TROY, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scored 24 unanswered points after Union College opened the scoring to post a 24-7 victory in the 74th playing of the annual Dutchman Shoes game on Saturday afternoon at East Campus Athletic Village Stadium.
 
Senior Cole DaSilva led the defensive unit with 17 tackles, including three tackles for loss and one sack. With his third straight game of at least 15 stops, he finished his senior year with 121 tackles, vaulting him all the way up to fourth on the school single-season list and marking the most in a season since 2009. He finished his career with 269 tackles, matching Colin Lama '21 for sixth-most in school history.
 
Junior Patch Flanagan completed 16-of-38 passes for 250 yards and a touchdown for Union (3-7, 2-4 Liberty League), while junior Gil Rivera had a second straight 100-yard game with five catches for 111 yards and a score. Senior Jonathan Anderson also ran for 14 yards to give him 2,007 yards for his career, making him and classmate Michael Fiore the first teammates in program history to both eclipse 2,000 yards while on the roster at the same time.
 
The Union defense stiffened up inside the 30-yard line on the Engineers' first two possessions, coming up with big stops to keep RPI off the scoreboard. On the home team's first possession, RPI (5-5, 3-3 Liberty League) got to the Union 12-yard line but had a field-goal go wayward to keep the game scoreless. The Engineers got to the 22-yard line on their next possession, but senior Ethan VanderBrink and sophomore Jordan Black combined to stop a fourth-down rush short of the sticks to again deny the home team.
 
After the defense made another stop at the start of the second quarter, Union needed only two plays to go 69 yards for the game's first score. After a two-yard rush on first down, Flanagan went deep to find Rivera behind the RPI secondary for a 67-yard touchdown reception to put the visitors up 7-0 with 13:23 left in the second. However, RPI responded with a six-play, 59-yard drive to even the score 3:14 later on a 11-yard toss to Shane Allison.
 
The momentum seemed to shift Union's way midway through the second quarter when Union got the ball on the RPI 11-yard line after a seven-yard punt; however, the Garnet Chargers went back seven yards on three plays and then saw a 35-yard field goal miss its mark to keep the game tied. The Engineers responded by driving 73 yards in 13 plays to kick a field goal as time expired to take a 10-7 lead into halftime.
 
Union turned the ball over in RPI territory on its first two possessions of the third quarter, and the home team converted the second turnover into points with a six-yard touchdown run by Kayden White that put RPI up 17-7 with 4:20 left in the third. Another turnover gave RPI the ball in plus territory at the start of the fourth quarter and led to another White TD run that provided the final scoring of the afternoon.
 
The teams were evenly matched in terms of yardage gained, with RPI maintaining a slim 366-342 edge. However, Union turned the ball over five times (one fumble, one interception, three on downs) and also missed two field goals to give the Engineers the edge.