ERIE, Pa. – The ninth ranked Slippery Rock University football team reached 10-0 for the first time in program history with a dominant 56-7 win on the road at Gannon University Saturday to close out a second straight perfect Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division record.
 
Quarterback Roland Rivers III set the SRU single-season and career passing touchdown records and kicker Jake Chapla broke the all-time PSAC record for scoring by a kicker to highlight the individual performances on the day.
 
The Rock become the first team since 2009 to roll through the PSAC West schedule undefeated in back-to-back years, joining Cal U as the only teams to accomplish that since the league expanded to eight teams in each division. Slippery Rock will take a 10-0 overall record, its first in program history, into the PSAC Championship next Saturday at undefeated Kutztown, where the winner will stake claim to the No. 1 seed in Super Region One in the upcoming NCAA playoffs.
 
Gannon (2-8, 1-6 PSAC) scored the first points of the day Saturday after SRU fumbled the ball away on the third play of the first quarter, giving the hosts a short field at the SRU 31-yard line. Zevin Holley broke free and rushed in from 28 yards out three plays later to put Gannon up 7-0 just 2:15 into the game.
 
That would be just about the only highlight of the day for the hosts, however, as Slippery Rock reeled off 56 unanswered points and held Gannon to 150 total yards of offense the rest of the day.
 
The Rock racked up 513 yards of total offense with 340 passing yards and 173 rushing yards. Gannon finished the game with 181 yards of offense with 144 rushing yards and 37 passing yards, including zero passing yards in the second half.
 
Rivers was nearly perfect on the day, completing 20-of-26 passes for 294 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed for 15 yards to finish with 309 yards of total offense. His four TD passes give him 36 on the season and 64 in 22 games at SRU, breaking the program's single-season (32 set by Tanner Garry in 2017) and career (60 set by Nate Crookshank in 2007) passing touchdown records.
 
Chapla booted six extra points in the game to bring his career scoring total to 362 points, topping the PSAC all-time record for scoring by a kicker that was previously held by Bloomsburg's Dan Fisher at 361 points.
 
Henry Litwin pulled down nine catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns to lead the receivers. His second TD of the game was thrown by Andrew Koester, who completed 4-of-6 passes for 47 yards and one score after entering the game in the third quarter.
 
Jermaine Wynn Jr. caught five passes for 94 yards and one touchdown. Qaadir Dixon pulled down three passes for 57 yards and one score and Cinque Sweeting caught three passes for 23 yards and one touchdown as all four of The Rock's starting receivers finished with at least one TD grab.
 
Charles Snorweah led the ground attack with 64 yards and one touchdown on eight carries, averaging 8.0 yards per carry in his return to the lineup after missing the last two weeks. Cam Marett made his first appearance at running back in the fourth quarter and was impressive, finishing with 57 yards on 10 carries. DeSean Dinkins added 39 yards and one touchdown on seven carries.
 
Brad Zaffram led The Rock defense with 10 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Arison Sanders added eight tackles and picked up one fumble, which he returned 21 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. That marked SRU's first fumble return for a TD this season and the first since Terrell Gabriel took one 57 yards against Gannon last fall. Shane Schuback added seven stops and Jeff Marx, Jayonn Butts and Chad Kuhn each recorded one sack.
 
Gannon got 147 rushing yards and one touchdown from Zevin Holley, who carried it 27 times on the day. The rest of the Gannon backs and quarterbacks combined for -3 rushing yards. Rashad Mckee threw for 37 yards on just 11 attempts in his second career start.
 
Slippery Rock will now turn its focus to the PSAC Championship game Nov. 16 at No. 15 Kutztown, which will feature the only two undefeated teams remaining in Super Region One. Game time is still unknown and will likely be determined by Monday. The most likely options are between noon and 3 p.m.
 
NOTES: Slippery Rock improved to 10-0 for the first time in program history, topping the 1924 team's 9-0 start for the best start in school history … the only other time SRU was unblemished for 10 weeks was the 1974 team that finished with a 9-0-1 record with one tie … SRU won its 16th straight PSAC West game dating back to 2017 … The Rock became the second PSAC West school to go undefeated in conference play in back-to-back seasons since the division expanded to eight teams in 2008 and the first to do it since Cal U in 2009 … SRU won its sixth straight game against Gannon and improved to 9-6 in the series … the 56 points scored by SRU are its most against Gannon in 15 all-time meetings … Jake Chapla extended his SRU career records to 362 points and 218 made PATs … he broke the all-time PSAC record for scoring by a kicker, previously held by Dan Fisher from Bloomsburg at 361 points and set in 2013 … Roland Rivers III broke the SRU single-season and career touchdown passing records … he has 36 on the season, topping Tanner Garry's 32 from 2017, and he now has 64 career TD passes in just 22 games at SRU, topping the former career record of 60 set by Nate Crookshank in 2007 … Rivers went a perfect 14-0 against the PSAC West in divisional play during his two years as the SRU starting QB … Henry Litwin now has career-highs in catches (66), yards (963) and touchdowns (14) this season … his 14 TD catches are the second most in a single-season in SRU history, one shy of John Schademan's 15 in 2013 … his 963 yards are the seventh most in a single-season at SRU and his 66 catches are also the seventh most in a single-season … Litwin now has 117 career catches (10th at SRU) for 1,804 yards (9th at SRU) and 22 touchdowns (4th at SRU) … Jermaine Wynn Jr. now has career-highs of 56 catches (12th at SRU) for 919 yards (9th at SRU) and 10 touchdowns (9th at SRU) … Wynn's 1,664 career receiving yards rank 10th all-time at SRU and his 19 TD catches rank seventh at SRU … Chad Kuhn recorded one sack to bring his season total to 10.5, moving him up to seventh on the SRU single-season ledger ... Kuhn has at least 1.0 sack in nine different games this season and now ranks 10th all-time at SRU with 19.0 career sacks ... SRU will play in the PSAC Championship game for the fifth time in the last seven years, the most of all schools in the PSAC … next week's title game at Kutztown features the only two unbeaten teams in Super Region One as No. 6 Notre Dame (Ohio) was upset this week for its first loss … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz improves to 36-10.
 


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