SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Slippery Rock University football team saw its season come to an end Saturday with a 21-17 defeat at No. 11 Notre Dame College (Ohio) in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
 
The Rock finishes the season with an 11-3 overall record, while Notre Dame improves to 13-0 and advances to the national semifinals.
 
The Falcons scored the game-winning points after a defensive breakdown left Marvelle Ross all alone down the sideline for a 52-yard touchdown pass from Chris Brimm with 22 seconds left in the opening half. That tally made the score 21-10 at halftime and came right after SRU scored with 2:06 left in the second to cut the deficit to 14-10, swinging the momentum back to the hosts.
 
The Slippery Rock defense slammed the door and pitched a shutout in the second half, but the offense would only find the end zone once, with a Wes Hills 19-yard TD run in the third quarter. SRU had multiple chances in the fourth quarter, including getting the ball back with just under three minutes to play, but a final drive stalled out on fourth down inside Notre Dame territory with 30 seconds to play.
 
Hills had another exceptional day in the running game, finishing with 154 yards on just 19 carries for an average of 8.1 yards per carry on the way to setting the SRU single-season rushing record. Despite missing three games with an injury this year, Hills rushed for 1,714 yards, topping the former single-season record of 1,601 yards that was set by LaMonte Coleman in 1994.
 
Notre Dame entered the game ranked second in the nation against the run, allowing just 62.6 yards per game. Hills had more than that by the end of the first quarter and was over 100 yards with 101 yards on 11 carries at halftime.
 
Slippery Rock finished the game with 391 yards of total offense with 214 rushing yards and 177 passing yards. Notre Dame put up 435 yards of total offense with 229 rushing yards and 206 passing yards.
 
Roland Rivers III completed 18-of-30 passes for 177 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed for 61 yards on 15 carries.
 
Henry Litwin led the receivers with seven catches for 55 yards. Mike Merhaut added three catches for 44 yards and Jermaine Wynn Jr. grabbed three passes for 42 yards and one touchdown.
 
The Rock defense got a pair of turnovers on the day from Kyle Hall, who intercepted a pass in the first half and punched out a fumble on the first Notre Dame drive of the second half, which was recovered by Trey Blandford. Hall finished with a career-high 14 total tackles in his final game at SRU. Blandford recorded eight total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Tim Vernick tallied 10 tackles and 3.0 tackles for loss.
 
Jake Chapla was perfect on the day, booting a 37-yard field goal in the opening quarter and making his lone PAT kick of the day.
 
Notre Dame got 172 rushing yards and one touchdown from Jaleel McLaughlin, who carried the ball 36 times and averaged 4.8 yards per carry. Brimm threw for 206 yards with two touchdowns and one interception on a 13-of-21 passing effort and Ross caught four passes for 112 yards and one score.
 
Slippery Rock's 11-3 overall record marks the third most wins by any team in program history, trailing only the 12-2 records from 2015 and 1998. The SRU four-year seniors finish their careers with an overall record of 38-12 with two trips to the NCAA quarterfinals.
 
 
NOTES: Seventh seeded SRU played all three of its playoff games on the road and was the only seed lower than a No. 3 to reach the quarterfinals … The Rock played three of their last four games against previously undefeated teams … SRU's 11-3 record is the third most wins by the program in a single-season … Wes Hills set the SRU single-season rushing record at 1,714 yards, despite missing three games with an injury … he topped the former record of 1,601 yards set by LaMonte Coleman in 1994 … Hills put up 1,907 all-purpose yards this year, the second most in SRU program history … Roland Rivers III finished the season with 2,721 passing yards for the fourth most in SRU single-season history … his 28 TD passes also rank fourth most … Rivers accounted for 3,318 yards of total offense to rank fourth on the SRU single-season ledger … Jermaine Wynn Jr. caught nine TD passes this year to rank 8th at SRU … Jake Chapla increased his single-season record for made field goals to 17 and his career record to 39 … He tallied 116 points this season, the third most points scored by any individual player in a single-season at SRU … The four-year senior members of the team were part of 50 games and finished their careers with a 38-12 overall record.
 
 
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