Rockets ready for foes
SLIPPERY ROCK — A new region means a whole new crop of challenges for the Slippery Rock High football team.
The Rockets have dropped from Class AAA to Class AA, which on the surface looks like an easier road for a team coming off a 10-0 regular season.
It’s not. One look at the gambit of teams in the region that the Rockets must run through and it’s easy to see it’s a different world for Slippery Rock in 2014.
And that’s OK. The Rockets head into the season relishing the challenge.
“It’s great because they are football schools with great programs and great traditions,” said Slippery Rock coach Brendan Hathaway. “Greenville, Grove City, Sharon, Hickory — Hickory has owned D-10 for the last three years. I’ve been telling these guys that they better step it up this year because you’re playing Mercer and Lawrence County teams that have been successful for the last 20, 30 years.”
Slippery Rock has carved out its own success in the last three seasons under Hathaway.
After an 0-10 campaign in his first season in 2010, the Rockets are 26-7 since.
But 0-3 in the playoffs.
The last two seasons, General McLane has ended Slippery Rock’s run.
“Having the same team beat us two years in a row, it hurt,” said senior offensive lineman Camren Neal. “But it drives us this year to push farther. We’re putting in a lot of hard work.”
Slippery Rock averaged 48 points per game during the regular season last year. The offense piled up 4,437 yards and 55 touchdowns on the ground in Hathaway’s flexbone attack.
Most of the guys who contributed to those gaudy numbers return, including speedy brothers Travis Lauster and Ryan Lauster, who combined for 1,297 yards on just 112 carries and scored 14 touchdowns.
The key loss was fullback Frank Conlon, who led the team with 968 yards rushing.
The spread-out nature of the rushing yards — despite averaging more than 400 yards rushing a game, no ballcarrier cracked 1,000 yards — is something that won’t change this season, Hathaway said.
“They are great at the team aspect of this offense,” Hathaway said. “I know they understand that we’re going to spread the ball around again this year.”
Also back is senior quarterback Jake Whitmer, who was second on the team with 757 yards on the ground. He also completed 23-of-44 passes for 602 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“I look for Jake to be more comfortable,” Hathaway said. “He’s been more comfortable every year since I first saw him at quarterback in the eighth grade. We still ask him to do the same things we asked him to do when he was in the eighth grade: make the right reads, hold on to the ball and be a tough runner because that’s what we expect out of our quarterback.”
That’s not to say Hathaway and the Rockets won’t mix it up a little this season.
Some defenses did vex Slippery Rock last season and the coaching staff spent the offseason examining tonics to those troubles.
“We tweak it to beat defenses that gives us trouble,” Hathaway said. “Obviously, you’re going to use your athletes and your talent, but in the offseason, we always look at what we need to do against teams that have given us problems in the past.”
