Dec 5, 2024 4 min read

By John Sacco

For the Observer-Reporter

Who says you can’t go home again? And again and again and again.

The Penn West California University football team opened with five road games in its first six.

When the Vulcans (10-2) meet Slippery Rock at 1 p.m. Saturday in the NCAA Division II quarterfinals, the venue will be quite familiar. For the seventh consecutive game, the setting will be Adamson Stadium. That’s a nice homestand for a baseball team.

“It’s been the craziest season (schedule-wise) I’ve had in my career,” California coach Gary Dunn said. “We’ve never experienced anything like this. I don’t know that it has happened before or if it will ever happen again.”

What has happened before is Cal and Slippery Rock have played this season. The Vulcans upended The Rock, 28-7, Oct. 19. Ironically, that was the first game of this streak of home games.

While that was a key outcome in determining the PSAC West Division championship, the stakes are higher this time in the Super Region One championship.

How these two teams got to this point is amazing.

The 11th-ranked Slippery Rock team went for two and scored on a hook-and-lateral in overtime to pull off a shocking 25-24 upset win on the road at No. 3 Kutztown in the second round of the playoffs last Saturday at Andre Reed Stadium.

Kutztown got the ball first in overtime and capitalized with a TD run to take a 24-17 lead. Slippery Rock scored a touchdown pass. SRU coach Shawn Lutz then elected to go for two to win the game.

“We work on it (the two-point play) every week,” Lutz said. “I asked our offensive coordinator how confident he was in it. He said, ‘100 percent.’ That was good enough for me.

“We were going for it and I wanted to end the game right there.”

“Slippery Rock is a really good football team and its defense is tremendous,” Dunn said. “They have the best front four we have faced by far. They have two premiere players at that spot. But they’re really solid everywhere.”

One of those Slippery Rock defenders on the line is senior Munchie Johnson, a two-time All-PSAC West first-team honoree, who has 60 total tackles, 13 tackles for loss and 3 1/2 sacks.

The Rock will have to deal with Vulcans quarterback Davis Black. He threw for 275 yards, going 17-of-27 and accounting for four touchdowns (one rushing). It helped Cal overcome a 12-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter in a 34-33 win over Ashland in the second round.

Redshirt freshman Naquan Crowder led the team with a season-high 10 tackles.

“We have ability to trust each other this year,” Black said. “Last year we had a lot of transfer guys. It took us a while. It took a whole season and offseason to trust one another and the coaching staff, and them to trust us. We have figured it out. There have been bumps in the road.

“We’re a mature group. It comes down to a 60-minute game. I think we are a tough out.”

Notes

This is Cal’s eighth playoff appearance, third under Dunn. John Luckhardt took the Vulcans to five straight from 2007-2011 and three region title wins 2007-2009 over Shepherd, Bloomsburg and West Liberty. Dunn’s Vulcans lost to Shepherd in the 2016 region championship game as top seed after beating IUP and Curt Cignetti for a second time that season. . . Tickets for the game are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children. Parking is $5. Gates will open at 11:30. . . Cal has posted a 94-20 mark (.825) at home since the 2005 season. Additionally, Cal holds an 8-4 record at Adamson Stadium in the NCAA Playoffs and boast a 3-1 all-time mark in the quarterfinals.