For a non-league game, Slippery Rock University's matchup with Millersville at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium Saturday has a lot of meaning.

It's homecoming and SRU has dropped only three homecoming games in George Mihalik's 18 years as head coach.

For The Rock (2-4, 2-1) to secure a winning season, a victory Saturday is essential.

"Most of all, we want to get that winning feeling back," Mihalik said. "We're in the race for the PSAC Western Division championship and we need to win football games.

"We gotta win at homecoming. It's annually one of our biggest crowds of the year."

The Marauders (3-4) are coming off a 27-7 loss to West Chester and are guided by first-year head coach Joe Trainer.

"We've been dealing with some injuries and have been trying to re-establish ourselves offensively," Trainer said.

SRU leads its all-time series with Millersville 5-2, but suffered a 17-14 loss on the road to the Marauders last year. Quarterback Dan Csencsitz threw for 223 yards and receiver Ryan Clift had seven catches for 124.

Neither will be playing Saturday. Csencsitz has been sidelined for three weeks with a broken finger and Clift had his season ended by an ankle injury Sept. 3.

Freshman Derek Pope has completed 29 of 54 passes for 350 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions since replacing Csencsitz. His top receivers have been Ryan Eggleton (32 catches-450 yards) and Omar Sanders (21-189).

Juan Jones, who has 603 yards rushing and eight touchdowns, anchors Millersville's ground game.

"Jones is a 235-pound guy and a very physical back," Trainer said.

"They've played a tough schedule and their record is deceiving," Mihalik said. "Defensively, they give you a lot of looks and they use a lot of blitz packages.

"That team only lost to East Stroudsburg 17-13. That shows how good they can be."

The Marauders have 71 tackles for loss on the year, with 15 belonging to 6-foot-4, 240-pound defensive end Chuck Koch, who leads the PSAC in that category.

Linebackers Mike Cunningham and Chris Donati have nine and eight tackles for loss, respectively. Linebacker Marcus Banks leads the team with 56 tackles.

"We like to get after it defensively," Trainer said. "We try to apply pressure and get after the ball."

Kicker Doug Ruhl has been perfect on all six of his field goal attempts and his PATs this season. Two of his field goals have been beyond 40 yards.

By contrast, Rock kicker Ryan Daniel has struggled. He has missed five of his 11 field goal tries, including two from less than 35 yards out in last week's 38-17 loss at Indiana (Pa.).

"It's hard to figure out what's going on there," Mihalik said. "The snaps were good, the holds were good. … It may be a matter of Ryan losing concentration and taking those short kicks for granted."

Rock quarterback Nate Crookshank is coming off his second-best career effort at quarterback, throwing for 245 yards at IUP. He has completed 81 of 150 passes for 1,078 yards, five TDs and eight interceptions.

His top receivers have been Colin Golden (27-286) and Paul Favers (21-338).

SRU's running game features Josh Kniess (96-495) and Corey Manfull (81-378). Kniess has rushed for seven touchdowns and is among the nation's leaders in punt returns with a 20.4-yard average.

"If there's a more physical team in the conference than Slippery Rock, I'd like to see it," Trainer said. "Their defensive front is the best we've seen this year."

Cory Lacek leads The Rock with 4½ quarterback sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Jerome Whiting and Clinton Forsha each have seven tackles for loss.

Millersville has been productive on special teams, faking a field goal and scoring a touchdown in one game, running 60 yards on a fake punt in another.

"It's been one of the brighter spots we've had," Trainer said of his special teams unit.

Prior to last year's loss, SRU had defeated Millersville 29-6, 20-3, 33-9 and 28-18 in successive seasons.