KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The 10th ranked Slippery Rock University football team saw a late comeback attempt fall just short as No. 16 Kutztown University held on for a 38-32 win in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship game Saturday from Andre Reed Stadium.
 
In a reverse of the 2019 PSAC title game between the same two teams, Kutztown picked up a win and likely locked up the No. 1 seed in Super Region One in the upcoming NCAA Playoffs while improving to 10-1 on the year. The Rock drop to 9-2 overall and will learn their playoff fate Sunday when the NCAA announces the 28-team playoff field at 5 p.m. SRU has a strong case to qualify for its third straight postseason.
 
If SRU does get into the postseason, it will have to find a way to manage a significant number of injuries to key players. Those injuries stacked up Saturday and SRU was not able to overcome the challenge. Slippery Rock was severely undermanned without defensive starters Jeff Marx, Garrett de Bien, Dalton Holt and Savion Harrison, along with running back Evyn Holtz all missing the game with injuries. The Rock then lost receiver Jermaine Wynn Jr. early in the game and had safeties Hunter Merritt and Eddie Faulkner IV also leave with injuries.  
 
Despite the injuries, The Rock had numerous chances to come away with a victory Saturday. The defense came up with four takeaways, including two inside the KU redzone, but the offense could not convert any of those into points. SRU failed to score touchdowns on four trips to the red zone, throwing one interception in the end zone, turning the ball over on downs once and settling for two short field goals. SRU threw three interceptions at crucial moments that erased scoring opportunities and swung momentum to the hosts.
 
Kutztown ate up huge chunks of yardage in the running game and used big plays to flip the momentum multiple times. The Golden Bears scored touchdowns of 84 yards, 61 yards and 50 yards and also had another 67-yard rush in the game. Those big gains added up to 389 rushing yards on 54 carries.
 
The game-winning points came on a 61-yard run with 6:25 to play in the fourth quarter after Slippery Rock threw its third interception of the day near midfield. That made it 38-20 in favor of Kutztown and The Rock simply ran out of time in its comeback attempt.
 
Tim Smith scored on a two-yard run with 3:39 to play that cut the deficit to 38-26 and Noah Grover connected with Henry Litwin on a 17-yard TD pass with 43 seconds left that made it 38-32, but The Rock's ensuing onside kick attempt trickled out of bounds to end the comeback attempt.
 
Overshadowed by the loss and the injuries was Litwin breaking the SRU career record for receptions. He pulled down 11 passes for 112 yards and one touchdown to break Greg Hopkins' former SRU record of 215 receptions that had stood since 1994. Litwin now has 217 catches for 3,349 yards and an SRU record 42 touchdowns. He is 33 yards shy of tying Hopkins' career record for receiving yards (3,382).
 
Slippery Rock posted a 24-19 advantage in first downs, while Kutztown put up a 519-422 edge in total offense. SRU threw for 298 yards and ran for 124 yards, while KU rushed for 389 yards and threw for 130 yards.
 
Grover completed 29-of-49 passes for 298 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions while playing through an injury that kept him out of practice most of the week. Max Maciejewski caught five passes for 65 yards and one score, Kenyon Johnson caught two passes for 37 yards and John Eakin caught one pass for 26 yards.
 
Smith rushed for a career-high 125 yards on 16 carries and scored two touchdowns to lead the ground game.
 
Trysten McDonald tallied nine tackles to pace the defense. Tim Vernick added eight stops and one forced fumble, while Chad Kuhn had seven tackles, two tackles for loss and one sack. Matt Wilwohl also had two tackles for loss and pulled down one interception while making his first career start in place of de Bien. Longsnapper Josh George and Maciejewski each recovered fumbles on special teams and Selvin Haynes recovered a fumble that saved a touchdown on The Rock's one-yard line.

DJ Opsatnik kicked field goals from 32 and 26 yards and has now made his last five field goal attempts.
 
Kutztown running back Jeremiah Nelson was named the game's Most Valuable Player with 223 rushing yards and two touchdowns. QB Eric Nickel completed just five of 11 pass attempts for 130 yards with one touchdown and one interception as KU racked up most of its yards on the ground. Nickel also rushed for two scores and 74 yards.
 
Slippery Rock will now turn its attention to the NCAA selection show Sunday evening at 5 p.m. The 28-team playoff field will be announced at www.NCAA.com at that time.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock was playing its its seventh PSAC title game in the last 10 seasons and its sixth in the last eight years … The Rock are now 3-4 in those seven title games with wins in 2014, 2015 and 2019 and losses to Kutztown in 2011 and 2021, Bloomsburg in 2013 and West Chester in 2018 … of the seven PSAC title games SRU has played in the last decade, five have been played on the road … SRU is now 11-4 all-time against Kutztown ... SRU completed the regular season with a 9-2 record to mark its 12th straight winning season … The Rock had a road winning streak snapped at 11 games, losing for the first time on the road since the NCAA quarterfinals in 2018 …. SRU went 1,079 calendar days between road losses … Henry Litwin broke the SRU career receptions record and now has 217 catches, topping Greg Hopkins' former record of 215 that had stood since 1994 … Litwin already owns the SRU career record for TD catches and extended that to 42 … he is now 34 yards away from breaking Hopkins' career receiving yardage record (3,382 yards) … Chad Kuhn recorded his 29th career sack and his 45th career tackle for loss to rank third all-time at SRU in sacks and fourth in TFL … SRU played through a number of injuries Saturday with starters Jeff Marx, Garrett de Bien, Dalton Holt, Savion Harrison and Evyn Holtz all ruled out pregame, Jermaine Wynn Jr. suffering a serious injury early in the game and Hunter Merritt and Eddie Faulkner IV both leaving the game in the second half … SRU is hopeful of qualifying for the NCAA Playoffs for the third straight year and the sixth time in the last eight seasons and will find out its playoff fate Sunday evening at 5 p.m.
 
 

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