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CLARION, Pa. – The 13th ranked Slippery Rock University football team posted a second straight shutout over Clarion and moved into a tie for first place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division with a 31-0 victory on the road Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
 
The Rock retained the "Milk Jug" trophy for the fifth straight year and improved to 11-1 in the series against Clarion since the trophy was introduced to the rivalry in 2010. SRU extended its shutout streak against the Golden Eagles to 10 straight quarters, outscoring Clarion 130-0 over that stretch.
 
Slippery Rock improved to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in PSAC West games with the win, while Clarion slipped to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in PSAC West games. The Rock moved back into a three-way tie for first place in the PSAC West after Gannon upset No. 11 IUP, 43-36, to give all three teams one loss on the year.

SRU can lock up at least a share of the regular season PSAC West title for the fourth straight year and the eighth time in the last 11 seasons with a win next Saturday against Edinboro. If IUP, Gannon and SRU all win next week and finish with one loss, IUP will represent the division in the title game according to the PSAC tiebreaker rules.
 
Slippery Rock scored on its first offensive possession and was dominant all day in a game that took just over two hours from start to finish. The Rock put up 533 yards of offense and limited Clarion to just 202 total yards. SRU threw for a season-high 440 yards and rushed for 93 yards, while Clarion ran for 117 yards and threw for 85 yards.
 
Noah Grover and Kyle Sheets combined for a passing connection that Clarion struggled with all afternoon. Grover completed 27-of-34 passes for 440 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Sheets caught nine passes for a career-high 206 yards and two touchdowns.
 
Grover threw two 14-yard touchdowns to Sheets and a 13-yard touchdown to Gavyn Barnes. Chris D'Or added a one-yard rushing TD and DJ Opsatnik kicked a 37-yard field goal to account for SRU's offensive production.
 
Jawon Hall caught four passes for 52 yards, Cohen Russell caught four passes for 45 yards, Barnes grabbed three passes for 55 yards, Max Maciejewski caught two passes for 29 yards and Kenyon Johnson caught one pass for 28 yards to lead the receivers.
 
Isaiah Edwards rushed for 45 yards on just five carries and D'Or added 40 yards on 12 carries to pace the ground game.
 
The Rock defense came up with nine tackles for loss and one sack, led by linebackers Brandon Tuck-Hayden and Brandon Bischof. Tuck-Hayden had a game-high 11 tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss and Bischof had six tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss. Jacob Williams had five stops and one pass breakup. Munchie Johnson, D.J. Adediwura and DaShaun Wright each had one tackle for loss and Mehki Twillie had his first career sack.
 
Clarion QB Zach Benedek completed 10-of-18 passes for 62 yards. Punter Jarrett Esposito also completed a 23-yard pass on a fake punt. Nathan Roby rushed for 51 yards and caught four passes for 27 yards.
 
Saturday marked the final regular season road game for Slippery Rock, which will close the regular season with a pair of home games. Edinboro will visit Nov. 5 for a 1 p.m. game to close PSAC West play and Kutztown will visit Nov. 12 for a 1 p.m. game to close the regular season.
 
Slippery Rock will find out where it ranks among Super Region One teams in the NCAA Playoff hunt Monday when the NCAA unveils the first ranked order list of the regional rankings.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock retained the "Milk Jug" trophy for the fifth straight year and improved to 11-1 against Clarion since the trophy was introduced to the series … SRU shut Clarion out for the second year in a row and extended its shutout streak against the Golden Eagles to 10 straight quarters dating back to halftime of the 2019 game … The Rock have outscored Clarion 130-0 over that stretch … SRU improved to 17-2 in their last 19 PSAC West road games … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz improved to 56-15 as head coach … Kyle Sheets finished with career-highs of nine catches for 206 yards and 2 TDs and went over 1,000 career receiving yards in the process … Noah Grover had his third career 400-yard passing game with 440 yards … Grover's 23 passing TDs this season are tied for the seventh most in a single-season in SRU history and his 2,488 passing yards rank eighth in a single-season at SRU … Grover moved up to No. 5 all-time at SRU with 41 career TD passes … he also ranks No. 7 all-time at SRU with 4,248 passing yards and No. 7 at SRU with 318 completions after starting just 13 games at The Rock … DJ Opsatnik moved up to No. 8 all-time at SRU with 91 career made PATs … SRU did not allow any offensive points for the second time this season and did not allow a first quarter touchdown for the eighth time in nine games … SRU is outscoring opponents 80-12 in the first quarter of games this year and has allowed offensive points in just two of nine games.




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