TROY, N.Y. – The Ithaca College football team saw its three-game winning streak come to an end as the Bombers fell to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 27-14, at East Campus Stadium on Saturday afternoon in Liberty League action. With the loss, Ithaca is now 3-3 overall and 3-1 in league play, while RPI improves to 4-2 and 1-1.

Ithaca received the opening kickoff and wasted no time marching down the field. On the sixth play of the drive, freshman Wahid Nabi found fellow freshman Andrew Vito wide open down the middle of the field on 3rd-and-10 for a 26-yard touchdown pass just 1:43 into the contest to give Ithaca a 7-0 advantage.

Leading up to the score, Nabi completed his first three passes to seniors JR Zazzara (15 yards) and Tristan Brown (nine yards) and sophomore Will Gladney (25 yards).

On RPI's first drive of the game, the Engineers seemed poised to tie the game up, but the drive stalled at the Ithaca 6-yard line. RPI then attempted a 23-yard field goal and missed wide right with 8:52 left in the quarter.

The new conference foes traded punts on the next two possessions up to the 3:23 mark of the period. On the ensuing snap after Ithaca got the ball back, Nabi was intercepted by DJ Stefonsky at the IC 47.

RPI was unable to capitalize on the sudden change, however, and was forced to punt after a three-and-out.

Ithaca ran out the clocked in the first quarter deep in its own territory and flipped sides of the field. The Bombers then punted on the initial snap of the second stanza and gave RPI the ball just over the midfield stripe.

The Engineers sustained another lengthy drive on 12 plays that brought them down to the Ithaca 5-yard line, but senior Dan Loizos ended the drive abruptly with a forced fumble, which was recovered by junior Brian Gill at the 10.

After the turnover, Nabi hit senior Jared Bauer for a 20-yard completion and then connected with Vito for a 34-yard gain. On the next play, Nabi looked for Zazzara in the end zone, but RPI would record its second interception in the half.

The half ended after a combined four punts and a turnover on downs by Ithaca, and the Bombers went into intermission with a 7-0 lead. The Bombers held a slim edge in offensive yardage over RPI, 174-142, with 158 coming from the arm of Nabi.

Out of the break, RPI was set up with good field position on a 41-yard kick return by Conor Davies, but Ithaca's defense held tough and forced a three-and-out.

The Bombers quickly moved the ball up the field on a 13-yard catch by Bauer and 10-yard reception by Vito. After a sack and incompletion set Ithaca up with a 3rd-and-19, Nabi heaved one down the far sideline to Vito, who came down with a tremendous diving grab for 37 yards down to the RPI 38-yard line.

IC then racked up 24 yards on the ground to move inside the red zone. An incompletion and no gain on a run brought the Bombers' field goal unit onto the field to attempt a 30-yard try, but RPI broke through the line and blocked the kick to keep the score at 7-0 with 6:16 to go in the third quarter. Ithaca's drive lasted 12 plays and covered 76 yards.

RPI tied the game at 7-7 on a 7-yard touchdown pass from George Marinopoulus to Keaton Ackerman with 12:46 remaining in the game. The Engineers started their 13-play, 88-yard drive with 4:03 left in the third quarter and converted on three third down tries. The big play on the drive came on a 33-yard completion to Delano Munoz Whatts.

After the score, Ithaca turned the ball over once again on the third interception thrown by Nabi to give RPI possession at the IC38 and 11:55 on the clock.

The contest turned into a battle of field position from there and RPI benefitted from a short punt (32 yards) by the Bombers after they were pinned back to their own 2-yard line. RPI returned the punt to Ithaca's 24-yard line.

RPI punched in the go-ahead touchdown four plays later to take a 14-7 lead with 3:56 left in the game.

Ithaca took over at the 25 on a touchback, but two plays later, RPI picked off another pass and brought it back to the 8-yard line and tacked on another touchdown one play later to extend its lead to 21-7 with 3:39 remaining.

The Bombers did not go down without a fight, however, as they moved down the field and scored an 11-yard catch by senior Frank Martino with 35.8 seconds for his first career touchdown.

RPI recovered the onside kick and ran the clock down to 14.9 seconds. Ithaca took over at its own 15-yard line, but after a series of laterals went awry, RPI pounced on the loose ball in the end zone for another touchdown and the Engineers came away with a 27-14 win.

 The Bombers totaled 326 yards of offense and allowed 273 to RPI, but the Engineers held onto the ball for nearly 35 minutes. RPI held a significant edge in rushing yards, 112-11, but the Bombers outgained RPI through the air, 315-161.

Nabi finished the game with 315 yards passing on 23-of-42 and two touchdowns, while Vito hauled in seven catches for 127 yards. Sophomore Will Gladney added 86 yards on four receptions and Bauer notched 73 yards on five grabs.

Defensively, senior Kenny Bradley led the way with 11 tackles and classmate Jordan Schemm notched 10 stops. Loizos and junior Pat Minogue and Brian Gill each tallied nine tackles.

The Bombers will look to get back on track next Saturday as they host St. John Fisher College at 1 p.m. Next weekend's game also marks Hall of Fame weekend on South Hill, where the newest class will be honored at halftime.