2018 WPI Engineers football team
The 2018 WPI Engineers football team represented Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the 2018 NCAA Division III football season.[1][2] It marked the Engineers' 129th overall season. The team played its home games at Alumni Stadium in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were led by ninth-year head coach Chris Robertson.
| 2018 WPI Engineers football | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Conference | New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference |
| 2018 record | 6–4 (4–3 NEWMAC) |
| Head coach |
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| Offensive coordinator | Matt Kelly (2nd season) |
| Defensive coordinator | Scott Sperone (2nd season) |
| Captain | Sam Malafronte Luca Cerasani Blayne Merchant Lain Zembek Sean McAllen |
| Home stadium | Alumni Stadium (Capacity: 2,000) |
| 2018 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MIT $^ | 6 | – | 1 | 9 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Merchant Marine | 5 | – | 2 | 8 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Springfield | 5 | – | 2 | 8 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coast Guard | 5 | – | 2 | 7 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WPI | 4 | – | 3 | 6 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Norwich | 2 | – | 5 | 3 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Catholic University | 1 | – | 6 | 1 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maine Maritime | 0 | – | 7 | 0 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Engineers finished the regular season with its fourth consecutive winning season post a six victory and 4 loss record.
Personnel
Coaching staff
| Name | Position | Joined Staff |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Robertson | Head Coach | 2010 |
| Matt Kelly | Offensive Coordinator | 2014 |
| Scott Sperone | Defensive Coordinator | 2017 |
| Brian Wehler | Offensive Line | 2016 |
| Galen Holmes | Defensive Line / Special Teams Coordinator | 2007 |
| Dan Ross | Running Backs | 2016 |
| Zach Besaw | Outside Linebackers | 2016 |
| Kyle Bernard | Wide receivers | 2017 |
| Howard Bradley | Assistant Defensive Backs | 2017 |
| Mike Kelly | Assistant Offensive Line | 2017 |
| Brian Murtagh | Defensive Assistant | 2017 |
Schedule
The 2018 schedule was officially released on July 3, 2018. WPI faced all seven NEWMAC opponents: Catholic, Coast Guard, Maine Maritime, MIT, Merchant Marine, Norwich, and Springfield. They also played three non-conference games: Anna Maria of the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC), Becker of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), and RPI of the Liberty League.
| Date | Time | Opponent | Site | TV | Result | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 31 | 7:00 p.m. | at Anna Maria* |
| W 54–0 | 1,132 | |
| September 8 | 12:00 p.m. | at No. 24 RPI* |
| L 14-25 | 1,533 | |
| September 15 | 3:00 p.m. | at Becker* |
| W 45-0 | 382 | |
| September 22 | 12:00 p.m. | Springfield |
| L 14-17 | 2,813 | |
| September 29 | 12:00 p.m. | at Maine Maritime |
| W 30-7 | 2,076 | |
| October 6 | 12:00 p.m. | Catholic |
| Charter TV3 | W 24-0 | 806 |
| October 20 | 1:00 p.m. | at Merchant Marine |
| L 24-25 | 600 | |
| October 27 | 1:00 p.m. | MIT |
| W 13-6 | 651 | |
| November 3 | 12:00 p.m. | at Coast Guard |
| L 10-24 | 1,172 | |
| November 10 | 12:00 p.m. | Norwich |
| W 20-17 | 1,501 | |
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- On August 27, the Engineers placed second with one first place vote in the 2018 NEWMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.[3]
Awards and honors
Weekly awards
NEWMAC Football Offensive Athlete of the Week
- Sean McAllen, RB – Week Ending September 16, 2018
NEWMAC Football Special Teams Athlete of the Week
- Spencer Herrington, K/P – Week Ending September 2, 2018
- Spencer Herrington, K/P – Week Ending November 11, 2018
New England Football Writers Association Weekly Gold Helmet Award
- Sean McAllen, RB – Week of September 19, 2018
Postseason awards
NEWMAC Special Teams Athlete of the Year[4]
- Spencer Herrington, K/P
NEWMAC All-Conference First Team[4]
- Sam Casey, DB
- Nick Day, OL
- Spencer Herrington, K/P
- Sean McAllen, RB
- Mike McGoff, DL
NEWMAC All Conference Second Team[4]
- Lou Duh, DL
- Vince Lucca, OL
- Blayne Merchant, LB
- Nic Rossi, WR
- Collin Saunders, DB
NEWMAC All-Sportsmanship Team[4]
- Larry Cafaro, LB
D3football.com All-East Region First Team[5]
- Spencer Herrington, K/P
New England Football Writers Division II/III All‐New England Team[6]
- Nick Day, OL
Google Cloud Academic All-District Football Team (DIII) by CoSIDA[7]
- Nick Day, OL
- Lou Duh, DL
- Erik Fyrer, WR
- Spencer Herrington, K/P
- Nick Ostrowski, LB
References
- http://www.d3football.com/teams/WPI/2018/index
- http://athletics.wpi.edu/sports/fball/2018-19/schedule
- "Springfield Tops NEWMAC Football Preseason Coaches' Poll". NEWMAC. 2018-08-27. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
- "NEWMAC Announces 2018 Football Postseason Honors". NEWMAC. 2018-11-14. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
- "D3football.com 2018 All-East Region Team". D3football. 2018-12-04. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
- Crosley, Roger (2018-11-19). "NEW ENGLAND FOOTBALL WRITERS SELECT DIVISION II/III ALL‐ STARS" (PDF). New England Football Writers. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
- "CoSIDA Academic All-America Team" (PDF). 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2018-12-08.