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ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University football team scored 35 unanswered points and rolled to a 41-14 rout over Gannon University Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division action from McConnell Family Stadium.
 
The Rock (4-1, 1-1 PSAC) were dominant in the second half, outscoring Gannon (3-2, 0-2 PSAC) 27-0 and holding the high-powered Golden Knight offense to just 88 total yards in a battle of the two preseason favorites in the PSAC West.
 
The victory was the first for Slippery Rock over Gannon in Erie since the Golden Knights joined the PSAC in 2008.
 
Slippery Rock controlled both sides of the ball with the offense rushing for 193 yards and five touchdowns and the defense forcing five turnovers, recording seven sacks and scoring a touchdown of its own.
 
Marcus Martin led the defensive effort with 11 total tackles, 2.5 sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Bob Vernick added nine tackles and 2.0 sacks and Cody Conway recorded 2.0 sacks and two forced fumbles. Titus Howard, Mike Grata and Alfon Cook all recovered one fumble and Cook also picked off a pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown.
 
Gannon quarterback Liam Nadler entered the game on an NCAA record streak of 308 pass attempts without an interception, a streak that dated back an entire year to last year's game at Slippery Rock. His fifth pass attempt of the game was picked off by Cook and taken to the house to emphatically end that streak. The Golden Knight offense entered the day with only one turnover through four games, but turned it over five times. Nadler lost two fumbles on top of the interception and was under constant pressure all day.
 
Shamar Greene returned to the Slippery Rock lineup after missing the last two games and made an immediate impact. He capped a 67-yard drive in the two-minute drill at the end of the first half with a 21-yard TD run and then punched in the two-point conversion to send it to halftime tied at 14-14. Greene took over in the second half, adding TD runs of eight and four yards and finished the game with 100 yards and three touchdowns.
 
Isiah Neely added 64 yards and two touchdowns on just six carries and broke two touchdown runs in the second half that put the game away, one from 28 yards out and the other from 25 yards out.
 
Dante Nania completed 13-of-28 passes for 124 yards with no interceptions on a rainy, cold and windy day. Marcus Carter caught four passes for 46 yards and Cornelius Raye caught four passes for 38 yards to lead the receivers.
 
Andrew Huska had a big role in the second half in keeping the field position in favor of Slippery Rock. He was outstanding on kickoffs both with the wind and into the wind and averaged 41.5 yards per punt on eight punts, including a monster 78-yard kick in the third quarter that broke the Slippery Rock program record for longest punt ever. The previous record of 76 yards was set by Jeff Williams against Shippensburg in 1982.
 
Nadler struggled to throw the ball for Gannon all day and finished with just 18 completions on 45 attempts for 222 yards with one interception and no touchdowns.
 
Gannon Harlon Hill candidate running back Brock Jones managed 82 rushing yards and one touchdown on 21 carries for an average of 3.9 yards per carry. Wide receiver Jesstin Hamm entered the day with at least one touchdown catch in 10 straight games, but was held to just three catches for 24 yards. He also returned a 71-yard punt for a touchdown in the second quarter to provide an early spark.
 
The first half of the game gave the impression that it would be a low scoring defensive battle as neither offense could find much success.
 
The Rock scored the first points of the day on Cook's interception return for a touchdown with 8:20 to play in the opening quarter, but the point after was blocked and returned all the way for a two-point conversion for Gannon to make it 6-2.
 
Slippery Rock fumbled inside their own 20-yard line late in the opening quarter and Gannon took advantage with a Jones touchdown run with 13 seconds left. That point after try was also blocked making the score 8-6 in favor of the Golden Knights.
 
Gannon added to the lead late in the second quarter when Hamm fielded a punt at his own 29-yard line and raced down the field for a 71-yard score with 4:50 left in the first half. The extra point try was blocked again to keep the score 14-8 in favor of Gannon.
 
Slippery Rock went three-and-out on the next possession, but forced the same from Gannon and got the ball back with 1:31 left in the period at their own 33-yard line.
 
Nania connected on an 18-yard pass to Carter and a 16-yard pass to Raye and then rushed for eight yards after avoiding a sack to move the ball into Gannon territory. On third and two Greene broke two tackles and scampered into the end zone from 21 yards out with 28 seconds left in the half. He got the call on the two-point conversion and converted to tie the game at 14-14 heading into the half.
 
The second half was all Slippery Rock as the visitors forced three-and-outs on each of Gannon's first two possessions and scored touchdowns on each of their own.
 
Greene needed only one play to put Slippery Rock on top after Jaimire Dutrieuille returned the first punt of the second half 32 yards to the Gannon eight-yard line. Greene broke through the middle on the next play and the point after was good for the first time in the game to make it 21-14 with 12:55 to play in the third.
 
Greene added a four-yard score to cap a 12-play, 45-yard drive with 7:10 to play in the third that made it 27-14 after the point after missed wide left.
 
The defense put the clamps on and barely allowed Gannon past midfield the rest of the way and Neely put the game out of reach with a pair of touchdown runs in the fourth.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to Mihalik-Thompson Stadium next Saturday to host California (Pa.) in a 2 p.m. kickoff for The Rock's annual Homecoming game. The Vulcans held off Seton Hill 38-34 Saturday to improve to 2-0 in league action.
 
 
NOTES: George Mihalik earned his 189th career victory … Slippery Rock improved to 5-6 all-time against Gannon and has won two games in a row for the first time in the series … The Rock had not won a game in Erie since Gannon came into the PSAC in 2008 (0-3) … Andrew Huska broke the SRU record for longest punt with a 78-yard kick in the third quarter … the previous record was a 76-yarder from Jeff Williams against Shippensburg in 1982 … Shamar Greene returned from injury after missing the last 10 quarters and rushed for 100 yards and three TD … he has at least 100 rushing yards in all three games this year ... Greene moved up to 11th on SRU's all-time rushing ledger with 2,555 yards and needs just 47 yards to crack the top 10 … Gannon only had one turnover in four games before Saturday but turned the ball over five times … Gannon QB Liam Nadler's NCAA record streak of pass attempts without an interception, which started after a pick at SRU last year, ended at 312 … Marcus Martin now has 20.0 sacks in 17 games of his career, which ranks ninth all-time at SRU and leads all NCAA active players, regardless of division, in sacks per game.