Complete Game Notes (26-page PDF)
 
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The 18th-ranked Slippery Rock University football team will travel to West Chester University Saturday for a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover contest set for a noon kickoff from John Farrell Stadium.
 
Below you will find all pertinent information regarding tickets, parking, tailgating and live coverage, along with complete game notes.
 
LIVE INTERNET COVERAGE
• Live Stats  |  Provided by WCU Sports Information.
• Live Streaming Video  |  Provided by SFBN production company.
• Live Audio (Online and Radio)  |  Provided by The Rock Station 97.7 FM (Butler County).
• Twitter  |  All scoring information and in-game updates.
 
WATCH ON YOUR TV
• Fans can watch the game live and on-demand for free on the Rock Athletics Digital Network.
 • Search for "Rock Athletics Digital Network" in the app stores on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku and Android TV devices to download the app. All 11 regular season SRU football games will be available on the app.
* This game will be produced by West Chester's contracted production company, SFBN.
 
MOBILE APP
• Fans can also watch all PSAC football games on the PSAC Sports Digital Network mobile app that is available for free in the app stores on Apple and Android devices.
• The Live Streaming Video link above will also work on all mobile devices.
 
TICKETS
• Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets online HERE.
• Tickets will also be available at the gates. Gates open at 10:30 a.m.
• Adults - $10
• Students and Seniors - $7
• WCU game day policies and information
 
PARKING AND TAILGATING
• $10 per car.
• Parking lots surrounding the stadium open at 9 a.m.
• WCU also has a soccer doubleheader in the same area at the same time, so fans should expect parking delays near gametime.
• WCU Tailgating Policy
 

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GAME PROGRAM INFO
Access all the traditional information found in printed game programs via the links in the table below, including game notes (If available), depth charts, rosters, schedules and stats for both teams, as well as PSAC standings, stat leaders and more.
 

Week 2: Slippery Rock at West Chester
The Rock (1-0)	West Chester Golden Rams (1-0)
Game Notes	-
Depth Chart	Depth Chart
Roster	Roster
Schedule	Schedule
Statistics	Statistics
Coach: Shawn Lutz	Coach: Bill Zwaan
Program Records	Program Records
PSAC Standings
PSAC Stats Leaders
PSAC Composite Schedule

THE GAME
No. 18 Slippery Rock will look to improve to 2-0 with a PSAC crossover game at West Chester in a meeting of two teams that picked up wins in their openers last week. The teams will be meeting for the first time since the 2018 PSAC title game.  
 
NATIONAL RANKINGS
Slippery Rock opened the year nationally ranked for the eighth straight season. The Rock were No. 23 in the AFCA preseason rankings and No. 24 in the D2football.com preseason rankings and moved up to No. 18 in this week's AFCA poll and No. 20 in this week's D2football.com poll. Both polls are available on page 9 of the PDF notes linked above.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES
Slippery Rock owns a 10-9 edge in the all-time series that dates back to 1929 (game-by-game scores on page 6 of the notes linked above). This will mark the sixth straight meeting where at least one team is nationally ranked. The teams met five straight seasons from 2014-18 with SRU going 3-2 in those games, including 2-1 on the road. Seven of the 19 meetings between the teams came in the PSAC Championship game, including the most recent meeting in 2018 when No. 9 WCU won 33-10 at unranked SRU.
 
• First Meeting: 1929 (SRU won 13-6)
• Last Meeting: 2018 (WCU won 33-10)
• Current Streak: West Chester +1
• at WCU: WCU leads 7-4
• at SRU: SRU leads 6-2
• Most Points Scored (WCU): 46 (2014)
• Biggest Win Margin (WCU): 30 (1963)
• Most Points Scored (SRU): 61 (2015)
• Biggest Win Margin (SRU): 49 (2015)
• Last SRU Win: 2017 at SRU (49-42)
 
COACHING MATCHUP
Slippery Rock head coach Shawn Lutz is in his 27th overall year at The Rock and his seventh year (sixth season) as head coach, where he owns a 49-14 record with three PSAC West titles and three trips to the NCAA playoffs. Lutz was the PSAC West Coach of the Year in both 2018 and 2019 and was the Don Hansen Football Gazette Division II National Coach of the Year in 2019. The 49 wins are the most among all PSAC head coaches since the 2016 season. Lutz was an assistant at SRU for 20 years before taking over the program in 2016. He has been a member of the coaching staff for 11 of SRU's PSAC West titles. Lutz played tight end at West Virginia University, graduating in 1996, and earned a master's degree in sport management from SRU in 2003.
 
Bill Zwaan is in his 20th year and 19th season coaching at West Chester, where he has compiled a record of 151-67 and won six PSAC East titles to go along with 10 trips to the NCAA playoffs. His 151 wins are the sixth-most in PSAC history and are more than double any other active PSAC head coach. The longest-tenured active coach in the league also posted a 54-14 record in six seasons as head coach at D3 Widener before taking the WCU job, giving him a career record of 205-81. A former QB at the University of Delaware, Zwaan graduated in 1979.
 
WEST CHESTER QUICK HITS
• West Chester is coming off an uncharacteristic 6-5 season in 2021, its lowest win total since 2011, but appears poised to bounce back in 2022.
• West Chester has put together nine straight winning seasons entering 2022, which includes five seasons since 2013 that resulted in trips to the NCAA playoffs.
• The Golden Rams lost their 2021 opener to Bentley 41-17, but avenged that with a 17-16 victory last week over the Falcons, who made the 2021 NCAA Playoffs.
• West Chester has the longest tenured head coach in the PSAC and the winningest active coach in the league with double as many victories as the next highest coach.
• West Chester was picked third in the PSAC East preseason poll behind Shepherd and Kutztown.
• QB Shane Dooley is the younger brother of former West Chester starting QB Paul Dooley. The younger Dooley completed 10-of-16 passes for 152 yards with two TD and two INT last week.
• Middle linebacker Jackson Taylor is perhaps the highest touted player on the roster. He tallied 2.0 TFL and one QB hurry last week and entered this season as an All-America candidate.
 
LAST MEETING – NOV. 10, 2018  |  Box Score
Ninth ranked West Chester capped a perfect regular season with a 33-10 win on the road at unranked Slippery Rock in the 2018 PSAC title game back on Nov. 10, 2018. All of the game's scoring happened in the first half as neither team was able to record any points in the final 30 minutes. West Chester would bow out of the NCAA Playoffs in round one the following week to finish with a 10-1 record, while Slippery Rock bounced back from the loss and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals to finish 11-3 on the year. WCU outgained SRU 344-243 in that game, which was the last time The Rock have been held under 300 yards of offense in a game. SRU completed just six of 31 pass attempts and threw three interceptions in the game. WCU QB A.J. Long ran it more times than he threw it with 30 carries for 135 yards and one score. He also threw for three TDs.  
 
LAST WEEK FOR SLIPPERY ROCK
No. 23 Slippery Rock cruised to a 42-10 win over Wayne State (Mich.) in the opener at home. The Rock scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and jumped out to a 35-3 lead at halftime. Noah Grover completed 20-of-28 passes for 276 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions while also rushing for one score. Cohen Russell finished with 177 all-purpose yards and two TD catches. SRU's defense held Wayne State to 3.2 yards per play and came up with two interceptions.



LAST WEEK FOR WEST CHESTER
West Chester kicked a late field goal to post a 17-16 comeback win at home over Bentley (Mass.), which qualified for the NCAA Playoffs last year. The game was a defensive battle with West Chester finishing with a 315-269 edge in total offense. The Golden Rams ran for 163 yards and threw for 152 yards. Shane Dooley completed 10-of-16 passes for 152 yards with two TD and two INT. Phil Poquie rushed for 92 yards on 13 carries and Ja'Den McKenzie rushed for 56 yards and caught one TD. Sean Henry went 1-for-3 on field goal attempts, missing his first two, but connecting from 34 yards for the game-winner with 4:34 to play. 
 
13 STRAIGHT SEASON-OPENING WINS
Last week's win marked the 13th straight season Slippery Rock has won its first game of the year dating back to the 2008 season.
 
FIRST ROAD GAMES OF THE YEAR
Slippery Rock is 10-2 in the last 12 seasons in its first road game of the year and both of those losses came on the road at Shippensburg (2012, 2018). The Rock played their first road game of the 2016 season at West Chester and came away with a 36-28 win in what was the only time SRU has played at West Chester in the first away game.
 
EARLY SEASON CROSSOVERS
Since 2006, Slippery Rock has posted a record of 26-4 against PSAC East teams in the early season mandated crossover games. The Rock have won their last five straight early season PSAC crossovers and are 15-1 against the PSAC East in the early season crossovers dating back to 2013, with the lone loss coming week two at Shippensburg in 2018 when SRU fumbled in its own end zone in the closing minute and Shippensburg recovered the fumble to win 25-21.
 
GROVER EARNS WEEKLY HONOR
SRU QB Noah Grover was named the PSAC West Offensive Athlete of the Week this week after leading SRU to the win over Wayne State. Grover accounted for 294 total yards of offense and four touchdowns with no turnovers before being pulled from the game with just under two minutes left in the third quarter. He completed 20-of-28 passes for 276 yards with three TDs and rushed for 18 yards and one TD. Grover was also not sacked in the game.
 
QUICK START
Slippery Rock benefited from a couple key plays in the return game last week and capitalized by scoring two touchdowns in the first five minutes and jumping out to a 21-0 lead before the end of the first quarter. By the time the game reached halftime, SRU had extended its lead to 35-3 and put the game out of reach before the break.
 
GROVER AS A STARTER
In five games as the starting QB at SRU, Noah Grover has thrown for 1,815 yards and 18 touchdowns and is averaging 363.0 passing yards per game and 3.6 passing touchdowns per game in his five starts, three of which came against teams ranked in the top 15 nationally.
 
GROVER AGAINST UNRANKED TEAMS
SRU QB Noah Grover has started five total games at SRU after taking over as the starter for the final four games of the 2021 season, but only two of those five games were against unranked teams as he faced No. 3 Cal U, No. 16 Kutztown and No. 6 Notre Dame (Ohio) in his second, third and fourth career starts. In the two games against unranked teams, Grover is 52-of-68 for 715 yards with 11 passing touchdowns and one rushing score. He also hasn't taken a snap in the fourth quarter of either of those starts.
 
NEW WEAPONS ON OFFENSE
The biggest question for SRU coming into 2022 was how the offense would replace the production of the best receiving corps in the country as The Rock graduated Henry Litwin, Jermaine Wynn Jr. and Cinque Sweeting, who combined for 7,866 receiving yards and 98 touchdowns over the last three seasons. We got to see a glimpse of that last week with returners Max Maciejewski (4 rec., 29 yds) and Kyle Sheets (3 rec., 37 yds, 1 TD) both being involved, but we also saw the breakouts of slot receiver Cohen Russell and wideout Jacob Odom. Russell caught two passes, both for TDs, including a 74-yard strike. Odom led SRU with eight grabs for 97 yards. Fellow newcomer Jawon Hall also pulled down a 31-yard grab, while transfer running back Isaiah Edwards rushed for 24 yards and one TD on just four carries.
 
CHEMISTRY IS KEY
Rock QB Noah Grover and WR Jacob Odom appeared to have instant chemistry in the opener, connecting eight times for 97 yards. That should be no surprise as the two have been friends and teammates for years. Odom was with Grover at North Dakota before Grover transferred to SRU. One year later, Odom followed Grover to The Rock.
 
WELCOME BACK COHEN RUSSELL
Cohen Russell attended SRU as a true freshman in 2019 and was a member of the team that reached the national semifinals. He transferred out after the 2019-20 academic year and went to Lackawanna, where he earned junior college All-America honors as a return specialist in 2021. Russell had numerous offers at the Division I and II level, but chose to return to Slippery Rock this fall. In his first game back, he took the opening kickoff 58 yards to set up an early TD, then returned the next punt 37 yards to set up another TD. Russell then grabbed a 74-yard TD pass and an eight-yard strike to finish last week with 177 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
 
RUNNING BACK BY COMMITTEE
Slippery Rock started sophomore Chris D'Or in the backfield last week and was rewarded early when D'Or broke a 32-yard TD less than five minutes into the game. D'Or finished with 52 yards on just seven carries. The Rock are likely to employ a committee approach this year with four backs all expected to get carries. Isaiah Edwards is the biggest body of the group and showed he was hard to bring down last week, rushing for 24 yards and one TD on just four carries. Returning All-PSAC honoree Tim Smith and now-healthy St. Francis transfer Chris Wells will also get carries.
 
11 PLAYERS MAKE FIRST SRU START
Exactly half of The Rock's 22 starters last week were making their first career start at Slippery Rock, including seven players on defense and four on offense. That number is a bit misleading though, as most of the new defensive starters are experienced transfers, including former All-Conference selections D.J. Adediwura (DE, Fairmont State), Kevin Hyde (DB, Tiffin) and Jacob Williams (DB, Ashland), along with linebackers Brandon Bischof (Akron) and Brandon Tuck-Hayden (Wayne State), who both have more than 30 games of collegiate experience. Linebacker Jake Miller (Akron) and DE Cottrell Hatchett (Lackawanna) also have previous experience. On offense, the four players that made their first SRU starts included WR transfer Jacob Odom (North Dakota) and SRU returners Chris D'Or (RB), Sawyer Morgan (C) and Kenyon Johnson (WR).
 
TUCK-HAYDEN LEADS AGAINST FORMER TEAM
Linebacker Brandon Tuck-Hayden was the leading tackler for SRU last week against Wayne State with 10 stops and a half-tackle for loss. No surprise as Tuck-Hayden was familiar with the offense having played for Wayne State for the last three seasons and served as the Warriors team captain in 2021, when he ranked second on the team in tackles.
 
ADEDIWURA SHINES IN SRU DEBUT
SRU defensive end D.J. Adediwura transferred in from Fairmont State before the start of the 2021 season, but suffered a season-ending injury before ever getting to play a snap. After a full year of recovery, he made his SRU debut against Wayne State and was arguably the most impactful player on defense. He finished the night with five tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss and 1.0 sack, but was also credited with four additional QB hurries and spent most of the night in the Warriors' backfield.
 
FIRST INTERCEPTION FOR THE BIG FELLA
Preseason All-American defensive tackle Jeff Marx came down with his first career interception last week after grabbing a pass that was initially tipped from fellow lineman Dez Johnson. Marx rumbled for nine yards after the interception in his first game back from suffering a season-ending in jury in 2021 that saw him miss the second half of the season. While Marx rarely shows up in the box scores for tackles or other stats, the two-time first team All-PSAC honoree is routinely talked about among coaches as one of the best interior linemen in the region.
 
KICKING GAME CAN IMPROVE
If there was one area that didn't go as well for SRU in the opener, it was in the kicking game. The Rock missed two field goals inside 40 yards, although kicker DJ Opsatnik was roughed on one attempt that negated the play, and struggled on kickoffs with Wayne State starting four drives between their 35-yard line and midfield.
 
ONLY 20 PERCENT ON THIRD DOWN
One surprising number from the opening week was the third down conversion percentage for SRU. The Rock faced just 10 third downs in the game, but converted on only two of those for a 20 percent mark. SRU did go for it on fourth down twice and was successful each time, turning two of those third down failures into first downs eventually, but The Rock will be expecting a better percentage on third down moving forward.
 
PASSING DEFENSE PICKS UP WHERE IT LEFT OFF
Slippery Rock finished the 2021 season ranked first in the PSAC and sixth in the nation in passing defense, allowing just 143.1 passing yards per game over the course of 12 games. In the opener last week, The Rock limited Wayne State to 12-of-36 passing for 104 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, allowing just 2.9 yards per attempt.
 
RUN DEFENSE IMPROVES AGAINST WSU
Slippery Rock gave up 247 rushing yards and an average of 4.5 yards per carry in a narrow 24-21 win at Wayne State in the 2021 opener in Detroit. The Rock were much better against the run last week, limiting Wayne State to 137 rushing yards and an average of 3.4 yards per carry.
 
TIME OF POSSESSION DIFFERENCE
Slippery Rock has averaged around 70 offensive plays per game for a number of years, but slowed things down significantly in the second half last week with the game in hand. The Rock ran just 56 total plays last week, while Wayne State ran 76 plays. Those extra 20 plays kept the SRU defense on the field for more than 11 more minutes than the offense with Wayne State posting a 35:47 to 24:13 advantage in time of possession.
 
QUICK SCORING OFFENSE
Slippery Rock scored six touchdowns last week against Wayne State with five of the six drives taking less than three minutes. The Rock scored four times in five plays or less, three times in 1:05 or less and had just one touchdown drive that took longer than 2:48. The longest drive of the game went the entire length of the field, covering 99 yards in just five plays and 2:02. The longest drive of the game time-wise was an 11-play, 77-yard drive that took 3:56.
 
WINNING SEASONS STREAK
Slippery Rock has put together a winning season in each of the last 12 years, which ranks ninth among all Division II programs for the longest active winning seasons streak in the country. The only other program in the PSAC with more consecutive winning seasons currently is California (Pa.), which has strung together 17 winning seasons entering 2022.
 
SIX CAPTAINS FOR 2022
Slippery Rock named four captains for the 2022 season following spring practices in April after voting by all players and coaches within the program. The four captains named back in the spring are quarterback Noah Grover, offensive lineman Colton Rossi, defensive tackle Jeff Marx and safety Selvin Haynes. This fall, the team added two more captains to that list with defensive end D.J. Adediwura and defensive back Kevin Hyde being named captains as well.
 
HEAVY ON THE TRANSFER PORTAL
SRU looks vastly different in 2022 than it did in 2021 with the departure of a highly decorated senior class. To fill most of those voids, Slippery Rock went heavy on the transfer portal and added 20 transfer students, many of which have slid immediately into starting roles. In total, Slippery Rock has 31 players on the roster that also played at another college.
 
FEATURED EVENTS ON THE SCHEDULE
Slippery Rock will host six home games during the regular season in 2022 and five of those dates will feature special events or be part of larger campus and community events. The Sept. 24 game against Seton Hill will be the cap to the annual Slippery Rock VillageFest. The Oct. 8 game against Mercyhurst will be the annual Hall of Fame game, where The Rock's Hall of Fame Class of 2022 will be introduced. The Oct. 15 game against Gannon will be the annual Homecoming game. The Nov. 5 game against Edinboro will be the annual Salute to Military and First Responders game and the Nov. 12 game against Kutztown will be the annual Senior Day game and could also be the PSAC Championship game if SRU wins the PSAC West.

UP NEXT
Slippery Rock hits the road again next week for another PSAC crossover at Millersville. Kickoff is set for noon on Saturday, Sept. 17. The Rock will then return home to open PSAC West play Sept. 24 with a 6 p.m. kickoff against Seton Hill to cap the annual Slippery Rock VillageFest.



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