PSAC champs!
SLIPPERY ROCK — Two times, a classic.
This time, a victory.
Slippery Rock University held off a second-half surge by Bloomsburg to win the PSAC football championship game, 28-26, Saturday at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium. The win marked SRU's first conference grid title since 1974, the last time the game was played in Slippery Rock.
It also avenged a heartbreaking 42-38 PSAC title game loss last season at Bloomsburg and earned The Rock a second consecutive NCAA Division II playoff berth.
SRU (9-2) moved to the No. 5 position in the Super Region One rankings and will travel to No. 4 West Chester (10-1) Saturday for a first-round game. Bloomsburg (10-1) slipped to No. 2 and still drew a first-round bye.
The Rock scored all of its points in the first half Saturday and took a 28-17 lead into halftime. SRU won the game despite a minus four in turnover/takeaway margin.
“These guys always claim to be a brotherhood and, today, they found a way,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “The first half was all about the offense.
“The second half was all about the defense. They (Bloomsburg) got it done late in the game last year. This year, it was our turn.”
Rock quarterback Jared Buck took game MVP honors, throwing for 256 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for 59 yards and a 19-yard score. He left the game with a possible concussion with 10:30 left in the contest.
“We had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder today, maybe,” Buck admitted. “We had heard a lot about their defense and how tough it is. But we know we have weapons on offense and we can move the ball on anyone if we execute.”
The Rock amassed 508 yards offensively — 233 rushing, 275 passing — the most yardage allowed by the Huskies (10-1) in a game this season. Bloomsburg entered the contest allowing an average of 12.6 points and 88.6 yards rushing per game.
“We weren't supposed to be here. We certainly weren't supposed to win this game,” Mihalik gushed. “But we just beat the fifth-ranked team in the nation, top-ranked team in the region.
“I don't know what more you have to do to prove yourself than that.”Second-year Bloomsburg coach Paul Darragh admitted surprise over SRU's offensive production early.“Nobody's done that to us ... not like that,” Darragh said of the 28-point first half. “But, hey, they're good. We still gave ourselves opportunities to come back and win.“They denied us when they had to.”Buck threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Leroy McClain and 74 yards to Melvin German in the first quarter, but Bloomsburg answered both scores. A 54-yard pass to Drew Scales set up a 1-yard Teddy Blakeman scoring run and Buck's 19-yard TD scamper gave SRU a 28-14 lead with 6:19 left in the half.The Huskies put together a 14-play, 83-yard drive to end the first half with a 25-yard Braden Drexler field goal.From there, it was time to hold on.“The offense gave us 28 points,” Mars graduate and SRU senior linebacker Austin Miele said. “It was up to us to protect it.”The Rock missed chances to build on it.A 90-yard drive ended with a Shamar Greene fumble, recovered by Bloomsburg's Tomas Cabrera at the Huskies' 6-yard line with 4:51 left in the third quarter.On third-and-8 from the Bloomsburg 29 early in the fourth period, Buck was intercepted by Cabrera, who returned the theft 71 yards to The Rock 19-yard line. Four plays later, Tim Kelly's 15-yard TD pass to Aaron Allison pulled the Huskies within 28-23.Bloomsburg has 39 takeaways on the season and leads all of Division II with a plus 28 in that category.“We don't practice taking the ball away, we just hit hard,” linebacker Justin Shirk, who led Bloomsburg with 14 tackles, said. “We play physical. We try to get 11 hats in there hitting and sometimes we get the ball out.”Running back Joe Parsnik was swarmed under on a two-point conversion try and SRU's lead remained at five.A McClain fumble was recovered by Bloomsburg's Dylan Spangler moments later and the Huskies advanced the ball 23 yards on six plays. Drexler's 44-yard field goal cut the gap to 28-26 with 8:52 left to play.“We couldn't get field position in the second half and when we did, we turned the ball over,” Mihalik said. “We knew (Bloomsburg) wasn't going to go away quietly.”The Huskies moved into Rock territory on its next possession, but Admire Carter broke up a third-down pass and Drexler was wide left on a 40-yard field goal attempt with 6:42 remaining.“We didn't finish drives,” said Bloomsburg quarterback Tim Kelly, who threw for 293 yards. “In games like this, you win with touchdowns, not field goals.”On fourth-and-two from the Bloomsburg 41 with 3:11 left, SRU went for the first down in an effort to seal the win. Blakeman appeared to reach the sticks on a run, but the ball was placed inches short and the Huskies took possession at their own 40.A 24-yard pass to Lawrence Elliott Jr. moved the ball to the SRU 36. But Miele broke up a first-down pass and Kris Williams defended a second-down throw. Carter knocked a pass away from DJ McFadden in the end zone on third down.Isaiah Coleman denied Allison a catch on fourth down and The Rock survived the threat.“They've got big, strong receivers and I'm not very big ... I knew they were going to try me deep over the top at some point,” Carter said. “You have to take on a totally different mind-set at that point. There was no way they were completing a pass on me there.“There was no way I could let my teammates down.”Greene felt the same way.On third-and-7 from the SRU 39, the sophomore running back cemented the win with a 17-yard run around right end with a minute to go and Bloomsburg out of timeouts.Greene had fumbled the ball away twice earlier in the game.“Shamar's carried us all year,” Mihalik said. “Once he got aroud the corner, he wasn't gonna be denied.”Greene ran for 116 yards Saturday — joining Mercyhurst's Brandon Brown-Dukes as the only backs to rush for 100 on Bloomsburg all year. He is second on The Rock's all-time single-season rushing list with 1,459 yards,. He needs 143 to break LaMonte Coleman's record of 1,601 set in 1994.“This was a blessing,” Greene said. “You just take your performance to another level. I didn't think about those fumbles. I just wanted to move forward, do what had to be done to win.”Notes: SRU snapped a 10-game losing streak to Bloomsburg, beating the Huskies for the first time since 1983. ... The home team has won each time since the PSAC Championship Game was reinstated in 2008. ... Coleman and Miele led SRU with 12 tackles each. Butler graduate Bob Vernick had seven tackles. ... Neither team had a quarterback sack.SRU 28, Bloomsburg 26Bloomsburg 7 10 0 9 — 26Slippery Rock 14 14 0 0 — 28B SRU25 First Downs 2940-144 Rushes-Yards 46-233293 Passing Yards 27521-43-1 Comp.-Att.-Int 20-32-2437 Total Yards 5081-0 Fumbles-Lost 3-38-102 Penalty Yards 6-47First QuarterSRU — Leroy McClain 13 pass from Jared Buck (Mike Wainauskis kick), 9:32B — Joe Parsnik 5 run (Braden Drexler kick), 4:02SRU — Melvin German 74 pass from Buck (Wainauskis kick), 1:36Second QuarterB — Tim Kelly 1 run (Drexler kck), 13:56SRU — Teddy Blakeman 1 run (Wainauskis kick), 12:22SRU — Buck 19 run (Wainauskis kick), 6:19B — Drexler 25 field goal, :07Fourth QuarterB — Aaron Allison 15 pass from Kelly (run failed), 11:28B — Drexler 44 field goal, 8:52Individual StatisticsRushing: Bloomsburg, Dai'Shon Munger 16-46, Joe Parsnik 9-35, Tim Kelly 6-27, Eddie Mateo 6-17, Lawrence Elliott Jr. 1-15, Brody Myers 1-4, TEAM 1-0. SRU, Shamar Greene 21-116, Jared Buck 5-59, Teddy Blakeman 12-38, Julian Durden 5-19, Zack Newsock 1-1, TEAM 2-0.Passing: Bloomsburg, Tim Kelly 21-42-293-1. SRU, Jared Buck 17-27-256-2, Zackl Newsock 3-5-19-0.Receiving: Bloomsburg, Chad Hoffman 6-84, Lawrence Elliott Jr. 5-102, DJ McFadden 3-52, Shane Quinn 3-29, Aaron Allison 2-7, Trent Daniels 1-11, Connor Gades 1-8. SRU, Jaimire Dutrieuille 7-75, Melvin German 5-94, Leroy McClain 3-26, Drew Scales 2-60, Julian Harrell 1-11, Cornelius Raye 1-5, Shamar Greene 1-4.
