Nov 2, 2019 4 min read

SLIPPERY ROCK – It was an ending right out of Hollywood.

Game tied. Two seconds left. PSAC West Division championship on the line.

Jake Chapla, who earlier in the game had one field goal blocked and missed on another, stepped into a 24-yard attempt just as a blur comes into view, arms outstretched.

The kick is tipped.

But the football launches up and over the crossbar from 24 yards out as the horn sounded to end the game.

Final score: Slippery Rock 31, California 28.

Chapla, who beat Cal with a similar kick two years ago, needed help getting off the field after being run into. All that was needed was a love interest waiting on the sidelines.

But, hey, this isn’t Hollywood; it’s Slippery Rock.

“They made one more play than we did,” said Cal head coach Gary Dunn.

Chapla ruined Cal’s comeback story, trailing The Rock (6-0, 9-0) by two touchdowns with 8:16 remaining in the third quarter. But Nelson Brown’s 3-yard score, his third touchdown of the game, brought Cal to within seven, 28-21.

With 1:22 to play, Josh Dale replaced the injured Noah Mitchell and fired a 21-yard laser to JaQuae Jackson for a touchdown . . .

On fourth down . . .

Leaving 1:14 on the clock.

“I have all the faith in the world with Josh,” said Dunn. “I have two really good quarterbacks.”

“I was devastated (by the touchdown pass). That was a backup quarterback, fourth down, wow,” said Slippery Rock head coach Shawn Lutz. “What a play. If they had won the game, he would have been carried around California. It was incredible.”

The Rock’s elusive quarterback Roland Rivers, who gouged Cal’s defense for 415 total yards, needed every second. He broke free for a 10-yard gain, racing to the sideline to stop the clock with 18 seconds to play when Cal linebacker Breon Coke gave Rivers an extra shove, sending him to the ground and two yellow flags into the air. The personal foul put the football at the Cal 16.

Three plays and three timeouts later, Chapla hit the game-winner.

“It’s probably a good call,” said Dunn. “(Coke) was playing hard, an 18-year-old kid playing hard and probably not knowing where he was on the field. It’s an effort penalty and I’m not going to question a kid’s effort.”

“I could sense I was getting close to the sidelines so I threw the stiff-arm out there and you could tell when he grabbed me that he was a little upset,” said Rivers. “I did a little bit of acting in order to get us closer to winning. Bad play by them; great play by us.”

Chapla had a sprained ankle and was not available for comment.

“Give Cal credit. We let them get back in the game,” said Lutz. “We can’t make those type of mistakes, getting a field goal blocked, missing a field goal, turning the ball over.”

Rivers threw four touchdown passes, two to Henry Litwin, and finished with 280 yards. He was not sacked. Rivers rushed for 135 yards on 18 carries, a 7.5-yard average.

Brown finished with 137 yards on 32 carries.

“Our quarterback got banged up last week and the plan was to get me the ball,” said Brown. “I gave it all I got because winning this game could get us to the playoffs.”

It was a back-and forth first half with Cal (4-2, 6-3) unable to stop the pass and Slippery Rock unable to stop the run.

Rivers threw three touchdown passes, including a 2-yard tackle-eligible toss to Colton Richards that gave Slippery Rock a 14-7 lead with 10:58 to go before intermission.

Brown scored the second of his 2-yard touchdowns to tie the game, 14-14, at the 7:18 mark.

But Rivers and Litwin connected for the second time of the half, a 55-yarder with 2:35 left.

Rivers to Litwin from 9 yards out opened the scoring nine minutes into the game.

Rivers had 97 passing yards in the first half and Nelson gained 76 yards on nine carries.