Slippery Rock, Pa. – The Edinboro football team took No. 10 Slippery Rock to the wire before falling 28-21 to the Rock Saturday afternoon in their PSAC West finale.
 
The Rock opened the scoring, taking advantage of a short field off an Edinboro turnover. Chris Wells capped a 26-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown run at the 11:23 mark of the first quarter.
 
On the ensuing possession, the Fighting Scots responded marching the ball 75 yards on seven plays. The capper was Isaac Bernard finding Thaddeus Standfield in the corner of the endzone for a 24-yard touchdown pass knotting the game 7-7 with 7:55 left in the first.
 
The Edinboro defense set up the offense early in the second quarter. With the Rock facing a 3-and-9 from their own 42, Wilfredo Diaz hit Noah Grover as he threw disrupting the pass and sending it floating to Avery Ennis who returned it to Slippery Rock eight-yard line.
 
It took just two plays for the Scots to cash in on the turnover. Bernard connected with Mrvos for three yards setting up a five-yard Zidane Thomas touchdown run giving Edinboro a 14-7 advantage at the 13:22 mark of the second quarter.
 
Slippery Rock tied the game on their next possession going 75-yards, 70 on the ground capped by a Wells one-yard plunge.
 
The Rock took a 21-14 lead with 2:57 to play on a seven-yard pass from Grover to Kyle Sheets. The first half ended with a wild sequence that saw Edinboro turn the ball over twice, Slippery Rock turn it over once and miss a field goal as time expired.
 
Edinboro opened the second half with an onside kick, but penalties derailed the drive. With the ball at the Edinboro 21, Reed Martin boomed a 77-yard punt that was downed at the Slippery Rock 2-yard line. The teams traded punts before the Edinboro defense struck again.
 
Slippery Rock had a 2-and-3 from their own 49 when Toby Cline jumped in front of a bubble screen and
returned it 45-yards to tie the game 21-21.
 
The tie held into the fourth quarter, but Slippery Rock went 59-yards in two plays to take a 28-21 lead that they would hold on to through to the final.
 
"I'm extremely proud of our team's effort today," said head coach Jake Nulph. "We were right there and just didn't make enough plays to win."
 
The Edinboro defense held the high flying Rock passing game to just 129 passing yards and two interceptions both of which set up scores. Malcolm Johnson led the Scot defense with 10 tackles. Clay Cunningham added eight, six solo. In addition to the two interceptions, Edinboro also forced and recovered a Rock fumble.
 
Bernard was 22-of-30 for 148 and a touchdown. Standfield, Thomas and Aaron Hopkins each recorded four catches for the Scots.
 
Edinboro wraps up the season next Saturday when they host Lock Haven at Sox Harrison Stadium at noon.