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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Slippery Rock University football team scored first and led 23-17 at halftime, but Mercyhurst University put together a dominant second half and rolled to a 45-23 victory Saturday in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action from Michigan Stadium.

Slippery Rock fell for the second straight week to drop out of first place in the division and into a tie for second place at 5-2 overall and 4-2 in divisional games. Mercyhurst won its third game in a row to improve to 3-4 overall and 3-3 in PSAC action.
 
Slippery Rock grabbed the momentum early in the game with a 52-yard touchdown pass from Jared Buck to Leroy McClain less than two minutes in. The Rock never trailed in the first half and led 23-17 at the break.
 
From there, it was all Mercyhurst. The Lakers outscored The Rock 28-0 in the second half and posted a total yardage advantage of 299-83 over the final 30 minutes.
 
"We played one half of football today," said head coach George Mihalik after the game. "Give credit to Mercyhurst for their performance in the second half, but we just didn't come out to play after halftime. I want to thank the University of Michigan for providing our team with this incredible, once in a lifetime experience. I just wish we could have put on a better show and played a full game."
 
Mercyhurst finished the game with a 536-361 advantage in total yards after passing for 391 and running for 145. Slippery Rock threw for 239 yards and ran for 122 yards. The Rock was held to season-lows of 16 first downs and just 64 plays after averaging 87 offensive plays per game in the first six games of the year. Neither team turned the ball over in the game.
 
Buck made his first start at quarterback since the final game of the 2012 season, a decision Mihalik said was made Friday morning.
 
"Jared was having a great camp and was in line to win the starting job," said Mihalik. "He suffered an arm injury during camp that took him out of contention for the job, but he's had three good weeks of practice and I thought what I saw this week was impressive. I think he showed that early in the game."
 
Buck got off to an outstanding start, completing 10-of-12 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. Nothing went well offensively for The Rock in the second half and he finished the game 18-of-29 for 239 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 36 yards on 11 carries.
 
Shamar Greene, who entered the game as the fifth-leading rusher in Division II, was held to just 56 yards on 13 carries. He added one catch for 50 yards to finish with 106 all-purpose yards.
 
McClain finished the game with three catches for 78 yards and one TD to lead the receivers. Nick Davis caught three passes for 60 yards and one touchdown, a 41-yarder late in the opening half. Julian Harrell caught five passes for 33 yards and Drew Scales pulled in five catches for 19 yards, while adding 104 yards on kickoff returns and 23 yards on punt returns.
 
Mike Wainauskis connected on his only field goal attempt in the game, a 28-yarder in the first quarter.
 
The Rock defense was led by Austin Miele with nine total tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Kevin Green and Derrick Fulmore each made seven stops and Bob Vernick and Cody Conway each recorded five tackles. Slippery Rock finished the game with four tackles for loss and no sacks.
 
Mercyhurst was paced by quarterback Brendan Boylan, who rarely needed to throw the ball further than 10 yards as most of the Laker playbook relied on dump passes to the tight ends and fullbacks. He finished 24-of-37 for 385 yards and four touchdowns.
 
Stephen Yarbrough caught two passes for 77 yards and one TD, Jaquan Williams caught three passes for 67 yards and one score, Brandon Brown-Dukes caught four passes for 46 yards and a TD and R.J. Miller pulled down four passes for 45 yards and a TD.
 
Brown-Dukes also carried the ball 25 times for 100 yards and Williams scored on a 22-yard end around run.
 
Mercyhurst won the opening toss and elected to defer to the second half and it looked like that would be a great call after its defense stuffed The Rock on the opening possession and forced a punt. A roughing the kicker penalty on the punt kept the ball with SRU and Buck hit McClain from 52 yards out down the middle on the next play to make it 7-0 just 1:36 into the game.
 
Teddy Blakeman looked as if he added to the SRU lead with just under five minutes left in the first quarter when he rushed in from the two yard line, but a holding call negated the TD and SRU settled for a 28-yard field goal from Wainauskis to make it 10-0.
 
Mercyhurst got its first points of the game on the first play of the second quarter. Before the time expired in the first quarter, the Lakers were on the field and ready to attempt a 38-yard field goal. After the timeout, they brought the offense back onto the field for the fourth down play. Boylan hit Miller for a 21-yard TD, the first of three touchdowns Mercyhurst would score on fourth down plays in the game. That made the score 10-7 with 14:54 to play in the half.
 
Slippery Rock increased the advantage again with just under four minutes to play before halftime to start a wild stretch that saw a total of 23 points scored in the final four minutes of the half. Jaimire Dutrieuille kicked that off with a four-yard touchdown run to make it 16-7 with 3:56 left on the clock. The extra point was blocked.
 
Mercyhurst again chipped away at the lead when Boylan hit Yarbrough for a 41-yard touchdown to make it 16-14 with 1:13 left before halftime.
 
Less than a minute later, The Rock answered with the same statistical play when Buck connected with Davis from 41 yards out to make it 23-14 with just 28 seconds left in the half.
 
Mercyhurst got a 41 yard kickoff return from Drew Robinson on the next play and then benefitted from a roughing the passer call on Slippery Rock to set up a 30-yard field goal from Dylan Kondis as time expired to send it to the intermission with The Rock leading 23-17 and owning a 278-236 advantage in total yardage.
 
The Lakers took opening possession of the second half 74 yards in 11 plays that took 5:21 off the clock and scored on a pass from backup quarterback Zach Emerick, on in relief of Boylan for only one play, to Donny Holl to take their first lead of the game, 24-23. That score was the second fourth down touchdown of the day for Mercyhurst.
 
Miller caught a TD pass from Boylan with 3:07 to play in the third to make it 31-23. Williams pushed it out to 38-23 with an acrobatic 38-yard TD catch with 12:39 to play in the game and then he capped the scoring with a 22-yard TD run on fourth down with 5:14 to play in the game.
 
Slippery Rock was playing in Michigan Stadium for the third time and for the first time since 1981. The game, dubbed the Big House Battle, celebrated the 35th anniversary of The Rock's first appearance at the Big House in 1979. An official attendance of 15,121 fans attended the game. The low number was likely influenced by the weather, with high winds, light rain throughout the morning and temperatures in the 40s. More than 25,000 tickets were sold or distributed prior to the game.
 
The Rock will look to get back on track next week when they travel to Indiana (Pa.) for a 1 p.m. PSAC-West kickoff. The Crimson Hawks are tied with SRU for second place in the division standings after suffering a loss at California Saturday.
 
 
 
NOTES: Slippery Rock was playing in the Big House for the third time … The Rock owns the Division II single game attendance record with 61,143 fans attending the 1979 game between SRU and Shippensburg … SRU was held to season lows of 64 offensive plays and 16 first downs … Mercyhurst scored 31 unanswered points after trailing 23-14 in the second quarter … Jared Buck started the game at quarterback, his first start since the last game of the 2012 season … Slippery Rock played without starting right guard Kirk Nypaver and starting safety Isaiah Coleman, who were both injured in the game at California last week ... Nypaver had made 22 consecutive starts and Coleman 15 before Saturday ... Shamar Greene was held under 100 yards rushing for the third week in a row after leading Division II in rushing through the first four weeks of the year … Slippery Rock dropped to 0-3 in games played at the Big House … 15,121 people attended the game, which is the highest single-game attendance in the PSAC this year … SRU wore commemorative all gray uniforms and helmets in the game for the first and only time.