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The RPI Football Team advanced to the finals of the NCAA Division III East Region by defeating top-seed Springfield College 40-34 on Saturday, at Springfield. The Rensselaer defense stopped two consecutive drives by Springfield in the waning moments of the fourth quarter to preserve the hard-fought victory.

Senior quarterback Dan Cole went 26-for-44 for 348 yards and threw five touchdowns. The RPI offense was as different from the Springfield offense as day is to night. According to the Times Union, Springfield rushed for 441 yards on 79 carries, but never completed a pass.

RPI was losing 27-17 early in the third quarter, but then scored 20 unanswered points to take the lead for good. During the time, they were passing the ball into a strong wind.

Rensselaer next faces Ithaca College at '86 Field on Saturday, December 6, at 12 noon in the NCAA Division III East Region Finals. This will be RPI's first appearance in a regional final, which can also be considered the NCAA Football quarterfinals. RPI was defeated by Ithaca two years ago in a second round game that also occurred in Troy.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Canadian Press reported on the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton. Joe Sakic had one goal and two assists to lead Colorado to victory. According to the article:

Adam Oates, signed to a one-year deal by Edmonton as a free agent November 17, made his Oilers debut. Oates, who missed training camp and the first quarter of the season, was impressive in his first action since playing in the 2003 playoffs with the Stanley Cup-finalist Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

Oates won faceoffs in the offensive zone near the end of the first and second {periods}- something the Oilers have struggled doing - that gave Edmonton good scoring chances.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rensselaer Men's Hockey Team continued its string of strong performances this weekend in road games against two Hockey East opponents. On Friday night, Kevin Croxton and Kirk MacDonald both scored in the second period to lead RPI to a 2-1 victory over UMass-Lowell. Junior Andrew Martin played strongly in his first start as an Engineer, making 24 saves.

On Saturday, RPI travelled up to Durham, NH, to play the fourth-ranked University of New Hampshire. Scott Romfo, Nick Economakos, and Conrad Barnes scored to give the Engineers a 3-2 lead at the end of two periods. But, UNH came back with two goals early in the third period to put the game away.

Nathan Marsters had 23 saves in the loss from Rensselaer.

RPI is now 7-4-2 overall, 2-1-1 in the ECAC. They face Yale and Princeton at Houston Field House next weekend.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

USCHO.com reports on a surprising sweep by the RPI Men's Hockey Team over fifth-ranked St. Cloud State on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday night Vic Pereira scored a goal with 3:28 remaining in regulation time, assisted by Mikael Hammarstrom. St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl set the stage for Saturday night by providing the following bulletin board material:

That last goal was kind of a cheesy goal but hey, we've also gotten cheesy goals before.... All those breaks have a way of evening out and I just think we didn't play like we're capable of.

Those breaks didn't even out on Saturday night either. The score was tied 1-1 at the end of two periods, when Kevin Croxton scored a power play goal at 9:42 of the third. Nick Economakos and Scott Basiuk got helpers.

St. Cloud gave up a power play goal after a too many men on the ice penalty. St. Cloud coach Dahl was a little more generous in his assessment after this game:

RPI worked really, really hard and deserved the bounces they got and we didn't.... It wasn't that we didn't work hard, but we didn't get the bounces that we've been getting. We can't score to save our lives.

Nathan Marsters played two excellent games this weekend, making 29 and 35 saves, respectively.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

D3Football.com reports that senior quarterback Dan Cole threw for four touchdowns and 362 yards as RPI prevaled over Curry College, 34-20. Flynn Cochrane was on the other end of a lot of this offensive production. He caught 15 passes for 216 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Unfortunately, Cole was somewhat unsteady in this game, throwing three interceptions in addition to his four touchdown passes. Cochran also had problems at times, fumbling the ball at Curry's goal line early in the game.

The NCAA Division III playoff game opened up significantly in the third and fourth quarter. At halftime, the score was tied 6-6.

This was the Engineers first NCAA football tournament victory in school history. Rensselaer, now 9-1, moves on to face top-seeded Springfield College, 10-0, next Saturday at noon in Springfield.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Canadian Press is reporting that the Montreal Canadiens will play the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night in a game that will take place outdoors. The game, referred to as the Molson Canadian Heritage Classic will take place at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.

The article, which appeared in the Toronto Star on Wednesday, quoted Joe Juneau '91 extensively. Regarding the idea of playing outdoors:

"It's going to feel a little awkward," said Juneau, a native of Pont-Rouge, Quebec. "If it feels great, perfect. It's going to be like the atmosphere of going there and having fun so you kind of wish it would be pre-season game. We'll have to find a way to look at it as a big game."

According to NHL.com, the game will be broadcast live on CBC in Canada from coast-to-coast, but it will only be available in the U.S. via the NHL Center Ice Package.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Associated Press reports that Adam Oates '85 signed a $1.95 million one year contract with the Edmonton Oilers yesterday. Oates was an unrestricted free agent and had been unsigned since the end of last season's Stanley Cup Finals. He had 9 goals and 36 assists last season for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. In 18 NHL seasons, he has over 1,200 games played, 1,000 assists, and 1,400 points.

According to the article, Oilers General Manager Kevin Low said, "Adam is a world-class passer, and is one of the best faceoff specialists.... This is a rare opportunity for us to acquire one of the best offensive talents in the history of the game."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Monday, Operation Gadget debuted on the Internet. This new weblog was created by Dave Aiello '89 and will cover electronic gadgets, software, and related products.

When an article on Operation Gadget makes reference to a product that is available through Amazon.com or one of its retail partners, the website will include a "buy box". The buy box will show a small picture of the product, its name, the current price, and a "buy from Amazon.com" button.

Operation Gadget is a demonstration of CTDATA's technical skill with Amazon Web Services,a set of programming tools that allows third parties to build interfaces to Amazon.com's website that enhance customers' shopping experiences.

For more information, visit OperationGadget.com or read the article, Introducing Operation Gadget on CTDATA.com.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Saturday, Hobart shocked RPI 43-25 at '86 Field in Troy. With the victory, Hobart wins the UCAA championship for the second-consecutive year. This is the first time Hobart has beaten RPI in Troy since 1983.

Hobart amassed four fourth quarter touchdowns including two long touchdown passes in 38 seconds. Rensselaer had been leading 15-7 at halftime. The Engineers record is now 8-1, 3-1 in the UCAA.

At the time, the loss to Hobart was thought to be severely damaging to RPI's hopes for a birth in the NCAA tournament. However, that was before it was known that both Ithaca and Washington and Jefferson lost this weekend as well.

When the Division III Playoff Pairings were announced, RPI learned that it will face Curry in Troy on Saturday. As anyone could conclude from D3football.com's bracket analysis article, this is a doubly unusual turn of events:

One home location got switched because of facilities, as No. 5 RPI will host No. 4 Curry. Curry couldn’t host in their stadium and got sent on the road, where RPI has a field to spare (they’ll play on ’86 Field, for those in the know).

Maybe catching up on all that deferred maintenance around campus will directly help one of our highest profile athletic programs? We'll see on Saturday.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Engineers battled the Vermont Catamounts and Dartmouth Big Green at Houston Field House this weekend, emerging with a win and a tie. I attended both games.

Friday's game against Vermont was promoted as "Black Friday", a new promotion where admission to students was free, the crowd was strongly encouraged to wear black clothing, and the team wore black jerseys that were auctioned off during the game. The jerseys were quite reminiscent of the jerseys worn throughout the eighties, and featured the letters "RPI" diagonally from top left to bottom right in red text on a black background.

Friday's game was never a contest. Undisciplined play resulted in a large number of penalties for the Catamounts, who went on to lose to the Engineers, 7-1. The game featured ninety minutes in penalties, resulting in three power-play goals for the Engineers. Sophomore Kevin Croxton led scoring with two goals and an assist, followed by junior Nick Economakos with a goal and two assists.

Saturday's game against Dartmouth was an entirely different matter. After two scoreless periods, junior Matt McNeely beat Dartmouth netminder Dan Yacey at 6:12 in the third. Dartmouth won the resulting faceoff and scored eight seconds later, with Eric Przepiorka beating RPI goaltender Nathan Marsters on his glove side. After the overtime period, each team took home one point, with the game ending in a 1-1 tie.

Attendance for both contests hovered just above 3,000. While one of Friday's aims was to boost student attendance, Friday's attendance was only about a hundred more than that of Saturday. I applaud the Department of Athletics for making an attempt to draw more students to games; Friday's crowd was a bit more fervent than Saturday's, perhaps due to the number of penalties and the ability of the Engineers to capitalize on power-play opportunities.

After four ECAC games, Rensselaer has five points on the season and is in a four-way tie for third place in the conference.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We noticed that the presentation that Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson gave to the Rensselaer Club of New Jersey, entitled Renaissance at Rensselaer, Progress on Achieving the Rensselaer Plan, is being featured on the Rensselaer web site. This presentation took place on October 21, 2003 in Morristown, NJ.

Each slide from the presentation is reproduced as a separate web page. This gives alumni who were not present at the reception an opportunity to review it.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Albany Times Union reports that Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson has become the highest paid university president in the United States with annual salary, benefits, and other compensation estimated at $890,400. This estimate is published in the Chronicle of Higher Education's annual survey (details available only to subscribers).

The Times Union article quotes Claire Van Ummersen, vice president for the Office of Women at the American Council on Education, who said, "I'm just pleased to see a woman at the top of the list for a change.... I think she has been one of the most effective presidents that I've seen in a long while."

Members of the RPI community who were quoted include Board of Trustees Chairman Samuel Heffner, Honorary Trustee Harry Apkarian, and former Rensselaer president Roland Schmidt.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are the details on the men's hockey teams' interesting trip to the North Country this weekend. On Friday night, USCHO.com reported that RPI took advantage of a controversial 5-on-3 powerplay in overtime to beat Clarkson 4-3. Ben Barr got the winning goal during a scramble with 1:30 remaining in overtime. Nathan Marsters made 22 saves, including stopping a penalty shot, for the victory.

According to the Times Union, this was RPI's first victory at Clarkson or St. Lawrence since the 1999-2000 season. Also, the Engineers had been held to one goal or less in its last three games at Cheel Arena in Potsdam.

On Saturday night, St. Lawrence goaltender Mike McKenna emphatically shut out the Engineers by a score of 4-0. This win broke a nine-game losing streak for the Larries.

RPI now has a 3-3-1 overall record, and has a 1-1 record in ECAC play.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Albany Times Union reports that senior quarterback went raised his season total beyond 2,000 passing yards for the third consecutive season, leading 25th ranked RPI to a 55-0 victory over St. Lawrence University in Canton. According to the article:

Cole has been nothing short of a sensational surprise since coming to RPI. A relative unknown until his senior season at {Bishop Maginn High School in Albany}, he now holds 11 different passing records at RPI, which has a long tradition of top small college quarterbacks.

The article goes on to point out that Cole is one of a number of outstanding Rensselaer players to come out of high schools in New York State's Section II. Over 40 percent of the roster is comprised of players who went to high school in the Capital District.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sandeep Nandy pointed out that Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson has been nominated to the new Board of Directors for the New York Stock Exchange. Dr. Jackson was one of eight independent board members nominated by NYSE Interim Chairman John Reed. Other nominees include Madeline Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, Herbert Allison, Chairman of TIAA-CREF, and Sir Dennis Weatherstone, retired Chairman of J.P. Morgan and Company.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

D3football.com reports that Quarterback Dan Cole threw a 22-yard touchdown pass with 1:22 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Rensselaer a 24-17 victory over St. John Fisher. The RPI defense denied Fisher a tieing touchdown with no time left on the clock by breaking up a pass at the goal line.

Rensselaer moves to 6-0 for the season.

This was a closely watched game because RPI was the 20th ranked team in Division III in the nation in points per game (37.8), while St. John Fisher was 36th (33.4 points per game) coming into the game. The final score of 24-17 was lower than many people probably expected.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

USCHO.com reports that RPI scored four goals in the last 21 minutes of the game to defeat Merrimack 5-4 in the last non-conference game before ECAC play starts next weekend. Conrad Barnes scored the game winner for the Engineers with about 4 1/2 minutes left in regulation. Nathan Marsters made 17 saves to earn the victory.

Rensselaer opens the ECAC schedule next weekend at Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)