WEST CHESTER — Poor practices and poor health spelled doom for Slippery Rock University.

A powerful opponent didn’t help matters, either.

West Chester quarterback Bill McCartney threw for 405 yards and five touchdowns Saturday afternoon to lead the Golden Rams to a 46-20 NCAA Division II football playoff victory over The Rock at Farrell Stadium.

The Rock (9-3) played without senior starting quarterback Jared Buck, who stood on the sidelines in street clothes after being knocked out of last week’s PSAC Championship Game by a blow to the head. Sophomore Zack Newsock made his first start behind center since Week 6.

“As soon as they saw Jared wasn’t playing, they loaded up their defense to stop our run,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “They were going to make us beat them throwing the football.”

Newsock completed only 13 of 31 passes for 127 yards on the day. His 21-yard touchdown toss to Jaimire Dutrieuille briefly tied the game at six in the first quarter, but West Chester quickly put the game away in the first half.

McCartney threw three touchdown passes to tight end Tim Brown in the first half. He connected with Brandon Monk and Mike Doty for touchdown tosses as well as the Golden Rams (11-1) built a 32-6 lead by halftime.

“The wind was pretty strong out there and Slippery Rock had the wind in the first quarter,” West Chester coach Bill Zwaan said. “When we came out of that quarter with the (12-6) lead, our guys were fired up. It made a difference for us.”

Swaan admitted that Buck’s absence probably made a difference for Slippery Rock as well.

“That had to be tough on them,” the coach said. “We were going to gear up against their run anyway, because they do that so well, but we were able to go a little heavier on run defense with Buck out of there.”

SRU also lost senior linebacker Austin Miele to a knee injury in the first period. He did not return. Cornerback Admire Carter suffered a head injury in the third quarter and left the field on a stretcher.

“He’s fine,” Mihalik said. “That was precautionary. He was released (from the hospital) later.”

PSAC sack leader Marcus Martin was also injured Saturday. He remained in the game, “but was not the same,” Mihalik said.

“We just weren’t sharp today,” Mihalik said. “We didn’t get any pressure on the quarterback and we went 1 for 14 on third down. Our offense couldn’t generate anything.

“We couldn’t get field position and West Chester’s offense played with a short field most of the day.”

Three of the Golden Rams’ scoring drives were less than 50 yards.

Averaging 488 yards per game this season, The Rock managed a season-low 158 Saturday. SRU trailed 46-6 before Newsock threw touchdown passes of 10 yards to Drew Scales and six yards to Cornelius Raye.

The Rock managed only 31 net yards rushing.

McCartney and the West Chester offense generated 573 yards. Brown had seven catches for 164 yards, Doty five for 108.

“McCartney is a great quarterback,” Mihalik said. “We had guys well-covered at times and he kept putting the ball right there.”

Zwaan was surprised Saturday’s win came in such lopsided fashion.

“Slippery Rock has a great football team. It wasn’t their day today. They had some key people go down,” Zwaan said. “Those types of days happen. It was ill-timed for them.”

The cold stretch of weather didn’t aid The Rock’s cause last week.

“We never got a good practice in all week,” Mihalik said. “That carried on to the field with us out here.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted today, but we did win the PSAC championship and got to the playoffs for a second straight year. The whole body of work this year was pretty darn good.”

Notes: Greene was held to 23 yards rushing and finished the season with 1,482, second-most in Rock history. ... Mihalik led The Rock to the NCAA Division II playoffs for the fifth time. ... Cody Conway paced SRU with nine tackles. Andrew Cohen had nine tackles for West Chester while Ronell Williams had eight tackles and a pair of sacks. ... Rams placekicker Rich Bruno missed three PATs for the second straight week. SRU’s Mike Wainauskis missed one. ... West Chester has an 8-7 lead in the series between the teams.

West Chester 46, Slippery Rock 20

Slippery Rock 6 0 0 14 — 20

West Chester 12 20 7 7 — 46

SRU WC

14 First Downs 25

32-31 Rushes-Yards 43-148

127 Passing Yards 425

13-32-1 Comp.-Att.-Int 24-41-0

158 Total Yards 573

1-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-0

5-45 Penalty Yards 10-99

First Quarter

WC — Tim Brown 33 pass from Sean McCartney (kick failed), 13:04

SRU — Jaimire Dutrieuille 21 pass from Zack Newsock (kick failed), 9:08

WC — Brandon Monk 15 pass from McCartney (kick failed), 5:45

Second Quarter

WC — Mike Doty 33 pass from McCartney (kick failed), 12:54

WC — Brown 34 pass from McCartney (pass failed), 7:21

WC — Brown 23 pass from McCartney (Erick Brundidge pass from McCartney), :28

Third Quarter

WC — Eddie Elliott 2 run (Rich Bruno kick), 5:42

Fourth Quarter

WC — Adam Dempsey 20 pass from Andrew Derr (Bruno kick), 12:17

SRU — Drew Scales 10 pass from Newsock (Mike Wanauskis kick), 11:08

SRU — Cornelius Raye 6 pass from Newsock (Wainauskis kick), :58

Individual Statistics

Rushing: SRU, Teddy Blakeman 9-41, Shamar Greene 13-23, TEAM 1-(-1), Julian Durden 3-(-2), Zack Newsock 3-(-11), Melvin German 3-(-11), Kyle Henderson 1-(-8). West Chester, Eddie Elliott 14-55, Brandon Monk 12-40, Jared Elder 11-29, Andrew Derr 2-19, Anthony Brown 1-5, Ryan Boyd 1-4, TEAM 2-(-4).

Passing: SRU, Zack Newsock 13-31-127-1, Melvin German 0-1-0-0. West Chester, Sean McCartney 23-40-405-0, Andrew Derr 1-1-20-0.

Receiving: SRU, Jaimire Dutrieuille 3-31, Julian Harrell 2-26, Drew Scales 2-23, Leroy McClain 2-19, Shamar Greene 1-8, Teddy Blakeman 1-7, Melvin German 1-7, Cornelius Raye 1-6. West Chester, Tim Brown 7-164, Mike Doty 5-108, Erick Brundidge 3-49, Brandon Monk 3-45, Adam Dempsey 2-29, Eddie Elliott 2-17, Shannon Mayer 2-13.