The eighth ranked Slippery Rock University football team saw its historic season come to an end with a 58-15 defeat against No. 4 Minnesota State University Saturday in the NCAA Division II semifinals from Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.
The Rock finish the year with their best record in program history at 13-1, while the Mavericks improve to 14-0 and advance to their second National Championship game in the last five years.
Slippery Rock couldn’t overcome costly mistakes and losing the field position battle in the first half as the Mavericks jumped out to a 30-8 halftime lead, scoring three touchdowns on possessions that started inside the SRU 30-yard line. The Rock turned the ball over twice, once on their own 22 and another time on their own 20, and Minnesota State scored touchdowns after both miscues.
Slippery Rock’s offense struggled with a much bigger defensive unit from Minnesota State, with the Mavericks front four combining for 35 tackles and 8.5 tackles for loss. The Rock also struggled with the weather. Snow fell for the entire duration of the game, making the SRU passing attack difficult to execute. Rivers narrowly overshot a sure-thing deep touchdown on the first play from scrimmage and that theme of near misses would be present all afternoon. SRU receivers officially dropped four passes, including one touchdown, as the passing game never found its groove.
Despite the difficult conditions for passing, Rivers and Litwin both had record-setting days while accounting for 14 of the team’s points, which included a two-point conversion. Rivers tied the NCAA Division II single-season record for touchdowns responsible for (61) and broke the Division II single-season record for points responsible for (370), while Litwin broke the SRU single-season record for receiving yards (1,509) and the SRU career record for touchdown catches (29), with all 29 of them coming in the last two seasons.
Rivers threw for 199 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while also rushing for 69 yards. He finished his senior season with 322 completions on 481 attempts for 4,460 yards with 52 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 700 yards and nine scores to finish with 5,160 yards of total offense, becoming the first player in program history to top 5,000 yards in a season.
Litwin caught 11 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns for his eighth game of the season with at least 100 yards and his eighth game this season with at least two TD grabs.
Slippery Rock’s four-year seniors finish their careers with a 39-11 overall record that included two trips to at least the NCAA quarterfinals. The Rock won their third outright PSAC title in the last six seasons and will enter the offseason with high expectations for 2020, with a large number of the roster set to return, including all four starting wide receivers that combined for 4,108 yards and 48 touchdowns this fall.
Minnesota State will face West Florida for the national title in McKinney, Texas next Saturday.
West Florida defeated the other host team Ferris State 28-14 today.
(Jon Holtz- SRU Director of Athletic Communincation)