Slippery Rock football will take ‘long, hard look’ in offseason after Bloomsburg ends Rock’s playoff hopes
Slippery Rock fought back, trying to extend its college football season Saturday at Redman Stadium in Bloomsburg.
But the Huskies delivered the knockout blow to The Rock’s playoff hopes in overtime, scoring a touchdown for a 30-24 season-ending victory.
SRU (6-4) lost four games in a season for the first time since 2016. It was also eliminated from NCAA Division II playoff contention, ending a string of six successive seasons in postseason play.
“It’s acceptable to some teams, but 6-4 is unacceptable to us,” Rock coach Shawn Lutz said. “We have to take a long, hard look at ourselves, and that begins with me. We’re going to get right back at it Monday and begin the quest of filling holes we need to fill.
“Slippery Rock football will be back. I promise you that.”
The Rock trailed 24-10 entering the fourth quarter. Xander McClure turned a screen pass into a 69-yard touchdown and JayJay Jordan got loose for a 55-yard scoring run to knot the game midway through the final period.
Jordan rushed for 181 yards on the day, giving him 1,375 for the season. He scored a pair of touchdowns, as well. Jordan’s rushing total is eighth most on SRU’s all--time single season list.
SRU had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation. But Blake Nicholas’ 39-yard field goal attempt with 6 seconds left sailed well wide. Kevin Roberts missed a pair of field goal tries earlier.
It was the first attempt of the season for Nicholas, who kicks off for The Rock. Roberts entered the game 3 of 7 on field goal tries.
“We had to try something different,” Lutz said. “That (field goals) has been something we’ve struggled with all year. That’s one area we definitely have to shore up.”
Bloomsburg (3-8) won the coin toss in overtime and elected to start on defense. After starting from the Bloomsburg 25-yard line, The Rock were flagged for holding on its possession, moving the ball back to the 35. A fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
“They grabbed JayJay’s facemask (on the play whistled for holding),” Lutz said. “They ripped his helmet off his head and it wasn’t called. Yeah, that holding penalty clearly hurt us.”
SRU was flagged 12 times for 109 yards in penalties on the day.
The Huskies got their possession at The Rock 25 and scored the game-winning points on a 1-yard run.
“Bloom had a lot of long possessions in this game,” Lutz said. “We stopped them a few times, but our possessions were limited.”
Gabe Brower scored three touchdowns for Bloomsburg, which played in its third overtime game of the year.
The Rock had won seven consecutive PSAC crossover games and were 14-1 in its last 15 such games before losing Saturday. SRU has not won a football game in Bloomsburg since 1936 and trails 12-5 in the all-time series.
“We get JayJay back next year, (quarterback) DaOne Owens, all of our receivers. ... We’ll be in good shape that way,” Lutz said. “Hopefully, we don’t lose some of them to the portal. That’s part of college football today, and we have to be ready for it.”
Slippery Rock 7 0 3 14 0 — 24
Bloomsburg 7 10 7 0 6 — 30
First Quarter
B — Gabe Brower 3 run (Aaron Johnson kick), 8:28
SRU — JayJay Jordan 9 run (Kevin Roberts kick), 3:17
Second Quarter
B — Brower 17 pass from KJ Riley (Johnson kick), 11:00
B — Johnson 21 field goal, 0:00
Third Quarter
SRU — Roberts 30 field goal, 10:50
B — Brower 7 pass from Riley (Johnson kick), 5:16
Fourth Quarter
SRU — Xander McClure 69 pass from DaOne Owens (Roberts kick), 13:52
SRU — Jordan 55 run (Roberts kick), 7:50
Overtime
B — Riley 1 run
Individual Statistics
Passing: SRU, DaOne Owens 13-26-179-1. Bloomsburg, KJ Riley 22-31-230-0.
Rushing: SRU, JayJay Jordan 24-181, DaOne Owens 11-40, Quentin Harrison 2-7. Bloomsburg, Eli Zimmerman 9-36, Declan Clancy 9-35, Justin Wolfe 4-32, KJ Riley 14-32, Gabe Brower 2-6.
Receiving: SRU, Xander McClure 3-89, Latrell Sutton 5-50, Vincent Berardi 2-24, John Sabo 2-13, JayJay Jordan 1-3, Bloomsburg, Gabe Brower 7-79, Justin Wolfe 5-53, Jerry Griffen-Batchler 6-45, P. Wojciechowski 1-29, Alex Achenbach 1-16, Jack Landis 1-5, Eli Zimmerman 1-5.
