SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The 19th ranked Slippery Rock University football team saw its season come to an end after a valiant second half comeback effort fell just short in a 33-25 loss to No. 6 Notre Dame College (Ohio) Saturday in the opening round of the NCAA Playoffs from Mueller Field.
 
The injury-ravaged Slippery Rock team lost All-American receiver Henry Litwin in the first half and finished the game missing eight starters as injuries continued to wreak havoc on the team.
 
Litwin, who it was revealed postgame has been playing this fall with a broken collarbone, did manage to grab four catches for 43 yards before leaving the game in the second quarter and those yards moved him into first place all-time at Slippery Rock in career yardage with 3,392 yards. He will leave Slippery Rock as the all-time leader in every major receiving category with 221 catches for 3,392 yards and 42 touchdowns, breaking records set by Greg Hopkins that had stood since 1994.
 
Slippery Rock finishes the season with a 9-3 overall record to mark its 12th straight winning season and its third straight season with at least nine wins. Notre Dame improves to 11-1 on the year and will advance to the second round of the playoffs to face No. 2 seed Shepherd next week.
 
Things started going sideways for Slippery Rock in the second quarter after The Rock turned the ball over twice with a pair of interceptions and Notre Dame turned both of those miscues into touchdowns. SRU led 7-3 and 10-9 in early in the game before Notre Dame broke the game open with those touchdowns off the interceptions and took a 30-10 lead into halftime.
 
Slippery Rock battled back and controlled most of the second half, allowing just three total points over the final 30 minutes, but could never find the tying points.
 
Cinque Sweeting took a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 33-17 with 11:07 to play in the third quarter.
 
The Rock went 90 yards on their next possession, which included a successful fake punt, and scored with a Tim Smith rushing touchdown. Sweeting hauled in the 2-point conversion pass from Noah Grover to make it 33-25 with 5:00 to play in the third.
 
Slippery Rock threatened numerous times to find the tying points, moving the ball down inside the Notre Dame 30-yard line on two occasions and across midfield on a third occasion, but each time SRU endured a miscue that thwarted a drive. The most promising drive looked like it would be a first and goal from the two-yard line after Grover hit Kenyon Johnson, but the play was called back for a holding penalty. SRU settled for a field goal attempt and missed.
 
The Rock had one more chance at a late drive and moved into Notre Dame territory, but a pass from Grover was tipped and pulled down along the sideline by a Falcon defensive back for a third interception of the game, which effectively sealed the victory.
 
Penalties and turnovers, on top of the injury woes, plagued Slippery Rock all day. The Rock finished the game with 11 penalties for 90 yards, many of which came on costly procedural penalties against the offense.
 
Slippery Rock put up 435 yards of total offense with 358 passing yards and 77 rushing yards. Notre Dame went for 432 yards of offense with 278 rushing yards and 154 passing yards. The Falcons threw for just eight yards in the second half as The Rock defense battled back into the game.
 
Grover completed 28-of-47 passes for 336 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions.
 
Cinque Sweeting stepped up in the absence of the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 active receiving leaders in Jermaine Wynn Jr. and Henry Litwin. Sweeting finished with 288 all-purpose yards with nine catches for 164 yards and one touchdown, a two-point conversion catch, a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and 124 combined kick return yards.
 
Max Maciejewski caught five passes for 54 yards, Gavyn Barnes caught four passes for 26 yards, Kyle Sheets caught three passes for 26 yards and Tim Smith caught two passes for 19 yards. Smith also rushed for 77 yards and one touchdown to average 5.1 yards per carry on 15 rushes.
 
DJ Opsatnik went 1-for-2 on field goals with a make from 29 yards and a miss from 38 yards.
 
Selvin Haynes led The Rock defense with 12 total tackles, two pass breakups and one blocked PAT kick. Tim Vernick added eight stops, while Trysten McDonald and Jevon Lang each recorded 2.0 tackles for loss and Khadir Roberts broke up three passes.
 
Notre Dame got 164 rushing yards from Idris Lawrence and 95 rushing yards and one score from Tyris Dickerson. Chris Brimm completed 8-of-23 passes for 154 yards and three touchdowns.
 
Slippery Rock was making its third straight appearance in the NCAA Playoffs and its sixth in the last eight seasons. The Rock's four-year seniors will leave the program with a career record of 41-10 with three PSAC West titles, two trips to the NCAA quarterfinals, one trip to the national semifinals and three appearances in the playoffs.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock was making its third straight playoff appearance, its sixth in the last eight years and its ninth overall NCAA Division II playoff appearance … The Rock are now 9-9 in their 18 Division II playoff games … SRU drops to 1-2 against Notre Dame with all three games coming in the NCAA Playoffs … Slippery Rock's senior class finishes their career with a 41-10 overall record over four seasons that included three PSAC West titles … The Rock struggled with significant injuries over the last three weeks of the season, losing as many as nine starters during that stretch … Henry Litwin left the game in the second quarter and did not return after aggravating an injury he had played with all year, which was revealed to be a broken collarbone postgame … Litwin went for 1,042 yards this season and with his effort today set the SRU career receiving yardage record with 3,392 yards, topping Greg Hopkins' former record of 3,382 yards that had stood since 1994 … Litwin will leave SRU as the all-time leader in catches (221), yards (3,392) and touchdowns (42) … SRU played without Jermaine Wynn Jr. Saturday … Wynn will leave SRU ranked third in yardage (2,858), third in receptions (202) and second in TD catches (32) … Chad Kuhn will leave SRU ranked third all-time in sacks (29.0) and fourth in tackles for loss (45.0) … Khadir Roberts had three pass breakups to end his career with 30 pass breakups to rank 12th all-time … Cinque Sweeting went for 288 all-purpose yards to end his career with 4,562 all-purpose yards at the DII level … Tim Vernick captained his final game at SRU bringing an end to an eight-year stretch where a Vernick was the starting middle linebacker at SRU after his older brother Bob started from 2013-16 before Tim started 2017-21.



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