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ERIE, Pa. – The 15th-ranked Slippery Rock University football team bounced back from two straight weeks of offensive struggles by putting up 671 yards of offense in a record-setting 63-21 victory on the road at Gannon University Saturday in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division game from McConnell Family Stadium.
 
The Rock improve to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in PSAC West games with the victory and keep their chances at repeating as PSAC Champions alive. An upstart Gannon team saw a two-game winning streak snapped to slip to 4-5 overall and 3-3 in PSAC West games.
 
Next Saturday's SRU home game against Cal U will be a defacto PSAC West title game with the winner representing the division in the PSAC Championship Nov. 13. Indiana (Pa.) was upset at home Saturday by Edinboro to be eliminated from Western Division title contention, leaving a head-to-head matchup between Cal U and SRU to decide the division.
 
Slippery Rock entered Saturday's game having turned the ball over eight times in its previous two outings, with four turnovers and a then season-low 21 points in a loss to IUP Oct. 16 and four more turnovers and a new season-low 20 points in a 20-17 win at Mercyhurst Oct. 23.
 
Those struggles prompted a change at the quarterback position as SRU rolled out North Dakota transfer Noah Grover for his first career start Saturday. To say Grover handled the pressure well would be an understatement.
 
The junior from Phoenix, Arizona broke the SRU single-game record for touchdown passes while playing just over three quarters. He finished his day 54 seconds into the fourth quarter after going 32-of-40 for 439 yards with eight touchdowns, no interceptions and no sacks. His eight TD tosses broke the SRU single-game record of seven touchdowns that was set by Don King III against East Stroudsburg in 2016.
 
His first touchdown of the day came on the first SRU possession when he hit Jermaine Wynn Jr. over the middle for a 17-yard strike. After Garrett de Bien forced a fumble on Gannon's next possession and Khadir Roberts recovered it in the Golden Knights' red zone, Grover hit Cinque Sweeting in the back of the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 9:35 to play in the first quarter.
 
SRU extended the lead to 21-0 with a 13-yard pass from Grover to John Eakin with 4:07 to play in the first quarter as The Rock scored three times in less than 11 minutes. Gannon would cut the deficit to 14 points on two occasions after that, but SRU responded both times and kept the game well out of reach for the hosts in the second half.
 
Slippery Rock finished with its most complete offensive performance of the season for a 671-244 advantage in total offense. The Rock threw for 447 yards on 41 attempts and rushed for 224 yards on 47 attempts. SRU ran more than twice as many plays as Gannon in the game with an 88-42 advantage in total plays, which led to a massive 41:31 to 18:29 time of possession advantage.
 
Grover connected with eight different receivers in the game, including five that finished with at least 60 yards and a touchdown. Henry Litwin led the way with 10 catches for 127 yards and three touchdowns for his second game this season with three scores. Max Maciejewski grabbed six passes for 77 yards and one score, Cinque Sweeting caught six passes for 70 yards and one score, Jermaine Wynn Jr. caught six passes for 70 yards and a touchdown and Kyle Sheets caught a 62-yard touchdown pass. John Eakin also caught a 13-yard TD from Grover.
 
It wasn't just an aerial attack from Slippery Rock that moved the ball Saturday, as The Rock got it done on the ground as well. Evyn Holtz made his first career start at SRU after missing the first seven games of the season and getting 12 touches at Mercyhurst last week. Holtz was electric, rushing for 109 yards on 18 carries for 6.1 yards per carry. Tim Smith added 44 yards and one score on 10 touches, while Chris D'Or rushed for 21 yards, Brayden Long ran for 19 yards and Grover rushed for 16 yards.
 
Long played most of the fourth quarter at the quarterback position, which marked his first appearance in a collegiate game. He led a nine-minute touchdown drive and completed his only pass attempt for eight yards to Gavyn Barnes.
 
After eight turnovers in the last two weeks, Slippery Rock played a clean game Saturday and finished with no giveaways on offense and two takeaways on defense.
 
Garrett de Bien and Selvin Haynes both forced fumbles and Khadir Roberts and Henzloy McFarlane came up with recoveries. Isaiah Manning paced the defense with five total tackles, including one tackle for loss. De Bien had four stops and 1.5 tackles for loss. Trysten McDonald returned to the lineup and had one tackle for loss. DeBien and Chad Kuhn were in the backfield most of the game and laid a number of hits on Gannon QB Kory Curtis.
 
Curtis finished the game 12-of-24 for 208 yards with two touchdowns while also rushing for 27 yards. The Rock defense held Melvin Blanks, who had rushed for 200 or more yards in each of the last two weeks, to just 20 yards on 10 carries. Blanks racked up 15 of those on one touch and was limited to five yards on his other nine carries. Johnny Freeman caught six passes for 112 yards and one touchdown to lead the receivers.
 
Slippery Rock will turn its focus to hosting undefeated fourth-ranked Cal U next Saturday for the PSAC West title. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. and The Rock will honor their senior class before kickoff.  
 
NOTES: Slippery Rock won its 11th straight road game and has not lost an away game since the NCAA Quarterfinals at Notre Dame (Ohio) on Dec. 1, 2018 … The Rock won their 13th straight PSAC West road game and improved to 21-1 in their last 22 games against the PSAC West … SRU won its seventh straight game against Gannon to improve to 10-6 in the all-time series … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz improved to 47-12 as head coach … Noah Grover broke the SRU single-game record for touchdown passes with eight, topping the former record of seven that was set by Don King III against East Stroudsburg in 2016 … Grover was making his first career start at SRU after serving as the backup in the first eight games of the season … Henry Litwin caught three TD passes to bring his season total to 11, which ranks tied for seventh all-time at SRU … Litwin extended his career TD receptions record at SRU to 40, becoming the first player in program history to reach 40 touchdowns … Litwin now has 201 receptions and 3,163 yards in the last three seasons to rank No. 2 at SRU in both categories … he needs 15 catches for 220 yards to break Greg Hopkins' career records … Litwin's 40 TD catches at SRU are the fourth most total TDs scored by any player in program history … Jermaine Wynn Jr. caught his 30th career TD pass at SRU to rank No. 2 all-time behind only Litwin … Wynn moved up to No. 6 all-time at SRU in all-purpose yardage and now has 3,944 all-purpose yards … Wynn now has 190 career catches at SRU and needs two more to pass Milly Raye for No. 3 all-time at The Rock … Linebacker Trysten McDonald returned to the starting lineup after missing six straight games … Evyn Holtz made his first career start at the running back position and rushed for 109 yards, marking the first 100-yard rusher for SRU since week two when Tim Smith went for 122 yards against ESU ... the 671 yards of offense by SRU was its most in a game since setting the program record of 795 at Seton Hill Nov. 4, 2017



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