Final statistics

WEST CHESTER, Pa. –  Hosting West Chester University took advantage of big plays and Rock mistakes Saturday afternoon to hand Slippery Rock University its first loss of the season, a 20-13 setback in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference “crossover” football action at Farrell Stadium.

The Golden Rams (1-2) intercepted Rock quarterback Cody Endres three times and scored touchdowns on a 65-yard pass play and a 49-yard punt return. They also got two field goals (22 and 36 yards) from All-America candidate Shawn Leo.
Lost in the shadow of the loss was a stellar effort by The Rock defense, which held the hosts to 53 yards rushing and 221 yards overall.

The Rock running game endured a similar fate against the Golden Rams. SRU which entered the fray averaging 238.5 rushing yards per game, managed only 53 ground yards on 30 carries Saturday.

The Green and White finished the game with 295 yards in total offense.

SRU was penalized 102 yards on 11 infractions, while West Chester had 91 yards in stepoffs on nine fouls.

Endres, a senior  transfer from Division I UConn who threw for 241 yards the previous week against Cheyney, was 29-of-47 for 242 yards against West Chester.

Senior wide receiver Devin Goda caught a career-high 11 passes for 103 yards to lead The Rock receivers. The yardage total was only two yards shy of his career-best mark.

Senior wideout Kevin Sanders caught four passes for 39 yards and sophomore wideout John Schademan caught four for 27 yards.

Junior running back Akeem Satterfield, who began the game with a 122.0 yards per game average, was held to 42 yards on 17 carries. He scored The Rock's first touchdown on a one-yard run in the first period.

Sophomore running back Jimmy Zubik spelled Satterfield in the final quarter and a half of action and also finished with 42 rushing yards on 11 carries. Zubik also caught four passes for 26 yards, including a 12-yard TD toss from Endres in the fourth quarter.

West Chester starting quarterback Sean McCartney was 7-of-18 passing for 143 yards and one TD, while backup Matt Carroll was 1-of-5 for 25 yards.

SRU will look to bounce back and regain its winning ways next Saturday when it hosts Indiana (Pa.) at 7 p.m. in the opening game of the PSAC-Western Division schedule.

The Rock moved 54 yards in nine plays on the opening drive of the game to take a 6-0 lead, but the advantage lasted less than a minute as the Golden Rams scored on their first play from scrimmage to take the lead.

Satterfield burst into the end zone from a yard out to cap The Rock's opening drive, but junior kicking specialist Kurt Brackman missed the extra point to leave the score at 6-0 with 10:18 left in the first period.

McCartney then hit Rondell White cutting across the middle and the latter sprinted, virtually untouched, into the end zone from 65 yards out to tie the score at 6-6. When Shawn Leo tacked on the extra point, the Golden Rams had a 7-6 advantage with 9:57 left in the first period.

Neither team was able to generate any kind of offense the remainder of the first period, so the score remained 7-6 heading into the second period.

The Rock finished the first quarter with a 67-61 edge in total yardage with both teams generating most of their yards through the air. Endres was 9-of-10 passing for 66 yards for The Rock, while the TD toss from McCartney to Fagan accounted for the only Golden Rams passing yards. The Rock defense held the hosts to minus-4 yards on four rushing attempts in the first period, while The Rock gained one yard on 10 rushing attempts.

SRU had two potential scoring drives in the second period, but failed to convert either one into points.

The Rock moved 55 yards to the Golden Rams' 33-yard line midway through the second stanza, but the drive died on back-to-back incomplete passes.

West Chester made The Rock pay for their failure by marching 62 yards in 10 plays on the ensuing possession to set up a 22-yard field by Leo that pushed the margin to 10-6 with 2:46 left in the first half.

Four plays later, the hosts' Jackson Fagan returned a James McCombie punt 49 yards for a touchdown to extend the difference to 17-6 with 1:44 left before the intermission.

The Rock responded with a 10-play, 44-yard drive that moved the ball to the West Chester 1. Schademan caught a six-yard pass from Endres, but was stopped inches shy of the goal line with eight seconds left in the half. With the clock running, Endres attempted to intentionally spike the ball to stop time, but The Rock linemen did not get set on the play and the half ended on a false-start penalty against the Green and White.

SRU, behind a 152-yard, 18-of-29 passing effort by Endres, held a 154-121 total yardage advantage at the intermission. McCartney was 5-of-9 for 123 yards passing for West Chester.

As the halftime statistics clearly show, neither team was able to generate any kind of rushing attack in the opening 30 minutes. The Rock gained two yards on 16 carries, while SRU's defense held West Chester to minus-2 rushing yards on nine carries.

It's worth noting that, after West Chester had possession of the football at The Rock 31 after swatting down a 46-yard field goal attempt by Brackman, but the Golden Rams lost 12 yards on five plays on the ensuing possession. That stand by The Rock defense kept the score at 7-6 West Chester.

Satterfield had 25 yards on 11 carries in the first half of action, while Endres was sacked three times for minus-16 yards and lost seven more yards on a scramble under intense pressure from the West Chester defense.

West Chester was penalized seven times for 76 yards in the first half, while The Rock had 34 yards stepped off against them on four infractions.

The hosts scored their final three points on Leo's 36-yard field goal with 3:06 left in the third period.

Zubik's 12-yard pass reception TD with 14:50 left in the game accounted for the final points.

Notes:

Junior defensive end Jeff Thompson recorded a team-high nine tackles Saturday, including three tackles for loss (-7 yards) and one QB sack (-4 yards) ... Redshirt sophomore LB Quindell Dean added a career-high eight tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss (-14 yards) and one QB sack (-13 yards) ... Goda's reception total Saturday eclipsed his previous career-high mark of eight he recorded at Clarion and tied the following week vs. Edinboro one year ago ... Goda had seven receptions for 115 yards in the first two games before going 11-for-103 Saturday ... His career-high mark for receiving yards was 105 on seven catches vs. Clarion in 2009 ... Endres was the first Rock quarterback to pass for 240 or more yards in back-to-back games since 2002 when Jeff Valentino threw for 263 and 241 against Fairmont State (W. Va.) and Bloomsburg, respectively ... Endres was the first Rock QB to pass for more than 200 yards in back-to-back games since Nate Crookshank threw for 210 and 212 vs. Lock Haven and Edinboro in the final two games of the 2007 season.