Rock beaten at the Big House
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Slippery Rock unveiled a big surprise at the Big House — then endured a big disappointment.
Jared Buck, a 6-foot-4 senior, made his first start at quarterback for The Rock since Nov. 10, 2012, and completed 10 of 12 passes for 192 yards in the first half Saturday at Michigan Stadium.
Buck and SRU took a 23-17 lead over Mercyhurst into the locker room at halftime, only to see the Lakers score on six consecutive possessions and cruise to a 45-23 college football victory.
The loss left The Rock (5-2, 4-2) 0-3 all-time at the Big House, also losing 45-14 to Shippensburg in 1979 and 14-13 to Wayne State in 1981.
“We're grateful to the University of Michigan and their athletic director, Dave Brandon, for the hospitality and for this opportunity,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “For all the Michigan fans who became Rock fans for a day ... I wish we could have given them a better showing.”
The game was played in front of 15,121. More than 25,000 tickets were sold or distributed before the game, but high winds and light rain that fell Saturday morning likely damaged the anticipated attendance figure.
Michigan Stadium seats 109,901.
Mihalik said he decided to go with Buck on Friday after the latter completed a solid week of practice with no issues throwing the football. He had suffered an arm injury during training camp.
Regular quarterback Zack Newsock was healthy and coming off a career-high 368 passing yards at California the previous week, but also turned the ball over four times in that game.
“I was getting a good deal of reps with the firstteam all week, so I knew there was a good chance I'd play,” Buck said. “I was mentally ready for the whole thing.”
Buck connected with Leroy McClain deep down the middle for a 52-yard touchdown strike on the game's first possession after a roughing the punter call extended the drive. He directed a 12-play, 72-yard drive on The Rock's next possession that ended with a 28-yard Mike Wainauskis field goal and a 10-0 lead.After Mercyhurst (3-4, 3-3) closed within 16-14 on a 41-yard bomb to Stephen Yarbrough with 1:13 left in the half, Buck struck again. This time, he found Nick Davis for a 41-yard TD strike deep down the middle with 28 seconds left and it was 23-14.Then The Rock stopped. And Mercyhurst kept going.“We weren't surprised at all that he (Buck) played,” Lakers' coach Marty Schaetzle said. “We didn't change anything we were doing defensively.“What we had to do as a defense was stop giving up the big play. Offensively, our players made plays.”After scoring a touchdown and field goal on its final two posessions of the first half, Mercyhurst put together touchdown drives of 75, 86, 77 and 56 yards with its first four possessions of the second half.In the meantime, SRU was limited to 83 yards and three first downs in the latter two quarters. Buck completed six of 17 passes for 47 yards in the second half.“They didn't do anything different. They just took it to us. They controlled the line of scrimmage and played a tremendous game,” Mihalik said.Buck said it was frustrating standing on the sidelines watching the opponent put up points, “but it was up to us to go out there and answer, do our part, and we didn't do it.”Mars graduate and senior linebacker Austin Miele led The Rock with nine tackles and admitted that playing in the Big House “was everything I thought it would be.”But the loss — and the Rock defense coughing up 536 yards — dampened that experience.“I don't even know what happened out there,” Miele said. “I can't explain it. We were chasing them all over. I have to see the films to see what went wrong.”Lakers' quarterback Brendan Boylan, who wasn't the team's starting quarterback until Week 3 of this season, completed 24 of 37 passes for 385 yards and four touchdowns. On the team's roster since 2011, the red-shirt junior saw action at quarterback in only one game before this year.Mercyhurst went 4-for-4 on fourth-down gambles Saturday, three of those plays resulting in touchdowns. One was a 6-yard pass from Zach Emerick to Seneca Valley graduate Donny Holl to complete an 11-play, 75-yard drive to start the third quarter and give the Lakers the lead at 24-23.The play marked fullback Holl's first collegiate touchdown. Boylan took a blow to the head on the previous play and had to leave the game.“The officials thought he was wobbly and wanted him checked out by our medical staff,” Schaetzle said. “I was fine with that. Zach had been our starter previously and has probably repped the play we called 250 times.“Yeah, we gambled on some fourth downs, but when you have confidence in the play call, the call is easy. Making the blocks, the runs, the throws, the catches, that's the hard part.”Schaetzle held a giant spoon above his head as his players came out of the tunnel to begin the game. Each player touched the spoon as he ran by.“It stands for the need for us to feed each other,” the coach said. “It's a symbol this team has rallied around.“This was going to be a great experience for Mercyhurst University whether we won or lost this game. We easily could have lost because Slippery Rock has a very good team.”A very good team that's stumbled badly the past two weeks.We wanted to cap this memorable weekend by coming into this stadium and playing well,” Mihalik said. “We did that ... but only for a half.”Notes: Mercyhurst is 3-0 since debuting “the spoon.” ... Boylan completed passes to nine different receivers. ... SRU was outgained 299-83 in the second half. ... The Rock was held to season-lows of 16 first downs and 64 plays. SRU averaged 87 plays per game coming into the contest. ... Brandon Brown-Dukes had 25 carries for 100 yards for the Lakers, his third 100-yard effort against The Rock. ... Shamar Greene was limited to 56 yards rushing, his third straight sub-100-yard game since he led all of Division II in rushing after four weeks. ... Butler graduate Bob Vernick and Seneca Valley grad Nick Dahlstrom both had four solo tackles for SRU. Mars graduate Alex Smith had a tackle on special teams for Mercyhurst.Mercyhurst 45, SRU 23
Mercyhurst 0 17 14 14 — 45Slippery Rock 10 13 0 0 — 23M SRU29 First Downs 1637-145 Rushes-Yards 35-122391 Passing Yards 23925-38-0 Comp.-Att.-Int 18-29-0536 Total Yards 3611-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-05-35 Penalty Yards 4-39First QuarterSRU — Leroy McClain 52 pass from Jared Buck (Mike Wainauskis kick), 13:24SRU — Wainauskis 28 field goal, 4:52Second QuarterM — Brandon Brown-Dukes 21 pass from Brendan Boylan (Dylan Kondis kick), 14:54SRU — Jaimire Dutrieuille 4 run (kick blocked), 3:56M — Stephen Yarbrough 41 pass from Boylan (Kondis kick), 1:13SRU — Nick Davis 41 pass from Buck (Wainauskis kick), :28M — Kondis 30 field goal, :00Third QuarterM — Donny Holl 6 pass from Zach Emerick (Kondis kick), 9:39M — R.J. Miller 6 pass from Boylan (Kondis kick), 3:07Fourth QuarterM — Jaquan Williams 39 pass from Boylan (Kondis kick), 12:39M — Williams 22 run (Kondis kick), 5:14Individual StatisticsRushing: Mercyhuirst, Brandon Brown-Dukes 25-100, Brendan Boylan 6-27, Jaquan Williams 1-22, Drew Robinson 5-(-4). SRU, Shamar Greene 13-56, Jared Buck 11-36, Teddy Blaleman 9-24, Jaimire Dutrieuille 1-4, Julian Durden 1-2.Passing: Mercyhurst, Brendan Boylan 24-37-385-0, Zach Emerick 1-1-6-0. SRU, Jared Buck 18-29-239-0.Receiving: Mercyhurst, R.J. Miller 5-45, Brandon Brown-Dukes 4-46, T.J. Latimer 4-36, Jaquan Williams 3-67, Stephen Yarbrough 2-77, John Matarazzo 2-28, Donny Holl 2-22, Dylan Bongiorni 2-19, Drew Robinson 1-51. SRU, Julian Harrell 5-33, Drew Scales 5-19, Leroy McClain 3-78, Nick Davis 3-60, Shamar Greene 1-50, Julian Durden 1-(-1).
