GREENSBURG, Pa. – The sixth-ranked Slippery Rock University football team improved to 4-0 and opened defense of its back-to-back Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division titles with a convincing 41-17 win on the road at Seton Hill University in the PSAC West opener Saturday night from Offutt Field.
 
Slippery Rock scored 41 points after a slow start and ran away with the victory to improve to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in PSAC West action. Seton Hill scored on its first series after intercepting The Rock on the first play from scrimmage and tacked on a field goal inside the first five minutes, but wouldn't score for 53 minutes after that on the way to dropping to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in PSAC West play.
 
The story of the night was the passing attack of The Rock, which struck early and often. Henry Litwin caught nine passes for 148 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone as SRU jumped out to a 27-10 lead at the break to erase Seton Hill's early success.
 
Andrew Koester hit Jermaine Wynn Jr. for that duo's second TD strike of the night on the first possession of the third quarter before the majority of the starters took a seat for the rest of the second half.
 
Seton Hill ended a scoreless drought of nearly 55 minutes with a touchdown with 1:23 to play to account for the final points of the night.
 
Slippery Rock finished the night with a 439-218 advantage in total offense after throwing for 379 yards and rushing for 60 yards. Seton Hill threw for 99 yards and ran for 119 yards.
 
Koester finished the night completing 20-of-33 passes for 346 yards with five touchdowns and one interception.
 
Litwin caught nine passes for 148 yards and three scores, all in the first half. Wynn Jr. grabbed seven passes for 134 yards and two scores and nearly had a third but the ball was punched out just before the goal line and rolled through the end zone for a touchback. Wynn also finished with a team-high 211 all-purpose yards with 77 combined return yards.
 
Kyle Sheets caught three passes for 45 yards and Gavyn Barnes grabbed two passes for 25 yards.
 
The Rock's running backs carried the ball just 15 total times in the game with Chris D'Or rushing for 50 yards on eight carries and Tim Smith going for 24 yards on seven carries.
 
Tim Vernick led the defense with 11 total tackles. Jeff Marx added eight stops and Peyton Remish recorded six tackles and returned an interception 26 yards for a touchdown. Selvin Haynes also returned an interception 37 yards to set up another SRU score. Garrett de Bien had two tackles for loss and one sack. Chad Kuhn and Munchie Johnson also had one sack each.
 
Logan Wiland rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns to pace the Seton Hill offense and Nelson Gedeon came up with two sacks to lead the hosts' defense.
 
Slippery Rock returns home next Saturday night to host Clarion University on Salute to Military and First Responders night. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. All former and current members of the military and first responders will be admitted free.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock won its 24th straight night game and has not lost a game that kicked at 4 p.m. or later since Sept. 29, 2012 … SRU improved to 10-2 all-time against Seton Hill and won its fifth straight game in the series … Shawn Lutz improved to 43-11 as SRU head coach … Slippery Rock is 4-0 for the third time in the last four seasons … SRU won its 17th straight PSAC West divisional game dating back to Oct. 21, 2017 … Slippery Rock limited a team to under 100 passing yards for the third time in four games this season … Andrew Koester threw for over 300 yards for the third time in four games this season and had a career-high five TD passes … Henry Litwin went over 100 receiving yards for the third time this season and 14th time in his career … he increased his SRU career record to 34 receiving touchdowns … Litwin now needs 36 catches and 536 yards to set the all-time SRU records for receptions and yardage … Jermaine Wynn Jr. went over 100 yards for the first time this season and the eighth time in his career at SRU … Chad Kuhn had 1.0 sack to increase his season total to 4.0 and his career total to 24.0, moving him up into a tie for sixth all-time at SRU … Peyton Remish returned an interception for a touchdown which was the first pick six since the Clarion game Oct. 26, 2019 … SRU will play its fifth straight 6 p.m. game next Saturday at home against Clarion.
 

 
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