The Rocket

Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Archived Photo Wide receiver Paul Favers tries to make a move during a game last season. Favers will be a big part of the offense in 2007. [Click to enlarge]

Whenever a football team at any level - high school, college or professional - loses its last game of the season by a missed field goal that could have sent them to the playoffs, the team is anxiously waiting for next year.

After 14 spring practices in the cold, snowy and rainy Slippery Rock weather, the Rock football team will end its spring practice schedule with the annual Green & White game today at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium at 7 p.m.

The game is open to the public and is free of charge. The game will consist of the normal scoring system of a game, with the first half operating on a regular game clock and the second half featuring a running clock. The Green team will have the first team offense and defense while the White team will include the second team units.

"We have had a very successful spring with the practices," said Rock all-time winningest coach George Mihalik, who will be entering his 20th season at the helm. "There has been tremendous competition between defense and offense, and it has been very physical spring practice in terms of the amount of hitting and contact we have been doing.

"I believe this team realizes how close we came in '06 to a national playoff bid, and the hunger to achieve that goal is even greater now. When you get as close as we did, it's a burning desire to put in that extra effort to experience the conference championship and national playoff."

After the final spring scrimmage today, the Rock's 2007 season officially starts with a long summer break followed by training camp. Four of the first five games of the 2007 season for SRU will be played at home, and the season opener, set for Aug. 30, will be against Division-II Seton Hill, whose football program has been around for just four years and is a part of the West Virginia Conference.

"We are very excited to open the season at home on a Thursday night," Mihalik said. "I think it's been seven or eight years since we've opened the season at home. Seton Hill is a team in our region, so that game will help our regional rankings. With so many home games to begin the season, it gives us the opportunity to start off the season strong."

Continued...

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