Fairview Pulls Out Wild Win Over Slippery Rock

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Shane Lux | August 23, 2025

Slippery Rock – Carlo Cimino’s 4-yard touchdown run with 41 seconds to play lifted Fairview to a dramatic 28-21 victory Friday night at Slippery Rock University’s Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.

Neither a different stadium nor an 8 o’clock start could dampen the football game that Slippery Rock and Fairview put on. The game was initially scheduled to be played just up the street at Troy Alan Stadium.

Due to ongoing renovations, it was unavailable, so we headed to Mihalik-Thompson Stadium, and boy, did we have an outstanding fourth quarter.

Fairview fell into a 13-0 second-quarter deficit, but was able to rally with a pair of touchdowns in the final nine minutes.

“We talked a lot this week about what our identity is going to be,” said Fairview head coach Mark Sobeleski. “We have a lot of young kids up front, and I was really proud of how they stepped up and fought until the end of the game. They didn’t get discouraged when they were down 13. I told them all week they’re going to come out and take a swing at us. They’re a southern team, and they’re going to be physical. We weathered the storm, then got ourselves going.”

Who says sloppy football can’t be entertaining?

Locked in a 21-21 stalemate with just over a minute to play, Slippery Rock had the football at its 41-yard line with 1:45 on the clock.

The Rockets looked to be going for the win in regulation. But on third down, Javis Nesbitt intercepted backup quarterback John Petras at the plus side of the field at the 42-yard line with 1:10 to play.

That was far from the only miscue of the final stanza.

As a result, Fairview then went for broke with quarterback Carlo Cimino, who launched a perfect 38-yard completion to Langston Pustelak. On the next snap, Cimino rushed in his second touchdown of the night, giving the Tigers a 28-21 lead with 41 seconds to play.

On their second snap of the game’s final possession, the Tigers stripped Petras of the ball and recovered it to seal the victory. It was one of four second-half turnovers committed by Slippery Rock.

The final 24 minutes started routinely as the Tigers forced a punt and drove 64 yards in 12 plays with Joey O’Reilly capping the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run that gave Fairview a 14-13 lead with 2:05 left in the third quarter.

“We went down early in the first half, but we didn’t let that get to our heads,” O’Reilly said. “We all fought and kept fighting until we came back and won.”

The two schools then played hot potato. As the Rockets’ next drive saw them fumble the ball away in two plays, Fairview promptly gave it right back when Doug Popovec intercepted Cimino on the following play.

On the ensuing drive following Popovec’s interception, Slippery Rock retook the lead when Kole Scott scored his second touchdown of the night on a 7-yard run, capping a 51-yard drive.

That lead, however, lasted 20 seconds as O’Reilly raced 63 yards for a touchdown as Fairview set the stage for a fantastic finish.

“We lost four guys on the line last year,” said O’Reilly. “All these guys are really stepping up and doing their job. They opened the hole, I made my cut, and went.”

Joey O’Reilly rushed for a game-high 132 yards on 20 carries, including 113 in the second half.

“I stepped up for my team,” he said. “My line, I run behind those guys. Robert Welkner is a sophomore, and although he was a bit iffy in the scrimmage, he showed out tonight. He proved to me he can play varsity football, and the rest of the line did amazing as well.”

Javis Nesbitt then made the first of his two defensive plays as he recovered a fumble in Rocket territory, only to have Daniel Lindenberger’s 30-yard field attempt get blocked by Popovec.

It should be noted that Doug Popovec, who started the game as a quarterback, was playing injured on defense after being unable to continue running the offense. He gutted it out and still came up with big play after big play. His performance was nothing short of legendary.

When he was at 100% leading the Rocket offense, they quickly jumped out to a 13-0 lead when he ran for 50 yards on his five carries and tossed an 84-yard touchdown to Logan Schlobohm early in the second quarter. He completed 3-of-5 passes for 86 yards.

“We had a busted coverage on that play, but I never hit the panic button, Sobeleski said. “We kept calling plays, lining up, and it ended up working out for us.”

Slippery Rock scored on its first two possessions, with Kole Scott’s 1-yard run opening the scoring late in the first quarter.

In the waning moments of the first half, the Tigers pulled to within a score when Cimino scored on a 1-yard run with five ticks left on the clock. The drive covered 41 yards in 12 plays and saw a pair of 4th-down conversions.

“That was a nice long drive there, and we called a play that we hadn’t run yet,” said Sobeleski. “We had run that play several times last season, and Carlos came to me and said Let’s just run that and everything ended up working out.”

Fairview now moves on to host Grove City next Friday night.

“Grove City was a game we wanted,” concluded Sobeleski. “We can put teams that we want and teams we don’t want. I love their program. Their coach is an old friend of mine that I used to do clinics with; I have a lot of respect for that program. They’ve gotten the better of us recently, so we need to ensure a good week of preparation.”

Slippery Rock will look to bounce back next Saturday night against Franklin.

Game Highlights:

Fairview 28 Slippery Rock 21

Score by Quarters

Fairview – 0 7 7 14 – 28

Slippery Rock – 7 6 0 8 – 21

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

SR – Kole Scott 1 yd run, (Zach Lasko pat), 1:41 – 11-76

Second Quarter

SR – Logan Schlobohm 84 yd pass from Doug Popovec, (kick failed), 10:41 – 2-80

F – Carlo Cimino 1 yd run, (Daniel Lindenberger pat), 0:05 – 12-41

Third Quarter

F – Joey O’Reilly 4 yd run, (Lindenberger pat), 2:05 – 12-64

Fourth Quarter

SR – Scott 7 yd run, (Sawyer Allen from John Petras), 9:57 – 8-51

F – O’Reilly 63 yd run, (Lindenberger pat), 9:37 – 1-63

F – Cimino 4 yd run, (Lindenberger pat), 0:41 – 2-42

Individual Stats

Rushing: F – Cimino 8-36, Joey O’Reilly 20-132, Jeremiah Bennett 2-41, Brady King 1-5, Javis Nesbitt 1-2, Lindenberger 1-2. Totals: 33-218. SR – Popovec 6-36, Owen Long 4-46, Scott 9-44, Alex Cornelius 7-24, Petras 7-12, Team 1-(-3). Totals: 34-159.

Receiving: F – Langston Pustelak 4-54, Nesbitt 3-22, King 2-12, Bennett 1-22. SR – Schlobohm 1-84, Long 2-10, Sawyer Allen 1-0, Cornelius 1-(-8).

Passing: F – Cimino 8-for-18, 95 yards, 1 INT, Bennett 2-for-3, 15 yards, Team 0-for-2. SR – Popovec 3-for-5, 86 yards, 1 TD, Petras 2-for-9, 0 yards, 2 INT, Team 0-for-1.

Interceptions: F – Nesbitt. SR – Popovec.

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