Slippery Rock avenges loss to Cal (Pa.) to earn spot in D-II football semifinals

Brayden Long sat inside a cramped, makeshift interview room high atop Cal (Pa.)’s Adamson Stadium quietly surveying his surroundings. As Slippery Rock’s record-setting quarterback swigged water from a bottle, his eyes darted back and forth as if to replay the day’s events.

Thanks in large part to Long’s masterful approach, Slippery Rock is headed for its fourth trip to the NCAA Division II semifinals after a 31-13 victory over Cal on Saturday in the Super Region One championship game.

“It really hasn’t quite set in yet, to be honest with you,” said Long, who threw three touchdown passes — two to Logan Ramper — and went over 3,000 yards passing for a second consecutive season. “Just knowing where this team came from since spring ball, just coming together to this point now, that hard work really pays off. It’s very rewarding, but we’re not satisfied yet.”

No. 11 Slippery Rock (12-1) will face No. 2 Ferris State on the road next Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“Honestly, when you’re still dancing and you have an opportunity to have one more day, one more week with this team, it really doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Slippery Rock coach Shawn Lutz said.

Slippery Rock, which has never appeared in a D-II championship game, last reached the semifinals in 2019, losing to Minnesota State, 52-15.

“There’s four teams left,” Lutz said. “We just won a region championship. We are just blessed to play whomever is next. To tell these guys you’re one game away from playing for a national championship is just a big-time accomplishment for them.”

Long completed 17 of 21 passes for 154 yards, and Idris Lawrence rushed for a career-high 162 yards for Slippery Rock, which avenged its only loss, a 28-7 defeat to Cal on Oct. 19 during the regular season.

Cal (10-3) was playing without several injured players on defense, but Vulcans coach Gary Dunn didn’t use it as an excuse for the turnabout.

“We’re just proud of our guys, proud of the way they competed and battled,” he said. “It just wasn’t our day. We gave them a couple of big plays early and kind of shot ourselves in the foot, offensively, early and dug a hole we couldn’t get out of. Our injuries on defense was part of it. We’ve been battling it for three, four weeks now, and it caught up to us today. But give Slippery Rock credit. They made the plays.”

Long, for a second consecutive season a Harlon Hill Trophy finalist for the nation’s top D-II player, became the first Slippery Rock player to pass for 3,000 yards in multiple seasons.

He has thrown for 3,072 yards this season after finishing with 3,808 in 2023, when he finished fifth in voting for the Harlon Hill Trophy.

“We didn’t really need much motivation today,” Long said. “It makes motivation easy when you have a group of guys in the locker room sharing the same mindset. It’s just a credit to this group in all three phases of the game. We like where we’re at right now.”

A product of PIAA District 3 New Oxford, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Long is the seventh Slippery Rock quarterback to pass for 7,000 career yards.

Long came out firing as Slippery Rock marched downfield and scored on its first possession. His 18-yard pass to Ramper opened the scoring 3¹⁄₂ minutes into the game.

“These guys were fired up. They were ready to play,” Lutz said. “I really was confident going into this game that these guys were ready. I could just tell that they were ready to play because of what happened (against Cal) in the regular season.”

Lutz said it wasn’t difficult to prepare for a rematch with the Vulcans.

“I mean it was easy,” he said. “We used these two words — I’m not going to lie to you — ‘redemption’ and ‘revenge.’ It was nothing against Cal, but Cal took away one of our goals: to win the West (Division) and play in the (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) championship game, and they took that away from us. They were deserving.”

California lost to No. 3 Kutztown, 21-14, in the PSAC title game but then rebounded to win its first two games in the D-II playoffs, beating East Stroudsburg and Ashland.

Slippery Rock went ahead 14-0 later in the first quarter on Long’s 20-yard scoring pass to Mike Solomon.

Chris D’Or’s 2-yard run with 1:12 left in the second quarter stretched Slippery Rock’s lead to 21-0 at halftime.

Cal (10-3) cut the lead to 21-7 in the third quarter on a 4-yard run by McKeesport product Bobby Boyd Jr. before Slippery Rock’s Mason Yohn kicked a 26-yard field goal to increase the margin to 24-7 heading to the fourth.

The Rock put the game out of reach for Cal when Long tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Ramper for a 31-7 lead.

Cal quarterback Davis Black, who, beat out Long for PSAC West Offensive Athlete of the Year — Long won the award in 2023 — passed for a season-low 90 yards.

Black’s 12-yard scoring pass to Omari Hopkins with 7:57 left accounted for the Vulcans’ final points. Black, who completed 14 of 23 attempts, wound up with 2,948 yards passing for the year.

While Long gets much of the attention, Lutz managed a peek at his other side in that cramped room, where defensive lineman Todd Hill was sitting virtually unnoticed through much of the postgame banter.

Ever aware of Hill, though, Lutz eagerly lauded his defensive star.

The 5-10, 240-pound graduate student from Steel Valley, who began his college career as an all-Northeast Conference player at FCS Duquesne and also spent one season at Pitt, is one of eight national finalists for the Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year Award.

He finished the day with seven tackles, two sacks, two tackles for losses and a forced fumble and fumble recovery.

“How about that defense?” Lutz said as he lightly pounded Hill’s shoulder pad. “With the high-powered offense that California has, I don’t know if their receivers had very many deep balls. Today, we did a great job. We got pressure, and this guy could not be blocked.”

An expressionless Hill barely flinched.

“I just never doubted myself,” he said. “I believe in myself, and I believe in the people around me. I’m just blessed, and I thank God for this journey that I’m on.”

It’s a journey for the entire Rock.