Slippery Rock University Athletics

Highlights  |  Postgame Interview  |  Photo Gallery (more will be added later)

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The fifth-ranked Slippery Rock University football team won the 13th Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title in program history with a dominant 44-14 win over No. 14 East Stroudsburg University Saturday in the league championship game from Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
 
The Rock improve to 11-0 for the second time in program history and the second time since 2019 and claim their first PSAC overall title since 2019. SRU's win was also a PSAC-best eighth championship game victory and marked the 13th overall title for the program. East Stroudsburg drops to 9-2 overall on the season with both losses coming against Slippery Rock.
 
Both teams had to battle rain, wind and temperatures that dipped below freezing for the entirety of the game Saturday and made moving the ball on offense and tackling on defense difficult. It was evident early as East Stroudsburg fumbled the ball away on its very first offensive snap, leading to a Connor Macek field goal that put SRU up 3-0 less than three minutes into the game.
 
It looked as if the Warriors had SRU stopped deep in their own territory on the next possession, but ESU jumped offside on a punt to hand The Rock a new set of downs at their own 11-yard line. DaOne Owens made them pay on the next play with an 89-yard touchdown run to make it 10-0 with 9:08 to play in the first. That marked the longest run in program history by a QB and the first run of 80 or longer yards by an SRU player since Andrew Koester ran for an 80-yard score against Kentucky State in 2018.
 
Owens wasted little time in adding to his stat line when he broke free for a 61-yard touchdown run on the next possession to make it 17-0 with 4:45 to play in the first.
 
Slippery Rock would add seven more points just 42 seconds later after the defense forced a quick three-and-out. ESU punted a low line drive to JayJay Jordan, which gave him plenty of room to field the punt and take off on a 73-yard touchdown scamper. Jordan broke three tackles and ran through a called facemask penalty on the way to the end zone for his Division II leading third punt return TD of the season. That made it 24-0 with 4:03 to play in the first.
 
The Rock capped a 27-0 run that took just 16:07 with a season-long 42-yard field goal from Macek with 13:53 to play in the second quarter. ESU stopped the rally and scored a touchdown with a Harrison Susi QB keeper to make it 27-7 with 8:06 to play in the first half, but SRU tacked on a third field goal from Macek to send it to the break with a 30-7 advantage for the hosts.
 
Slippery Rock put the game away with touchdown runs from Jordan and Owens to extend the lead to 44-7 before ESU scored a late TD to account for the final score.
 
The Rock defense were dominant in the passing game, limiting the two ESU quarterbacks to just 3-of-24 for 66 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Evan Harper grabbed his PSAC-leading fifth interception of the season and The Rock secondary broke up seven passes and forced other numerous errant throws. Ben Lane had two breakups to go along with nine tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss. Owen Suah had two breakups to go with three tackles and Carmen Metcalfe and JuJu Johnson each had a breakup.
 
Slippery Rock finished with advantages of 469-265 in total offense, 316-199 in rushing offense and 153-66 in passing offense.
 
Owens was named the Championship MVP after rushing for 206 yards and three touchdowns and completing 13-of-32 passes for 153 yards with one interception.
 
Jordan broke the SRU single-season record for all-purpose yardage and finished with 215 total yards with 66 rushing yards, 64 receiving yards and 85 punt return yards. Eryck Moore-Watkins added 36 rushing yards on three carries.
 
Hamilton Gates caught two passes for 34 yards, Vincent Berardi caught three passes for 16 yards and Carson Heckathorn caught a 20-yard pass to lead the receivers on a day where throwing the ball came at a premium.
 
Nick Frisco came up with one fumble recovery and finished with five tackles. Teddy Gregory Jr. and Tyree Johnson each had five tackles as well with Gregory and Brian Young Jr. both recording one tackle for loss.
 
Macek was perfect on the day in the kicking game, booting field goals from 35, 42 and 34 yards to become the first SRU kicker with three made field goals in a game since Jake Chapla in 2018.
 
ESU starting QB Matt Machalik was 2-for-20 for 39 yards with one interception and ran for 35 yards. He gave way to Harrison Susi, who was more successful moving the offense and finished with a team-high 83 rushing yards and one score while completing 1-of-4 passes for 27 yards. The other TD for the Warriors came from Will Day on a one-yard plunge in the fourth.
 
Saturday's win locked up the PSAC automatic qualifier spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Rock are guaranteed to be the No. 1 seed in Super Region One and will have home field advantage throughout the regional rounds. SRU will find out the rest of the bracket and its opening round opponent during the NCAA Selection Show Sunday night at 6 p.m. at NCAA.com.
 
GAME NOTES: Slippery Rock is 11-0 for the second time in program history with the only other time being 2019 when SRU won its first 13 games … SRU won the 13th PSAC outright title in program history and won it via a league title game for the eighth time, the most in the PSAC … SRU is PSAC champion for the first time since 2019 … SRU head coach Shawn Lutz improved to 99-25 at SRU … SRU improved to 18-3 all-time against ESU and won its seventh straight in the series … DaOne Owens had an 89-yard TD run to account for the longest TD run by an SRU QB in documented program history … his 206 rushing yards were also the most by an SRU QB … Owens was named the MVP … Owens now has 3,422 total offensive yards this year, good for No. 7 in SRU single-season history … JayJay Jordan had his third punt return TD of the season to lead all players in the nation … Jordan broke the SRU single-season all-purpose yards record and now has 2,093 yards this season … the former record of 1,993 yards was set by Marcus Johnson in 2017 … Jordan extended his SRU record for TD in a season to 30 total TD … Connor Macek made three field goals to become the first kicker at SRU to make three in a game since Jake Chapla made three against Cal (Pa.) in 2018 … Jordan extended his games with a TD streak to 17 … Spencer Barninger was named the Champion Scholar Award winner for owning the highest GPA of all players in the game (4.0 GPA).




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