Rockets fall short in shootout
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock High running back Frank Conlon had 152 yards rushing just three minutes into the game.
But the Rockets lost.
Slippery Rock averaged 11.2 yards per carry.
But the Rockets lost.
Two of Slippery Rock quarterback Ryan Currie's first three pass completions went for touchdowns.
But the Rockets lost.
It was that kind of game — a back-and-forth heavyweight fight between two of the top teams in District 10.
Slippery Rock and General McLane combined for 813 yards rushing, nearly 1,000 yards of offense and 13 touchdowns.
The Rockets came up just one TD short in a 46-42 loss in the District 10 Class AAA semifinals at Slippery Rock University Friday night.
“It was two offensive teams throwing haymakers,” said General McLane coach Jim Wells. “You can't be happy with the defense, but then again, you have to give the two offenses credit. Both were ... wow.”
It got to the point in the second half where both coaches, having little faith their defenses could get a stop, opted for onside kicks after touchdowns.
McLane recovered one, which turned out to be a key turning point in the game.
“We couldn't stop each other,” Wells said, shrugging his shoulders. “What else could we do?”
After McLane scored to cut the Slippery Rock lead to 35-32 with 3:23 remaining in the third quarter, the Lancers squibbed the kickoff, finally recovering it at the Rockets' 26.
Five plays later, quarterback Quinn Thompson bulled his way into the end zone from the 4 to give McLane a 39-35 lead.
In a game like this, the extra possession was huge.
“There are no secrets with the two offenses we run,” said Slippery Rock coach Brendan Hathaway. “We know what they do. They know what we do. We run some of the same stuff. They run it well. I'm proud of our guys because we ran it just as well on our side.”
Conlon got the scoring- fest started with an 83-yard touchdown run on the game's third play.
General McLane (9-2) answered that score just a minute later before Conlon broke off a 68-yard run to the Lancers' 7, setting up Currie's 6-yard TD run to make it 14-6 less than five minutes into the game.
At that point Conlon had 152 yards rushing on three carries. The junior, who became a starter at midseason because of a knee injury to Jeff Croll, finished with 285 yards on 15 attempts.
Slippery Rock (9-2) led 28-26 at the half. Both teams had the ball for exactly 12 minutes in the first half.That changed in the final two quarters when the Rockets had the ball for just six minutes.After Slippery Rock went up 42-39 on a 1-yard run by Currie, it failed to score on its final three possessions with drives ending with a punt, fumble and on downs.McLane had two touchdowns wiped out because of penalty after the Slippery Rock fumble. On fourth-and-goal from the 9, Wells opted to go for a touchdowns instead of a field goal which would have put the Lancers up by a touchdown with a little more than 2 minutes to go.“That probably would have been the right call,” Wells said. “But the way this game was going, I didn't want to lose on 2-point conversion.”Slippery Rock stopped McLane on fourth down. Currie hooked up with Joey Meyer for a 28-yard pass to the Rockets' 35, but four straight incompletions ended the drive.“It was an offensive game, but what ended up winning it for us was defense,” Wells said. “We made a couple of big stops at the end. We couldn't for three quarters, but we did at the end.”Slippery Rock, which has been stellar on defense for most of the season, couldn't solve the McLane attack.Suminski rushed for 193 yards on 14 carries and scored four touchdowns. Thompson gained 150 yards on 32 carries and Aidan Graham rolled up 98 yards on the ground on just eight carries.The Lancers had 478 yards rushing on 62 rushing attempt. McLane will play Cathedral Prep (11-0) for the district title next week.Slippery Rock instead will say goodbye to a slew of seniors who turned an 0-10 team in 2010 into a region champion two years later.“I told the kids you have to come out and punch first, punch the hardest and punch for four quarters,” Hathaway said. “Both teams did that tonight. We left every single thing we had out on the field.“Now there's a template for these younger guys to look up to,” Hathaway added. “These are a great group of men we have here. I'm proud of them, and I'm proud to have coached them.”Gen. McLane 12 14 13 7 — 46Slippery Rock 14 14 7 7 — 42GM SR23 First Downs 1162-478 Rushes-Yards 30-33520 Passing Yards 1144-8-0 Comp.-Att.-Int 4-12-1498 Total Yards 4492-1 Fumbles-Lost 1-15-30 Penalty Yards 1-5First QuarterSR — Frank Conlon 83 run (Cole McCandless kick), 10:44GM — Quinn Thompson 5 run (kick blocked), 9:19SR — Ryan Currie 6 run (McCandless kick), 7:27GM — Mike Suminski 28 run (run failed), 3:27Second QuarterSR — Chris Reesman 15 pass from Ryan Currie (McCandless kick), 9:00GM — Aidan Graham 7 run (Kirk Dillen kick), 3:53GM — Suminski 60 run (Dillen kick), 1:32SR — Jake Whitmer 57 pass from Currie (McCandless kick), 1:14Third QuarterSR — Conlon 71 run (McCandless kick), 9:13GM — Suminski 2 run (pass failed), 3:23GM — Thompson 4 run (Dillen kick), :54Fourth QuarterSR — Currie 1 run (McCandless kick), 11:31GM — Suminski 49 run (Dillen kick), 7:02Individual StatisticsRushing: General McLane, Mike Suminski 14-193, Quinn Thompson 32-150, Aidan Graham 8-98, Calvin Kinnard 1-15, Marcus Erdman 4-12, Tyler Sanders 2-12, Team 1-(-2). Slippery Rock, Frank Conlon 15-285, Ryan Currie 8-31, Joey Meyer 6-17, Jake Whitmer 1-2.Passing: General McLane, Quinn Thompson 4-6-20-0, Marcus Erdman 0-2-0-0. Slippery Rock, Ryan Currie 4-12-114-1.Receiving: General McLane, Aidan Graham 2-16, Clay Smith 2-4. Slippery Rock, Chris Reesman 2-29, Jake Whitmer 1-57, Joey Meyer 1-28.
