INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University football team rolled into rival and 14th ranked Indiana University (Pa.) on Homecoming Saturday and came away with a 30-27 victory at George P. Miller Stadium to remain unbeaten atop the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division standings.

Slippery Rock (5-1, 3-0 PSAC) overcame a 90-minute lightning delay in the middle of the game and a furious second half rally from Indiana (4-2, 1-2 PSAC) to come away with the win. The Rock led 13-6 with 37 seconds left in the first half when officials stopped the game for lightning. After exactly 90 minutes, play resumed with SRU scoring on the second play from scrimmage to lead 20-6 at halftime.
 
SRU had been dominant all season in the third quarter, but struggled against the big play Saturday as Indiana put up 14 points and ate up big chunks of yardage in the passing game to tie it at 20-20 heading to the fourth.
 
The Rock regained a 23-20 lead early in the fourth quarter on Jake Chapla's third field goal of the game, but Indiana answered to take its first lead of the game on the next series. On a fluke play where QB Lenny Williams was on the way to the ground well behind the line of scrimmage, he heaved the ball up in the air over the middle of the field. IUP running back Justice Evans caught a jump ball and when the SRU defender fell down, he walked into the end zone to give IUP a 27-23 lead with 9:30 to play.
 
The biggest moment of the game came on the next series, when SRU put together a methodical 84-yard drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock. Running back Wes Hills was nearly unstoppable on the drive, eating up first downs and moving the chains until he eventually punched in a one-yard TD run to give SRU a 30-27 lead with 2:12 to play.
 
The Rock sealed the win on the next IUP series with their fourth turnover and third interception of the game when Eric Glover-Williams went up to make a play deep in SRU territory to end the threat.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game with 516 yards of total offense and an incredible 32 first downs. The Rock rushed for 223 yards and threw for 293 yards. Indiana, which rushed for more than 300 yards against SRU last fall, was held to just 69 rushing yards and was forced to the air. The Crimson Hawks threw for 350 yards and finished with 18 total first downs.
 
Hills was a workhorse all day for SRU, causing problems in both the running and passing game. He finished with 182 yards of total offense with 126 rushing yards and one touchdown and five catches for 56 yards. Roland Rivers added 68 rushing yards and one TD and Chacar Berry chipped in 30 rushing yards.
 
Rivers completed 23-of-39 passes for 293 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. He hit eight different receivers in the game, led by Henry Litwin, who caught seven passes for 100 yards. The TD pass went to Carnel Harley and came two plays after the lightning delay to give SRU the 20-6 lead heading to the second half. Jermaine Wynn Jr. caught four passes for 37 yards and Austin Scott caught one 31-yard pass.
 
The Rock defense was paced by Kyle Hall with nine total tackles and two interceptions, both in the first half. Glover-Williams also grabbed his first career interception and Dalton Holt forced a fumble that was recovered by Jeff Marx as the defense came up with four takeaways. Holt had his best game in an SRU jersey and recorded eight total tackles to go along with the forced fumble. Tim Vernick and Trysten McDonald each added six stops and Trey Blandford and Tim Soave each had one sack.
 
Chapla was nearly perfect on the day, connecting on field goals from 33 yards, 41 yards and 46 yards with his only miss coming from 49 yards. He was also perfect on his PAT kicks to extend his current streak to a region-leading 61 straight dating back to midway through the 2017 season. Chapla also booted a career-long 75-yard punt, just shy of the SRU record of 78 yards.
 
Indiana was paced by Williams, who completed 15-of-29 passes for 350 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. He was held to negative three rushing yards. Evans caught three passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns to lead the receivers. He also rushed for 39 yards on 10 carries as the top IUP running back.

The loss was the first regular season home defeat for IUP since the season-opener in 2015, snapping a streak of 18 straight regular season home wins. It also marked the first time in a stretch of 43 games that IUP has lost two consecutive games dating back to the final two games of the 2014 season.
 
Slippery Rock will look to continue its hot start to PSAC Western Division play when Edinboro visits Mihalik-Thompson Stadium next Saturday for a 2 p.m. kickoff as part of SRU's annual Homecoming weekend.
 
 
NOTES: SRU remains unbeaten in the PSAC West and in a tie with California for first place … The Rock have now won four of the last six meetings against IUP and improved to 40-51-2 all-time in a series that dates all the way back to 1907 … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz won his 20th career game and improved to 20-8 with the win, his first over rival IUP … Roland Rivers improved to 4-0 as the SRU starting QB and has now accounted for 16 touchdowns and three turnovers in the last four games … Jake Chapla extended his PAT streak to 62 straight dating back to midway through last year … he also kicked three field goals in a game for the first time in his career … it marked the first three field goal game by an SRU kicker since Mike Wainauskis made three against Kutztown in 2014 … Chapla now has 30 career made field goals and is just five away from the SRU record of 35 (CJ Bahr and Morgan Anderson) … he also has 61 straight successful PAT kicks ... his 122 made PATS and is closing in on the SRU record of 161 (Morgan Anderson) with the rest of this year and all of next year to play … Wes Hills returned to his starting role after missing three games with injury and rushed for more than 100 yards for the second time in two starts … SRU held IUP to just 69 rushing yards in the game after giving up 384 rushing yards last year to the Crimson Hawks ... the loss for IUP snapped a streak of 18 straight regular season home wins and marked the first time in the last 43 games that IUP had lost back-to-back games.
 

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