INDIANA, Pa. - Frank Cignetti enjoyed his birthday Saturday afternoon - especially four minutes of it.

That's all the time it took for his Indiana (Pa.) University football team to turn a 14-10 deficit into a 31-14 lead at Miller Stadium, paving the way to a 38-17 victory over Slippery Rock University.

"They came out and were really playing physical football," the Indians coach said of SRU. "Then it was three big plays - bang, bang, bang, and it broke them."

The Rock (2-4, 2-1) trailed 10-0 before Josh Kniess capped a 68-yard drive with an 11-yard scoring run just before halftime. Kniess scored on a 33-yard run to punctuate a 63-yard march on SRU's first possession of the second half.

Things appeared to get still worse for IUP (3-3, 2-0) when The Rock's Jim D'Amico intercepted an Andrew Krewatch pass and returned it 30 yards to the Indians' 14-yard line.

But SRU failed to get a first down and Ryan Daniel was wide left on a 24-yard field goal attempt.

"To get that pick deep in their territory and come away with no points - that was a big momentum-changer," SRU coach George Mihalik said.

And how.

Daniel missed the field goal with 7:17 left in the third quarter. Three plays later, Krewatch found Deanco Oliver deep down the middle for a 53-yard touchdown pass.

"We had a corner (Aaron Berarducci) get injured earlier and had a miscommunication in coverage with his replacement," Mihalik said.

SRU's Paul Favers fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Oliver scampered 46 yards to the end zone on a reverse on the game's next play.

"Reverses are hit or miss," Cignetti said. "Slippery Rock was pursuing hard on defense and we felt they'd try to pressure us even harder after the turnover. The timing was right."

"That was a good call," Mihalik admitted. "They caught us."

The Rock tried getting back in the game as quarterback Nate Crookshank scrambled for a 38-yard gain to the IUP 23. The drive stalled and Daniel was wide left on a 35-yard field goal attempt.

"Those missed field goals were a big part of this, believe me," Cignetti said.

On the next play, Chris Morgan took a handoff up the middle, cut to the left sideline and raced 80 yards for a touchdown and a 31-14 Indians lead with 3:16 still left in the third quarter.

Morgan had 24 carries for 168 yards and two TDs on the day. It was the first time in four games the SRU defense allowed an opposing back to gain 100 yards. It was Morgan's third 100-yard game in as many years against The Rock.

"I scored a touchdown in high school (Woodland Hills) the same way." Morgan said. "I got to the sidelines, stiff-armed a guy and got away."

Pat McDanel added a 73-yard scoring run for IUP early in the fourth quarter.

A total of 11 plays produced the Indians' five touchdowns.

"We didn't think they'd be able to drive the ball on us, but they didn't have to worry about doing that today," Mihalik said. "With their athletes and team speed, we had to take away the big play. We failed to do that."

The Rock failed to find the end zone much too often, despite ringing up 20 first downs and 498 yards in offense.

Crookshank threw for 254 yards and rushed for 72 more. Kniess had 142 yards rushing.

Krewatch connected on a few deep passes over the middle just before getting hit.

"You're gonna get hit in this game," Krewatch said. "It's football. That's what this game is about. Everything finally came together for us today offensively."

IUP entered the game averaging just 13.6 points per game, 125th in the country.

"This reminded me of our Bloomsburg game," Mihalik said. "It was a few big plays that beat us."

Notes:

Cignetti won his 100th career game at Miller Stadium on his 68th birthday. … Morgan became the 10th player in IUP history to reach 2,000 career-rushing yards. … Kniess enjoyed his third consecutive 100-yard game and moved into third place on The Rock's all-time all-purpose yardage list with 4,102. He trails second-place Stan Kennedy by 61 yards. … Crookshank surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season in passing. … Colin Golden caught nine passes Saturday, most in a game by a SRU player since Ryan McKavish caught nine against Bloomsburg in 2002. Golden had six receptions all of last season.