EDINBORO, Pa. – The fifth-ranked Slippery Rock University football team improved to 10-0 and closed out a perfect Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division schedule with a 56-18 win on the road at Edinboro Saturday in the final week of divisional play.
 
The Rock improve to 10-0 overall and 7-0 in PSAC West action, reaching 10-0 for the second time in the last four seasons and just the second time in program history. Slippery Rock will represent the Western Division in the PSAC Championship next Saturday at Kutztown after the Golden Bears also went 7-0 in the Eastern Division. Edinboro slips to 2-8 overall and 1-6 in PSAC West games with the loss.
 
The Fighting Scots took the opening kickoff and marched down the field with a 67-yard touchdown drive to take a 7-0 lead. Slippery Rock answered with a 68-yard drive of its own and tied the game at 7-7 with a touchdown pass from Brayden Long to Cohen Russell that made it 7-7 with 7:36 to play in the first.
 
Edinboro retook the lead on its next series after going 66 yards in 14 plays before settling for a 29-yard field goal that made it 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.
 
From there, Slippery Rock went on a 35-0 run to blow the game open and put it out of reach. It marked the eighth straight week that SRU has went on at least a 25-0 run at some point during a game.
 
The Rock built a 28-10 halftime advantage with a fourth down touchdown pass to Kyle Sheets inside the final 10 seconds of the half and then extended that advantage out to 42-10 in the third quarter before Edinboro stopped the bleeding with a touchdown that came with 12:33 to play. On the next play from scrimmage, Russell took a shovel pass 91 yards to the house and SRU added a late TD with the second offensive unit to account for the final score.
 
Slippery Rock was nearly flawless on offense Saturday, going for 670 total yards with a perfectly balanced attack that included 28 rushing plays and 28 passing plays. SRU finished with 413 passing yards and 257 rushing yards, averaging 9.2 yards per carry. Edinboro put up 133 yards in the first quarter alone, but was held in check the rest of the way and finished with 319 total yards with 231 passing yards and 88 rushing yards.
 
Long had one of the best performances by any quarterback in the country, completing 85 percent of his passes (23-of-27) for 400 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. On the season, Long is now completing 69.8 percent of his passes for 2,879 yards with 32 touchdowns and just two interceptions on 308 pass attempts.
 
Russell had his second huge game in a row and finished with a career-high 180 receiving yards and three touchdowns, one week after posting a then career-high 135 yards against Clarion. He has 315 yards in his last two games and has now caught at least one pass in 23 straight games. Sheets had another 100-yard day in the receiving game with five catches for 104 yards and one touchdown, his 14th of the season. Kam Kruzelyak added four catches for 43 yards, Nathan Waltman caught his first career TD pass and Tony Grimes grabbed a TD pass form Zaire Hart-Hawkins, who is now a perfect 7-for-7 for 83 yards and two TD this season in relief.
 
Khalid Dorsey ran for 92 yards and one touchdown on just eight carries, averaging 11.5 yards per touch. Chris D'Or rushed for 48 yards and one score on just six carries while also catching three passes for 25 yards and Isaiah Edwards ran for 41 yards on just six carries. Luke McCoy got seven straight carries in the fourth quarter and went for 43 yards and Kylon Wilson had a 33-yard run on a fake punt.
 
Selvin Haynes paced the SRU defense with 11 total tackles and a half-tackle for loss. Max Heckert added seven stops and a half TFL, while Andrew Vince tallied six stops and 1.5 tackles for loss and Munchie Johnson had four stops and 1.5 sacks. Michael Henwood forced one fumble, which was recovered by Josh Stokes, and Donnell Henriquez intercepted one pass as SRU came up with two takeaways.
 
Edinboro got 231 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception from Isaac Bernard. Amani Bailey had 85 receiving yards and Thaddeus Standfield had 65 receiving yards and one score.
 
Slippery Rock will now turn its focus to the PSAC Championship game next Saturday at Kutztown, which is set for a noon kickoff. The Rock will be making their eighth appearance in the PSAC title game since it was reinstated in 2008, while Kutztown is making its fifth appearance. Those two teams are the only programs in the league with more than three appearances in the state game since 2008.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock improved to 10-0 for the second time in the last four seasons (2019) and just the second time in program history … SRU won its fifth straight game against Edinboro and is now 61-28-7 all-time against the Fighting Scots … SRU is now 35-2 in its last 37 PSAC West games, including 33-2 in the last five seasons with five straight division titles … SRU played its 49th straight game as a ranked opponent Saturday and its first game ranked in the top five since the 2021 season opener … this is the latest in a season SRU has been ranked in the top five since 1999 … SRU went on a 35-0 run in this game to mark the eighth straight week with at least a 25-0 run … SRU has won its last nine straight games by 21 or more points … Brayden Long threw for 400 yards for the first time in his career and matched his career-high with five TD tosses … Long now has 32 TD passes this season, which is tied for No. 2 in single-season history at SRU … Cohen Russell had a career-high in receiving for the second straight week with 180 yards and three TD … Russell now has 873 yards on the season and needs just 127 to become the 10th player in program history to reach 1,000 yards in a season … Kyle Sheets had his ninth career 100-yard receiving game and caught his 14th TD of the season, which ranks tied for fourth in single-season history at SRU … Sheets now has 997 yards in his last nine games and is just three yards shy of becoming the 10th player in program history to reach 1,000 yards in a season.




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