Football defeats Seton Hill, returns home to face Cheyney

Slippery Rock looks to build off its opening day win in their home opener Saturday against Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (1-0 overall) at 6 p.m.

Saturday will also mark a special day in Rock football history as the stadium will be renamed Mihalik-Thompson Stadium in honor of coach George Mihalik's accomplishments with the Slippery Rock football team.

"It's overwhelming, it's a great honor for myself and my family," Mihalik said. "I am very thankful that President Smith and athletic director Paul Lueken and the Council of Trustees thought I was worthy enough to receive this honor."

Rock quarterback Cody Endres was successful in his first start and now feels more comfortable with the offense.

"Each week I'll get more comfortable in the offense," Endres said. "It was good to get my feet wet and put on the green jersey for the first time and get out there with my teammates."

Duplicating last week's performance is the key to beating Cheyney this week, Endres believes.

"We just have to do what we do well, like we did last week," Endres said. "We need to come out hard and run the ball, use play action and get the ball to our playmakers."

Coach Mihalik is also expecting big things out of Endres and running back Akeem Satterfield this week.

"Our passing game is going to be much more productive and effective," Mihalik said. "He's going to have an even greater command of the offense and Akeem is going to take advantage of the opportunities our offensive line gives him. He always gets positive yards after first contact."

If the Rock is going to be successful on offense, it will need to neutralize the speed Cheyney has on defense.

gistered 10 tackles for loss, three sacks and forced four turnovers in the team's opening game against Lincoln. Their defense is lead by senior defensive lineman Tim Hume.

"They have a good nucleus of veterans on defense and they're athletic," Mihalik said about the Cheyney defense. "They move to the ball fast and they had impressive numbers in the first game. We have to approach things by keeping in our framework of our offensive philosophy and take what the defense gives us."

The Rock defense will have to contend with running back Marcus Jones who is the centerpiece to the Cheyney offense.

"He's a guy that can make big plays, he's a strong runner and has good quickness," Mihalik said. "He's going to be the guy that gets the ball the majority of the time. We have to have somebody on him at all times. They come in 1-0 and use the option offense which we don't see very often."

 Senior linebacker Zach Sheridan believes a big key to stopping the offense is shutting down Jones and the running game.

"We first have to stop the run and force the pass," Sheridan said. "They run a wing-t which is crazy.

It all starts with our defensive line, the more penetration they get the better the chance of us stopping them."

Slippery Rock opened their season by defeating Seton Hill, 51-14.

Coach Mihalik was pleased with how his team performed.

"We played very well," Mihalik said. "When you score points in all three phases of the game, you are going to win big, and by that I mean special teams scored a touchdown, defense had two interceptions returned for touchdowns, and we had some field goals and offensive scores."

In the win, Endres passed with 113 yards on eight of 13 passing, and Satterfield rushed for 125 yards on eight carries and scored a touchdown.

The Rock defense contributed two touchdowns on interceptions by seniors Brandon Watters and Jayson Nickson.

After facing Cheyney, SRU will travel to West Chester University for it's final non-conference game before starting PSAC play with two homes games against Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Clarion University of Pennsylvania.