Slippery Rock University Football opened up the 2012 season in convincing fashion by rolling over the Seton Hill Griffins 52-6 in a non-conference game at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium on Thursday night.
With 10:01 left in the first quarter, redshirt sophomore quarterback Jared Buck found redshirt senior tight end Josh Gardner for a 17 yard touchdown. Redshirt senior Kurt Brackman would add the extra point to make it 7-0.
Buck wasn’t done there. With 3:43 left in the first quarter Buck threw his second touchdown finding redshirt junior Michael Bongivengo from ten yards out. Buck would later run add a rushing touchdown and also a third touchdown pass which went to Ken Amos from 28 yards out.
Rock head coach George Mihalik was impressed by Buck’s poise and command of the offense.
“I thought Jared did a great job handling the offense in his first start,” Mihalik said. “We played mistake free football except for the interception at the end of the first half.”
The running game was led by redshirt senior Akeem Satterfield who finished the night with 118 yards on 13 carries. He also added a 27 yard touchdown early in the third quarter. Redshirt freshman Brett Crenshaw finished out the Rock’s scoring for the night with a two yard touchdown run. Junior Jimmy Zubik would also add 36 yards on 11 carries.
Defensively the Rock had the Griffins under pressure all night finishing with six sacks. Redshirt senior Jeff Thompson led all Rock defenders with 2.5 sacks. He would also add six tackles, three assisted and three unassisted.
“Jeff is our catalyst on defense,” Mihalik said. “He gets things started and when they have to focus on Jeff then the rest of the defense can start making plays.”
Redshirt junior Anthony Saunders would return an interception 50 yards for a touchdown.
The Rock will travel to Shippensburg to open up Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference cross over play. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
