Anchored behind 562 yards of offense, including 352 passing yards and 214 rushing yards, Shippensburg University handed Slippery Rock University football their first loss of the season in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference cross over play 55-35.
After ending the first quarter down 14-7, which saw Shippensburg take the opening drive and go 57 yards on eight plays in just 2:17, the Rock (1-1) struggled defensively and were overwhelmed in the second quarter by the Raider passing attack.
Defensively, SRU gave up 27 points in the second quarter, which included four Shippensburg touchdown passes.
Rock head coach George Mihalik thought the defense had the chance to make plays, but simply couldn’t come up with them.
“We didn’t get pressure on Zulli,” Mihalik said. “We didn’t tackle well. We called some great blitzes, but we didn’t finish plays. Then in the secondary on a few occasions, we had guys near the ball, but we didn’t make the play. It was chances to make plays that we didn’t produce.”
It didn’t help the Rock offensively that starting quarterback Jared Buck was injured during the second quarter. Buck, a redshirt sophomore, didn’t return to the game, and finished the game with 125 yards and two touchdowns.
Junior Nigel Barksdale took over for the Rock and threw for 95 yards and one touchdown, while running for 76 yards and one touchdown.
Redshirt senior running back Akeem Satterfield rushed for 138 yards on 21 carries and rushed for one touchdown.
