The 2017 WPI Engineers football team represented

Worcester Polytechnic Institute The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a Private university, private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1865, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities and now h ...

in the

2017 NCAA Division III football season The 2017 NCAA Division III football season was the portion of the 2017 college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States. Under Division III rules, teams were eligible to begin play on August 31, 2017. ...

. It marked the Engineers' 128th overall season. The team played its home games at

Alumni Stadium Alumni Stadium is a college football stadium on the lower campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It is about west of downtown Boston, just inside the Boston city limits near the border with Newton, Massachusetts, Newton. It i ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

. They were led by eighth-year head coach Chris Robertson. This was the first season that WPI competed in the

New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut, Ma ...

(NEWMAC) for football. The Engineers finished the regular season with eight victories and two losses. The eight wins is the second most in school history (the Engineers posted nine wins in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

), tying the

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, and

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

seasons. WPI was selected to host the

New England Bowl The New England Bowl was an annual NCAA Division III post-season college football bowl game series established in 2016 by four New England football conferences ( ECFC, MASCAC, CCC Football, NEWMAC) pulling their teams from the ECAC Bowl structure ...

, making it their third postseason appearance in school history. The Engineers defeated 17–3 to win their first bowl game in school history.

Personnel

Coaching Staff

Roster

Schedule

The 2017 schedule was officially released on June 29, 2017. WPI faced all seven

(NEWMAC) opponents:

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

, Maine Maritime,

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, Merchant Marine,

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, and Springfield. They also scheduled three non-conference games: Anna Maria of the

Eastern Collegiate Football Conference The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) was a football-only intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Founded in 2009, it combined four schools spread across the states of Massachusetts and New Yor ...

(ECFC),

Becker Becker () is one of the German-language surnames, along with Bäcker and Baecker, that derive from the root, which refers to baking. The surname began as a name for a baker (and thus his family). In northern Germany, it can also derive from th ...

of the

Commonwealth Coast Conference The Conference of New England (CNE), formerly known as the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), is an List of NCAA conferences, intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division ...

(CCC), and RPI of the

Liberty League The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are all located in the state of New York. History It was founded in 1995 as the ...

. On November 13, 2017, the Engineers were selected to host

Maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

of the

(ECFC) in the

. *On August 29, the Engineers placed third in the inaugural NEWMAC Preseason Coaches Poll

Awards and honors

Weekly awards

NEWMAC Football Offensive Athlete of the Week *Blake Rice, QB
Week of October 9, 2017
*Sean McAllen, RB
Week of October 30, 2017
NEWMAC Football Defensive Athlete of the Week *Dereck Pacheco, DL �
Week of September 3, 2017
*Brian Mahan, DB
Week of October 9, 2017
*Nick Ostrowski, LB
Week of October 30, 2017
*Dereck Pacheco, DL �
Week of November 6, 2017
NEWMAC Football Special Teams Athlete of the Week *Spencer Herrington, K/P �
Week of September 3, 2017
*Spencer Herrington, K/P �
Week of October 23, 2017
*Spencer Herrington, K/P
Week of October 30, 2017
*Spencer Herrington, K/P
Week of November 6, 2017
D3football.com Team of the Week *Brian Mahan, DB
Week of October 9, 2017
D3football.com Play of the Week *Lou Garcia, DB
Week of October 9, 2017

Postseason awards

NEWMAC Special Teams Athlete of the Year * Spencer Herrington, K/P NEWMAC All-Conference First Team * Luca Cerasani, DL * Corey Coogan, WR * Lou Garcia, DB * Brendan Harty, OL * Spencer Herrington, K/P * Sean McAllen, RB * Sam Malafronte, LB * Dereck Pacheco, DL * Austin Pesce, PR NEWMAC All Conference Second Team * Sam Casey, DB * Nick Day, OL * Erik Fyrer, WR * Nick Ostrowski, LB * Blake Rice, QB NEWMAC All-Sportsmanship Team * Aaron Hartford, DB D3football.com All-East Region First Team * Spencer Herrington, K/P Worcester Area Football Association Co-Offensive Player of the Year * Sean McAllen, RB Worcester Area Football Association Steve "Merc" Morris All-Star Team * Sam Casey, DB * Luca Cerasani, DL * Corey Coogan, WR * Nick Day, OL * Lou Garcia, DB * Brendan Harty, OL * Spencer Herrington, K/P * Sean McAllen, RB * Sam Malafronte, LB * Dereck Pacheco, DL * Austin Pesce, PR * Lain Zembek, FB New England Football Writers Division II/III All-New England Team * Sean McAllen, RB

CoSIDA College Sports Communicators (CSC) is a membership association for all strategic, creative and digital professionals working in intercollegiate athletics across all levels for colleges, universities and conferences across the United States and Cana ...

Academic All-District Football Team (DIII) * Nick Day, OL * Dereck Pacheco, DL

References

{{WPI Engineers football navbox WPI WPI Engineers football seasons

WPI Engineers football The WPI Engineers football team represents Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in the sport of American football. The Engineers compete in Division III (DIII) of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the NEWMAC. WPI's footba ...