SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The eighth ranked Slippery Rock University football team saw its historic season come to an end with a 58-15 defeat against No. 4 Minnesota State University Saturday in the NCAA Division II semifinals from Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
 
The Rock finish the year with their best record in program history at 13-1, while the Mavericks improve to 14-0 and advance to their second National Championship game in the last five years.
 
Slippery Rock couldn't overcome costly mistakes and losing the field position battle in the first half as the Mavericks jumped out to a 30-8 halftime lead, scoring three touchdowns on possessions that started inside the SRU 30-yard line. The Rock turned the ball over twice, once on their own 22 and another time on their own 20, and Minnesota State scored touchdowns after both miscues.
 
SRU brought the game back to a two-possession score when Roland Rivers III connected with Henry Litwin for their second touchdown of the day to make it 30-15 with 8:41 to play in the third, but Minnesota State quickly stole the momentum back with a 73-yard TD pass from Ryan Schlichte to Shane Zylstra on the next play from scrimmage to break the game back open.
 
Zylstra's long touchdown was one of four touchdowns Minnesota State scored on just one play. The Mavericks scored eight touchdowns all in six plays or less and scored seven of their touchdowns in four or fewer plays.
 
Slippery Rock's offense struggled with a much bigger defensive unit from Minnesota State, with the Mavericks front four combining for 35 tackles and 8.5 tackles for loss. The Rock also struggled with the weather. Snow fell for the entire duration of the game, making the SRU passing attack difficult to execute. Rivers narrowly overshot a sure-thing deep touchdown on the first play from scrimmage and that theme of near misses would be present all afternoon. SRU receivers officially dropped four passes, including one touchdown, as the passing game never found its groove.
 
Despite the difficult conditions for passing, Rivers and Litwin both had record-setting days while accounting for 14 of the team's points, which included a two-point conversion. Rivers tied the NCAA Division II single-season record for touchdowns responsible for (61) and broke the Division II single-season record for points responsible for (370), while Litwin broke the SRU single-season record for receiving yards (1,509) and the SRU career record for touchdown catches (29), with all 29 of them coming in the last two seasons.
 
Rivers threw for 199 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while also rushing for 69 yards. He finished his senior season with 322 completions on 481 attempts for 4,460 yards with 52 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 700 yards and nine scores to finish with 5,160 yards of total offense, becoming the first player in program history to top 5,000 yards in a season.
 
Litwin caught 11 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns for his eighth game of the season with at least 100 yards and his eighth game this season with at least two TD grabs.
 
Jermaine Wynn Jr. was limited to five catches for nine yards. Qaadir Dixon added two catches for 15 yards and Charles Snorweah rushed for 36 yards.
 
Eric Glover-Williams recorded two interceptions and Brad Zaffram forced and recovered one fumble as SRU forced three turnovers to finish its three playoff games with 11 total takeaways. Shane Schuback tallied 3.0 tackles for loss to finish three playoff games with 8.0 TFL. Tim Vernick added 2.5 tackles for loss and Chad Kuhn and Trey Blandford each had one TFL.
 
The Rock defense limited Harlon Hill finalist running back Nate Gunn to 54 yards on 15 carries (3.6 yards per carry), but Gunn found the end zone three times from short yardage situations. Zylstra caught just four passes, but they were all big plays that added up to 152 yards and two touchdowns. Schlicte completed 5-of-7 pass attempts for 178 yards with one touchdown and JD Ekowa completed 5-of-9 passes for 72 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
 
Minnesota State ran 36 fewer plays than SRU in the game with the offense putting up 463 yards on 52 plays with 250 passing yards and 213 rushing yards. Slippery Rock went for 310 yards on 88 plays with 199 passing yards and 111 rushing yards. The Rock entered the game ranked seventh in the nation on third down (50.6 percent), but were limited to just 4-of-19.
 
Slippery Rock's four-year seniors finish their careers with a 39-11 overall record that included two trips to at least the NCAA quarterfinals. The Rock won their third outright PSAC title in the last six seasons and will enter the offseason with high expectations for 2020, with a large number of the roster set to return, including all four starting wide receivers that combined for 4,108 yards and 48 touchdowns this fall.
 
 
NOTES: Slippery Rock finishes the year with the best record in program history at 13-1 … The Rock were playing the NCAA semifinals for the second time ever and the first time since 1998 … SRU is now 9-8 all-time in Division II playoff games and is 7-2 at home in those games … Saturday's loss was just the fourth home loss for SRU (38-4) since the beginning of the 2013 season … SRU set team single-season records this year for completions (334), passing yards (4,618), passing touchdowns (54), touchdowns scored (89), points scored (647), total offense (7,024) and PAT kicks made (79) … Roland Rivers III set SRU single-season records for completions (322), passing yards (4,460), passing touchdowns (52) and total offense (5,160) … he tied the NCAA Division II single-season record for touchdowns responsible for (61 tied with Justin Dvorak from Colorado Mines in 2016) and broke the NCAA Division II single-season record for points responsible for with 370 (broke Dvorak's record of 366 from 2016) … Rivers is considered one of the top candidates for the Harlon Hill Award and will find out Friday, Dec. 20 if he becomes the first-ever SRU winner of the DII Player of the Year award … Henry Litwin set SRU single-season records for catches (103), yards (1,509, topping John Schademan's 1,484 from 2013) and touchdowns (21) … he broke Greg Hopkins and Marcus Johnson's career record for TD catches (was 28) with his 29th TD catch in the last two seasons … Jermaine Wynn Jr. finished the season ranked second in SRU history in single-season catches (95) and third in receiving yards (1,339) … SRU is the only school in the country from any level with two receivers over 1,300 yards this season … Jake Chapa finished his SRU career as the program record holder in scoring (390 points), extra points made (237) and field goals made (51) …  SRU's seniors finished their four-year career with a 39-11 overall record and played in 28 games over the last two seasons, marking the most games over a two-year stretch in school history … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz concludes his fourth season as head coach with a 39-11 overall record.