SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle football team kept the top offense in the conference scoreless in the first quarter with some inspired defensive play, but Clarion ultimately came up short on the road against sixth-ranked Slippery Rock, falling 42-14 at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
 
Clarion was held well below their season average running the ball but compensated in other areas offensively, with quarterback Anthony Guercio showing the ability to move the team through the air. Guercio set season-highs with 18 completions, 24 attempts and 183 passing yards, while also adding two more throwing touchdowns to his season total.
 
The first of those touchdown passes ended the Rock's second-half shutout bid, with Guercio leading a 59-yard drive to get on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter. The Golden Eagles quickly gained the Slippery Rock side of the field with a 17-yard completion from Guercio to Tony Powell, and Guercio himself supplied a key fourth down conversion, rushing to his left on 4^th-and-2 for a five-yard gain.
 
On the next play he put a quick pass on Ben Lipinski for a 16-yard gain, giving Clarion a first down at the Rock 18-yard line. Undeterred by an unsportsmanlike conduct call that pushed them back to the 33, the Golden Eagles pressed forward, with Khalon Simmons ripping off an impressive 29-yard run by breaking a tackle in the backfield and getting all the way down to the four-yard line. Paul Newton pulled in the score two plays later, leaking out of the endzone and taking a quick throw from Guercio for the score.
 
The second touchdown drive of the fourth quarter featured another key fourth down conversion, this time with Guercio firing a dart to Corahn Alleyne for a 20-yard gain on a 4^th-and-3 play. Simmons got his team into the red zone when he gained 11 yards on a completion on the next play, and Guercio made a spectacular play on the next snap, completing a screen pass to Paul Newton with defender Jake Baker wrapped around his waist. Newton hauled the pass in and got a block from Alleyne downfield, allowing him to scamper down to the one-yard line. Two plays later, Guercio hit Powell in the back corner of the end zone to cut the lead to 42-14.
 
The Rock had built a significant advantage in the game to that point, but it took them a while to get things going as the Golden Eagle defense shut them down in the first quarter. Slippery Rock's first drive of the game saw them work the ball methodically down to the Clarion one-yard line, but the Golden Eagle defense stood tall at the goal line and did not allow the score. They stuff Khalid Dorsey for no gain on second down, and back-to-back quarterback sneak attempts from Brayden Long went nowhere as the ball came loose and Elroe Yohnnes fell on it on fourth down.
 
Slippery Rock's next possession was a three-and-out as tight Golden Eagle coverage forced an incompletion to Logan Ramper on third down, and that would be the last time the Rock touched the ball in the opening quarter. Clarion extended the ensuing drive with a fake punt to convert a fourth down, with Mathew McGregor taking the snap and rushing for an 11-yard gain on 4^th-and-3. The continuation was short-lived though as Eddie Faulkner IV picked off a Guercio pass three plays later, and the subsequent drive ended with Long completing a touchdown pass to Ramper with 8:28 left in the half. Long completed two more touchdown passes before the end of the half – one to Kyle Sheets and the other to Kam Kruzelyak – to take a 21-0 lead at the half.
 
Dorsey scored a touchdown on the opening possession of the third quarter to extend Slippery Rock's lead to 28-0, and a tipped pass interception on the next Clarion drive gave them the ball back. The Golden Eagle defensive front held their own at the goal line again, with Kareem Hamdan stuffing Chris D'Or on 3^rd-and-1, but this time Long was able to sneak in for the score.
 
DJ Rawley had a team-high eight tackles and a pass break-up, while Hamdan added seven stops and a tackle for loss. Griffin Buzzell and Colton Irwin also had tackles for loss. On offense, Simmons had 60 combined rushing and receiving yards, including two catches for 27 yards.  
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