SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University came home to a coming-out party Saturday night at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium.

The Rock rolled up 610 yards of offense, quarterback Nate Crookshank threw for a career-high 336 yards, including a school-record 95-yard touchdown pass to Paul Favers, and SRU's defense produced a goal-line stand in a 46-0 college football victory over Mansfield.

SRU (2-1) won by the lopsided margin despite committing five turnovers and 101 yards in penalties.

"Those are focus-type things that we're going to work on,"SRU coach George Mihalik said. "Overall, I liked what I saw today."

And he saw plenty.

Crookshank completed 17 of 25 passes for a pair of touchdowns. He has eight TD tosses through three games this season after throwing only seven all of last year.

Crookshank threw for 219 yards in the first half alone as The Rock took a 19-0 lead into intermission. His overall passing total came in barely over three quarters of action as backup quarterback Brad Galvan tossed an 11-yard scoring pass to Terry Grossetti with 11:35 left in the game.

Luke Wetzel had seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown in the first half.

"What I liked about our passing game is that the three touchdown passes went to three different receivers,"Mihalik said. "We're spreading the ball around, which means all of our receivers need to be alert and ready to catch the football."

The exception to that theory was Favers' 95-yard touchdown catch. Moments after The Rock defense stopped Mansfield slotback Rodney Davis short of the goal-line on third and fourth downs from the SRU1-yard line, the home team faced second-and-7 from its own 5.

Crookshank play faked, dropped back into his own end zone, and floated a deep pass down the right sideline to Favers, who had gotten behind double coverage.

"He threw that ball perfectly,"Favers said. "All I had to do was catch it and keep running."

He ran himself into the record books. SRU's previous longest pass play was 94 yards, with Jim McElhaney on the receiving end of it against Westminster in 1961.

"You know it's all working to pull off a play like that,"Crookshank said. "The offensive line did its job and they (Mansfield) had to respect our running game."

The Rock rushed for 263 yards Saturday, led by freshman A.J. Saunders' 101 yards and two TDs. Damarcus Cleckley added 80 yards on the ground and Travis Sarver had 66 yards rushing and a touchdown.

"I was hoping we'd get Saunders and Cleckley a lot of carries today,"Mihalik said. "Both will benefit from this game."

So will The Rock defense, which intercepted four passes — two by Anthony Walls — and recovered a fumble. SRU had allowed 73 points in its first two games.

"We were pumped for that goal-line stand,"linebacker Jared Palmer said. "That end zone is our front porch and you have to protect it. You can't let anybody on your porch."

Mansfield (0-2) nearly scored on its first possession as freshman linebacker Josh Miller returned a fumble 20 yards to SRU's 18-yard line. The Mountaineers moved inside the 10 before Walls intercepted a pass in the end zone.

"We had some opportunities to score and didn't take advantage of them,"Mansfield coach Jim Shiffer said. "We're playing a lot of talented freshmen and we're going to stick with them."

Mansfield has been outscored 81-0 in its first two games.

SRU 46, Mansfield 0

Mansfield 0 0 0 0—0Slippery Rock 6 19 7 14—46M SRU13 First Downs 2937-107 Rushes-Yards 41-263101 Passing Yards 3476-22-4 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 18-26-1208 Total Yards 6101-1 Fumbles/Lost 8-48-65 Penalties-Yards 10-105

First QuarterSRU — Travis Sarver 3 run (kick failed), :48

Second QuarterSRU— Luke Wetzel 27 pass from Nate Crookshank (Daniel kick), 11:02SRU— A.J. Saunders 1 run (Daniel kick), 4:35SRU— Daniel 41 field goal, 1:34

Third Quarter SRU — Rodney Davis kneels in end zone for safety, 1:30SRU — Paul Favers 95 pass from Crookshank (Daniel kick), 5:48

Fourth QuarterSRU— Saunders 22 run (Daniel kick), 13:48SRU— Terry Grossetti 11 pass from Brad Galvan (Daniel kick), 11:35

Individual Statistics

Passing: Mansfield, Garrett Kensy 0-7-0-2, Tyler Blakeslee 6-15-101-2. SRU, Nate Crookshank 17-25-336-1, Brad Galvan 1-1-11-0.

Rushing: Mansfield, Tucker Berry 19-85, Kevon Calhoun 5-17, Rodney Davis 11-8, Garrett Kensy 2-(-3). SRU, A.J. Saunders 11-101, Damarcus Cleckley 11-80, Travis Sarver 14-61, Nate Crookshank 3-20.

Receiving: Mansfield, Rodney Davis 3-31, Tyrone Robinson 2-46, Xavier Thomas 1-24. SRU, Luke Wetzel 7-120, Paul Favers 4-127, Colin Golden 3-41, A.J. Saunders 1-25.