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GREENSBURG, Pa. – The 24th-ranked Slippery Rock University football team bounced back from a pair of losses in emphatic fashion with a dominant showing in a 49-7 win on the road at Seton Hill University Saturday from Offutt Field.
 
The Rock stop their two-game skid and improve to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in PSAC West play with the win. Seton Hill, which was riding high after posting a 16-7 road win at No. 6 California (Pa.) a week ago, slips to 3-4 overall and 1-2 in PSAC West action.
 
Slippery Rock was dominant from the early stages Saturday, forcing a three-and-out on defense and then marching 58 yards on three rushing plays to jump out to a 7-0 lead less than three minutes in. JayJay Jordan broke off two long runs and DaOne Owens closed out the drive with an 11-yard QB run for the score.
 
The Rock extended the lead out to 28-0 at halftime and never let off in the second half on the way to the most comfortable and complete victory of the season.
 
"This is the kind of performance we know this team is capable of," said head coach Shawn Lutz. "We made a ton of mistakes the last two weeks and it cost us in two close games. Today we played a full 60 minutes. We were focused and disciplined in all three phases. Credit to the men in our program for responding to some adversity the way they did this week."
 
Slippery Rock ran for 410 yards just a week after rushing for 374 yards against Gannon. It marked the first 400+ yard rushing performance by an SRU team since Sept. 12, 2015 against East Stroudsburg (414) and was just 46 yards shy of the program's single-game record of 456 (against East Stroudsburg in 2014). SRU finished the day with a 541-217 advantage in total offense with 410 rushing yards and 131 passing yards to Seton Hill's 177 rushing yards and just 40 passing yards.
 
Neither team turned the ball over, which marked another positive for SRU after turning it over five times in the last two games combined.
 
"You can't win when you give the ball away," said Lutz. "We made so many mistakes against Cal and Gannon. We know we are a better football team than that. We wanted to run the football and erase the turnovers today and the offense did a great job of both of those things."
 
Owens ran for three of the team's six rushing touchdowns and finished his day with 79 rushing yards on nine carries to go along with 131 passing yards and one TD. The TD pass went to true freshman tight end Christian Werling, who made the most of getting reps due The Rock's lengthy list of injured players.
 
Jordan was electric again and was the top offensive player on the field all day in a game that featured two of the best running backs in the region. He ran for 189 yards and one touchdown on just 13 carries, averaging 14.5 yards per carry. Luke McCoy added 59 rushing yards and one TD on eight carries for 7.4 yards per carry and Quentin Harrison chipped in 46 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries.
 
Latrell Sutton caught three passes for 75 yards while John Sabo had one 27-yard catch and Joe White had two grabs for 21 yards.
 
The Rock defense played its best game of the year and limited the Seton Hill offense to just seven points, despite playing musical chairs with the lineup due to numerous injuries. Tyler Cain, who made his second career start at linebacker, led SRU for the second week in a row with nine total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. True freshman Spencer Barninger made his second start and finished with seven stops. Trever Valenti added seven tackles, while Brian Young Jr. was credited with 2.0 tackles for loss and Elijah Halley picked up 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack.
 
"I'm really proud of the defense today," said Lutz. "We missed a lot of tackles the last two weeks and gave up a lot of points. We've got a bunch of guys out on that side of the ball including some of our team's best players, but you have to be able to rely on the next man to step up and they did that today. They were dominant against the run in the first half and really helped set the tone for us to jump out to the big lead."
 
Seton Hill was led by running back Ky'Ron Craggette with 112 yards on 23 carries. QB Darrian Carter ran for 35 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries while completing 6-of-18 passes for 40 yards.
 
After a two-game road swing, Slippery Rock will now return home to Mihalik-Thompson Stadium next Saturday for the annual Homecoming game against PSAC West leader Indiana (Pa.). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock won its ninth straight game in the series against Seton Hill and SRU head coach Shawn Lutz improved to 9-0 against the Griffins … The Rock are now 14-2 all-time against SHU … Lutz improved to 86-23 as SRU head coach … The Rock ran for 410 yards to mark the first game with 400+ rushing yards since Sept. 12, 2015 against East Stroudsburg (414) … after rushing for 374 yards last week, SRU now has two games with at least 300 rushing yards in a season for the first time since 2015 … JayJay Jordan ran for 189 yards and now has topped 100 rushing yards in five of six games … he is up to 892 rushing yards on the year and is averaging 9.2 yards per carry and 148.7 yards per game, both tops in the PSAC … DaOne Owens ran for three TD and tossed one more to account for four TD in just his fourth career start … TE Christian Werling's first career catch was a four-yard TD in the first half … SRU did not turn the ball over against Seton Hill ... the 49 points scored were the most in a game in the last two seasons and the most since SRU scored 45 in back-to-back games in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Playoffs in 2023.



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