Junior wide receiver Joseph Viscardo matched his own school record with four touchdown catches, and sophomore quarterback Tyler Grochot threw five touchdown passes, one shy of the program record, to lead the St. Lawrence University football team to a 35-21 win over Rensselaer in a Liberty League contest on Saturday afternoon at Weeks Field at Leckonby Stadium.

The Saints raced out to a 28-0 lead in the first half and scored early in the fourth quarter to build a 35-0 lead before the Engineers scored the final 21 points of the game.

Grochot and Viscardo had arguably one of the best first halves statistically in St. Lawrence program history. The duo connected nine times for 101 yards and three touchdowns. Grochot finished the first half 23-for-33 passing for 326 yards and four touchdowns. Viscardo added a 3-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter, and Grochot finished the day 30-for-47 passing for 357 yards.

Viscardo now has 11 receiving touchdowns on the season, one shy of the school record, set by Kurt Lanning '90 in 1989. Grochot has 2,258 passing yards on the season, good for third in the program record book. He also ranks third in pass attempts (324) and fourth in completions (182) with three games remaining in the season. He became just the fourth player in program history to eclipse 4,000 career passing yards with 4,220 in 15 games played, an average of 281.3 passing yards per game.



The Saints opened the game with a nine-play, 84-yard touchdown drive. Grochot was 7-for-8 on the drive, hitting Andrew Murphy for 25- and 28-yard completions before finding Viscardo in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown pass.

Grochot and Viscardo connected for another 7-yard score early in the second, this time at the left pylon as Viscardo leaped to catch the ball over an RPI defender.

The duo combined for a 29-yard score on the Saints' next drive, with Viscardo catching the ball inside the 10 and just staying in bounds while eluding a defender down the left sideline.

Grochot engineered a 10-play, 73-yard touchdown drive on the Saints' final possession of the first half. He found Murphy wide open in the middle of the field for a 12-yard score with just 11.1 seconds remaining in the half.

After a scoreless third quarter, Tyler Burns gave the Saints excellent field position early in the fourth with a 52-yard punt return to the RPI 3-yard line. Grochot found Viscardo, once again by the left pylon, on the next play to give the Saints a 35-0 lead.

RPI quarterback George Marinopoulos threw three touchdown passes in the final 11 minutes of the game to trim the Saints' final margin of victory to 14 points. Joe Scaglione (16 yards), Peter Lombardi (22 yards) and Marc Meislahn (2 yards) scored for the Engineers.

Murphy finished with 108 receiving yards for the Saints, and Anthony Ferraro (six catches, 59 yards) and Cameron Edwards (five catches, 76 yards) also played key roles in the Saints' passing game. Jamie Battaglia had 34 rushing yards on 11 carries.

Marinopoulos was 29-for-47 passing for 286 yards with one interception; more than half of his passing yards (148) came in the fourth quarter. Lombardi caught nine passes for 116 yards, and Delano Munoz Whatts led RPI's rushing game with 29 yards on four carries.

Liam Murray led the Saints' defense with 11 tackles, including 1.5 for a loss. Ethan Roberts had two sacks for the Saints, and Rahmod Johnson played well in the secondary with an interception, one pass breakup and solid coverage all day. St. Lawrence held RPI to just 2-for-12 on third down conversions and 1-for-3 on fourth downs.

John Sadak had eight tackles for RPI. Joe Deptula and Antonio Rogliano both had two sacks for the Engineers.

The Saints improved to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the Liberty League, while RPI fell to 4-3, 1-2. The Saints will go on the road to face Hobart next Saturday.