INDIANA, PA – Despite outgaining Slippery Rock and holding onto the ball for 10 more minutes during the game, the Crimson Hawks turned the ball over four times in a 31-21 loss to their rival on Saturday afternoon at Miller Stadium.
 
IUP totaled 387 yards - including a season-high 361 through the air - and had 24 first downs, but tossed four interceptions and gave up 234 rushing yards to Slippery Rock. SRU also had eight sacks on the day, consistently pushing the Crimson Hawks into third-and-longs. IUP finished 3-of-13 in third down conversions.  
 
Chase Haslett (Clayton, Mo./Clayton) completed 26-of-50 passes for a career-high 361 yards with three touchdowns, although his four interceptions were the death knell for the Crimson Hawks.
 
It was his second straight 300-yard passing day, as he's totaled 720 yards and four touchdowns in the past two games. Receiver Drew Carswell (Pittsburgh, Pa. /Sto-Rox) was the main beneficiary today, catching eight passes for 118 yards and a pair of scores. Tight end Brock DeCiccio caught six passes, working the middle of the field for 58 yards, while freshman receiver Walt Pegues (Philadelphia, Pa. /Central) caught five for 118 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
 
Slippery Rock, now 6-2 overall and 5-2 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, got on the scoreboard first with a 65-yard touchdown run by Shamar Green on its second drive of the first quarter. Despite some offensive troubles for IUP in the early going, the defense buckled down after the score, allowing a combined 26 yards on the next two SRU drives.
 
It was Julian Durden who carried the load for SRU to begin the second, toting the ball four straight times for 27 yards, including an 11-yard score for a 14-0 lead.
 
Haslett's second interception of the game on the ensuing drive gave SRU great position at the IUP nine, which set them up for a 16-yard field goal by Mike Wainauskis to go on top 17-0.
 
The next two drives belonged to Haslett as he went 9-of-13 and found Carswell in the corner of the end zone twice to cut the SRU lead to 17-14, and gave the Crimson Hawks momentum heading into the half.
 
That momentum would not carry over into the second half, however, as a missed fourth down conversion to go along with a 13-yard punt gave SRU great field position and led to a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jared Buck to Melvin German to put SRU on top 24-14.
 
The third interception of the game, coming at the beginning of the fourth quarter with the Crimson Hawks driving deep into SRU territory, led to a 16-play, 72-yard touchdown drive that put the game out of reach at 31-14.
 
IUP added a late touchdown, the Haslett-to-Pegues catch-and-run for 63 yards, with 1:11 to play.
 
Lost in the big offensive numbers for the Crimson Hawks was linebacker Kevin Clarke (West Mifflin, Pa. /West Mifflin), who set a new career-high with 21 total tackles on Saturday. It's tied for the fifth highest total this year in Division II and is the highest total in the PSAC this season.
 
Fellow linebacker Myles Catlin (Pittsburgh, Pa. /Obama) also had a career-high of 15 tackles while defensive end Matthew Mowad (Easton, Pa. /Easton) had 10 tackles and a sack.
 
The loss was the second in a row for the Crimson Hawks, who drop to 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the PSAC. This is just the second two-game losing streak for IUP under head coach Curt Cignetti, with the last coming in his first year of 2011 (Bloomsburg, Slippery Rock).
 
The Crimson Hawks, now with three games left in the regular season, remain home next week to host Clarion (2-6, 2-5). Kickoff is at 1 p.m.