield's defense was led by sophomore linebacker Dominic Traversa (Pittsfield, Mass.), who had a game-high 11 tackles (6 solo) including a one yard sack. Freshman linebacker Nicholas Giorgio (Cumberland, R.I.) added a four-yard sack among his seven tackles (5 solo). 

It was Eglintine who scored the first points of the game, as the sophomore hit pay dirt from 60-yards out to cap a three-play, 67 yard drive to give the Pride a 7-0 lead following an extra-point conversion from Blake Heller (Bellmore, N.Y.) with 8:59 left in the first stanza.

RPI quickly countered, when Austin Amery punched in a one-yard touchdown run to even the game at seven apiece, before the Engineers took a 10-7 lead just prior to halftime following a 30-yard field goal from Christian Kapp.

Eglintine gave Springfield the lead with the only points of the third quarter when he ran 88 yards on a quarterback keeper with 4:58 left in the stanza. The sophomore was nearly dropped for a loss before eluding several tacklers, using his blockers while cutting across the field and running down the right sideline for the score.

Trailing 14-10 in the final frame, Rensselaer regained the ball at its own 48 yard line with 6:38 to play after forcing Springfield to punt. Sophomore Mike Tivinis (Middleton, Mass.) carried for 12 yards and then six yards for a 2nd-and-4 on the Springfield 34 yard line.

A holding penalty on the Engineers on the next play, an incomplete pass from Avery to Gaddar, pushed the ball back to the 44 yard line. However, the twosome connected on the subsequent snap with Avery throwing a high-arcing pass that Gaddar ran under on the left hashmark at the 10-yard line and carried into the end zone. Sophomore Christian Kapp (Amawalk, N.Y.) added the extra point for a 17-14 advantage.

The Pride will close out its season on Saturday, November 14 against WPI on Stagg Field at 12 p.m.