Postgame Interview with Coach Lutz

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The 10th ranked Slippery Rock University football team locked up a share of a fourth straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division title with a 28-21 win over Edinboro Saturday in the 250th SRU game played at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
 
The Rock escaped a sluggish offensive performance that included three turnovers and fought off an energetic Edinboro squad with a dominant fourth quarter after the Fighting Scots tied the game at 21-21 with a pick-six with 13 seconds to play in the third quarter.
 
SRU scored the game-winning points with a Chris D'Or 18-yard rushing touchdown with 8:19 to play and limited Edinboro to just 16 total yards and two turnovers the rest of the game.
 
The win improves Slippery Rock to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in PSAC West action, creating a three-way tie for the PSAC West title with Gannon and Indiana (Pa.), which both won Saturday to finish with 6-1 records. By way of the PSAC tiebreaker rules, Indiana will represent the PSAC West against No. 3 Shepherd in the PSAC title game next week. Edinboro saw its season records drop to 4-6 overall and 2-5 in PSAC West games.
 
Slippery Rock has now won at least a share of the PSAC West title in each of the last four straight seasons and eight of the last 11 seasons.
 
The Rock had to battle all day Saturday as Edinboro capitalized on numerous mistakes, mostly on the offensive side of the ball. The Scots scored on a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown and had another interception returned deep in the red zone to set up a short touchdown. Outside of those two scores that were set up by SRU miscues, the Fighting Scots managed just one productive offensive drive all day.
 
That drive came early in the game after SRU jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Edinboro went 75 yards in seven plays and scored on a five-yard rush to make it 7-7 with 7:55 to play in the first half.
 
The Scots capitalized on the first SRU mistake to take their only lead of the game when Avery Ennis intercepted a pass near the line of scrimmage and returned in 31 yards to the SRU eight-yard line. The Scots scored two plays later from the short field and led 14-7 with 13:22 to play in the first half.
 
Slippery Rock answered on the ensuing drive when D'Or rushed in from the one-yard line to cap a 75-yard drive and even the score at 14-14 with 10:42 to play in the second. The Rock would retake the lead late in the half when Noah Grover hit Kyle Sheets from seven-yards out to make it 21-14 with 2:57 to play.
 
SRU's defense came up with two takeaways in the final three minutes of the half, but the offense turned one of those over with their own fumble in the red zone and then missed a 39-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the first half.

Neither team managed to get much going in a sloppy third quarter before Toby Kline intercepted a screen pass from Grover and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 21-21 with 13 seconds left in the third.
 
The Rock offense continued to stutter early in the fourth quarter before a reverse to Jawon Hall went for 41 yards to ignite a spark. D'Or rushed in from 18 yards out on the next play to put SRU up 28-21 with 8:19 to play.
 
The SRU defense was dominant over the rest of the game, holding Edinboro to just 16 yards and forcing two turnovers on the Scots' final three possessions of the game.
 
When the SRU offense struggled Saturday, the defense picked up the slack, forcing a season-high five turnovers, coming up with four interceptions and one fumble recovery, and limiting Edinboro to just 10 first downs and a total of 194 yards of offense.
 
The Rock finished the game with a 353-194 advantage in total offense after rushing for 224 yards on 45 carries and passing for 129 yards on 26 attempts on a day where strong winds made passing difficult. Edinboro rushed for 46 yards on 27 carries and threw for 148 yards on 30 attempts.
 
Grover finished his day 15-of-26 for 129 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Sheets caught six passes for 58 yards and one touchdown, but had to leave the game in the second half with an injury.
 
D'Or rushed for 103 yards and two touchdowns and also caught three passes for 19 yards. Chris Wells added 50 rushing yards and one score.
 
The Rock defense played without leading tackler Brandon Tuck-Hayden, but still finished with nine tackles for loss, four sacks, four interceptions and one fumble recovery. Brandon Bischof led the way with seven total tackles and two interceptions. Cody Ross, who started for Tuck-Hayden, also had seven stops. Jeff Marx recorded 2.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks and two forced fumbles and D.J. Adediwura finished with 1.5 sacks and three QB hurries to pace the defensive line. Ali Abdul-Hakim and Jacob Williams each grabbed one interception and Daniel Tooson recovered one fumble.
 
Edinboro QB Isaac Bernard completed 22-of-30 passes for 148 yards with one touchdown and four picks. Thaddeus Standfield caught four passes for 40 yards and one TD and Zidane Thomas rushed for 33 yards and one TD.
 
Slippery Rock will look for its 10th win of the season and look to lock up a guaranteed NCAA Playoff spot for the fourth straight season next Saturday when Kutztown visits Mihalik-Thompson Stadium for a 1 p.m. kickoff in a rematch of the last two PSAC Championship games.
 
 
GAME NOTES: Saturday's game was the 250th SRU game played at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium (formerly N. Kerr Thompson Stadium) since it opened in 1974 … SRU is 182-68 all-time in the stadium and is 56-7 since changing the stadium name to Mihalik-Thompson Stadium in 2011 … The Rock improved to 60-8 at home since the beginning of the 2010 season … SRU won a share of its fourth straight PSAC West title and has now finished atop the PSAC West standings in eight of the last 11 seasons … SRU improved to 28-2 in its last 30 PSAC West games … SRU won its fourth straight game against Edinboro and improved to 60-28-7 all-time against the Scots dating back to 1913 … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz improved to 57-15 as head coach … Noah Grover moved up among the SRU single-season record book and now ranks tied for sixth in TD passes (24), seventh in passing yards (2,617), seventh in total offense (2,689) and eighth in completions (196) … Grover is now fifth all-time at SRU with 42 TD passes and ranks seventh in career passing yards (4,377) and completions (333) while ranking eighth in total offense (4,481 yards) … D.J. Adediwura now leads SRU with 10.5 sacks, which ranks eighth all-time in single-season history at SRU … Chris D'Or had his fifth 100-yard rushing game this season, which is the most by an SRU back since Wes Hills in 2018 (8) … DJ Opsatnik is now eighth all-time at SRU in career PATs made with 95 … Brandon Bischof's two interceptions in a single-game are tied for third in Mihalik-Thompson Stadium history … SRU will play Kutztown in week 11 next week for the third straight season in a rematch of the last two PSAC title games, which the teams split with SRU winning in 2019 and Kutztown winning in 2021 … both of those games were decided by one possession scores.
 
 


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