WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The ninth ranked Slippery Rock University football team became the first team in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference to repeat as league champion since the title game was reinstated in 2008 with a dominant 61-12 victory on the road at West Chester University Saturday afternoon.
 
The victory came in the 1,000th game in program history and improves Slippery Rock to 10-1 overall on the year, which should be enough for The Rock to lock up at least one home game in the upcoming NCAA Division II playoffs. Included in those 10 wins are seven wins over programs that are above .500 and five wins over teams that won at least seven games.
 
The 10-win season is the first double-digit victory season for Slippery Rock since 1999 and the PSAC title is the 11th in program history. The Rock are the first team to repeat as champions since the title game was brought back in 2008. SRU is also the only team in the league to win the title game on the road since 2008.
 
Slippery Rock brought the league's top offense into the game to match up with West Chester's top rated defense and The Rock won that matchup early and often. The Golden Rams entered the game allowing just 309.9 yards per game, but Slippery Rock went for 367 in the first half alone. The Rock finished with a 557-245 advantage in total offense with 257 rushing yards and 300 passing yards. West Chester managed just 52 yards on the ground and threw for 193 yards.  The 61 points scored are the most ever recorded in a PSAC title game and the 49-point margin of victory is the largest in the history of the title game, which has been played 36 times.
 
Shamar Greene and Dante Nania were dominant all day. Greene rushed for 178 yards on 21 carries and added a rushing and a receiving TD. Nania completed 18-of-27 passes for 304 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. That performance earned him the Most Valuable Player award.
 
Julian Durden rushed for two touchdowns, his 18th and 19th on the year, and finished with 63 rushing yards.
 
Jaimire Dutrieuille caught four passes for 69 yards and one touchdown.  He became the sixth player in SRU history to record more than 2,000 receiving yards in his career.
 
Marcus Carter caught three passes for 54 yards and one TD, Cornelius Raye caught three passes for 51 yards and one score, Taishan Tucker added two catches for 48 yards and one TD and Marcus Johnson added a 32-yard reception.
 
The Rock defense was also dominant in the game, forcing three turnovers and recording 12 tackles for loss. Deonte Flemings and Erik Johnson each recorded an interception and Johnny Davis recovered a fumble and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown.
 
Teven Williams led the defense with nine tackles, all solo. He also added two tackles for loss and one pass breakup. Kyle Hall was credited with seven solo tackles and one tackle for loss. Mike Grata recorded six tackles, one sack and one fumble recovery and Marcus Martin and TJ Matrascia each recorded one sack.
 
West Chester was led by Pat Moriarty, who completed 14-of-35 passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Brandon Monk caught two passes for 67 yards and ran for 19 yards on eight carries. The TD passes went to A.J. DiPietro and Eddie Elliott, who each finished with one catch. Alec Werner played the fourth quarter at QB and threw for 29 yards and one TD.
 
The Rock struck first with an 80-yard drive that took just seven plays and was capped with a Greene rushing TD from 24 yards out to make it 7-0 with 9:42 to play in the first quarter.
 
West Chester answered on its next drive after benefiting from a 15-yard penalty on a third and long situation and Moriarty connected with DiPietro from 23 yards out to make it 7-6 after the point after was missed.
 
From there, it was all Slippery Rock. West Chester managed just two first downs in the entire second quarter, both coming off penalties against SRU, and The Rock poured it on offensively by scoring touchdowns on four straight drives to take a 35-6 lead into halftime.
 
Slippery Rock kept the pressure on in the third quarter with two more touchdown drives and finished off a run of 41-unanswered points to really put the game out of reach.
 
The Rock will now look forward to the NCAA Playoff Selection Show Sunday at 5 p.m. where the team will find out its playoff seeding and first round opponent. The show will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
 
Slippery Rock was ranked fourth in the most recent NCAA Super Region One rankings, but has bolstered its case to move up into the top three and potentially all the way up to the No. 2 spot.
 
 
Notes: Saturday's game was the 1,000th recorded game in SRU history ... SRU repeats as PSAC Champion and is the only team in the league to do that since the game was reinstated in 2008 … The Rock have now won 11 PSAC titles in program history … SRU was playing in the title game for the third straight year … The win was the second PSAC title game win as a head coach for George Mihalik and the fifth state game win for Mihalik as a member of the program … he was the starting QB the last time SRU won the state game at West Chester in 1973 …  Mihalik won his 195th career game … Shamar Greene moved up to fourth in career rushing all-time at SRU and now has 3,371 rushing yards … Greene topped the 1,000-yard mark on the season for the second straight year and has 1,162 yards this season despite missing 2.5 games ... Julian Durden's 19 rushing TDs this year are the third most in single-season history at SRU … Jaimire Dutrieuille became the sixth player in SRU history to record 2,000 receiving yards … he also moved up to fifth in TD receptions with his 18th TD catch … Marcus Martin recorded his 10th sack of the season and now has 26.0 sacks in just two years, third most in program history … the 61 points were the most ever scored in a PSAC title game … the 49-point margin of victory is the largest in PSAC title game history.