California hit hard with loss against Slippery Rock
SLIPPERY ROCK – The most dreaded place to be on California University’s campus this week will be the video room in the football offices.
That’s where the Vulcans will have to relive the nightmare of Saturday’s 56-21 shellacking by Slippery Rock University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division game.
The loss sent a body blow to Cal’s playoff chances. The Vulcans fell to 2-1 in the conference and 4-2 overall. Slippery Rock moved to 5-1, including 2-1 in the conference. But now The Rock owns the tiebreaker over Cal with this win.
California’s offense misfired five times in the red zone in all types of ways and the defense was run over for 609 yards. Don’t be fooled. The game was not as close as the final score might indicate.
The last time Cal won at Slippery Rock was in 2009, 44-7 under then-head coach John Luckhardt.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Cal head coach Mike Kellar. “I’m 1-6 as a coach here. I came two times when I was at Fairmont State and lost. This is the one place where it’s so tough to win. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Kellar could point to any number of factors, which led to the loss, including these:
• The Vulcans went into the red zone five times against The Rock and came away with zero points.
• With a chance to go up 14-7 in the first quarter, a keeper on third down by quarterback James Harris lost four yards, setting up fourth down from the six. A 22-yard field goal attempt by William Brazill was wide right.
• On the next series, Cal drove to the Slippery Rock 16, where Harris hit Kowan Scott with a pass at the 10. But Scott, who had an otherwise great day with seven catches for 143 yards, had the ball taken out of his hands by cornerback Titus Howard.
• With 2:41 remaining in the half, Cal, trailing 35-7, drove to The Rock 12, where Harris was intercepted at the three-yard line by cornerback Deon Flemings.
• Cal had one last drive before the half and reached the Slippery Rock 12. That’s where Harris was intercepted in the end zone by free safety Derrick Fullmore.
• The final indignation came at the end of the game, where Cal had a first and goal from the one-yard line and four runs stopped for no gain.
“I made some bad decisions in some bad places,” said Harris, who finished with 24 completions of 41 passes for 349 yards, but no touchdowns and three interceptions.
Cal’s defense did not fare much better. The Vulcans were gouged for 388 yards and five touchdowns … at the half.
Slippery Rock finished with a whopping 609 total yards and the two teams combined for 1,123. Julian Durden rushed for 106 yards and two touchdowns, the first and last of the game. Quarterback Dante Nania, a Youngstown State transfer in December, completed 18 of 26 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns.
Jaimire Dutrieuille caught just three passes for 120 yards but one of them was a 74-yard bomb from Nania in the first quarter that touched off six straight scores by Slippery Rock to make it 49-7.
“It was blast,” Nania said, describing the game. “I couldn’t ask for a better day. The first couple plays, you could tell it was going to be a shootout. We’re pretty battle tested and we dominated their offensive line.”
He’s right.
Cal rushed for just 69 yards on 38 carries. Tailback John Franklin had 21 on 12 and Jimmy Wheeler 40 on six to lead the Vulcans.
Junior defensive tackle Joe Phillips, a Washington High School graduate, was in on one of Slippery Rock’s four quarterback sacks and Slippery Rock had 13 tackles for 53 yards in losses.
“For a minute there in the first quarter when both teams were going up and down the field, I thought the last team to have the football would win,” said Slippery Rock head coach George Mihalik. “Our defense came up with big turnovers and our offense took advantage of them to drive the length of the field.”
Luke Smorey had five catches for 122 yards and Garry Brown six for 61. … Linebacker Devonte Suber led Cal with nine tackles. Safety Jordan Bowman and defensive end Jawan Turner each had eight.