Rock drops to ninth in poll after close loss to Gannon

Turnovers and missed opportunities played a major part in No. 24 Slippery Rock's first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West division loss Saturday at Gannon University, 33-27.

The Rock turned the ball over five times, had three interceptions and two fumbles. Head coach George Mihalik considered the turnovers to be the biggest contributor to the loss.

"When you lose the turnover battle, the majority of the time, you lose the game," Mihalik said. "That's football for you. It was an all around poor performance. Special teams, offense and defense all had mental errors. It was an entire team let down."

Offensively, the Rock outgained the Golden Knights 384 yards to 324 yards. But what matters in the end is the final score.

"The statistic that matters is the scoreboard," Mihalik said. "This is one of those games where we had more total yards, but we still lost."

Rock senior quarterback Cody Endres was 22-for-49 for 272 yards and two touchdowns, but threw three interceptions.

"We are all disappointed about the loss," Endres said. "The offense, defense and special teams didn't play as expected. The last time we lost was early in the year and we responded well. We would like to repeat that and come out and have a big game this week."

Senior receiver Devin Goda continues to produce on the year, as he recorded nine catches for 131 yards and one touchdown.

"I came out ready to play Saturday," Goda said. "I had a feeling they couldn't guard me. As good of a game as I had, I wish we would've won."

Goda, on the year, now has 961 yards receiving on 69 catches, and has caught 10 touchdowns.

Defensively, the Rock gave up 27 points, 21 of them were scored by Golden Knights receiver Lawrence Coleman.

"I thought we had good coverage on all three passes," Mihalik said. "It was perfect ball placement by Daniel Tapscott and great catches by Coleman. We had good coverage. They just made three great plays."

The Rock took a 20-7 lead into the half before allowing Gannon to come out in the second half and tie the game by scoring 13 points in the third quarter.

Gannon kicked two field goals in the beginning of the fourth quarter to jump out to a 26-20 lead.

The first Gannon field goal came off of an SRU punt and the second came off of a Cody Endres interception.

After taking the six point lead, the Rock had a chance to drive back downfield and take the lead, but turned the ball over again off of a Jimmy Zubik fumble.

Gannon drove down and took a 13-point lead and SRU scored a touchdown to pull the game within a score, but couldn't make it any closer.

Senior linebacker Zach Sheridan was tied for the game high in tackles with senior safety Jayson Nickson.

"It was a disappointing loss," Sheridan said. "We fell apart in the second half. We were up 20-7 at halftime and ended up losing by 4. We needed to create more turnovers."

Senior safety Brandon Watters recorded his team-high seventh interception against Gannon and recorded one tackle.

"We got away from what we do as a defense," Watters said. "We weren't disciplined. People weren't where they were supposed to be. We didn't trust our technique."

The Rock will travel to No. 8 Kutztown for a 1:05 start Saturday to take on the Golden Bears for the PSAC championship.