SRHS christens new field with 14-7 win
SLIPPERY ROCK — Ken Anderson never asks for more carries in the Slippery Rock High School football team's triple-option attack.
Anderson takes his blocking role seriously and waits his turn to carry the ball.
Anderson's turn ended up being a historic one in the Rockets' 14-7 Region 3-AA win over Hickory Friday night at Slippery Rock Stadium.
Anderson lone carry with 8 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in the third quarter was a 5-yard touchdown run that was the first score on the Rockets' new turf.
“Coach always says that you run for your brothers, you block for your brothers and you fake for your brothers,” said Anderson, who has eight carries this season. “That was my only carry tonight. I deserved it.”
Anderson also recovered a fumble on the Hornet 35 with 5:52 remaining that help set up a second score for Slippery Rock.
Jake Whitmer scored on a 9-yard run to put the Rockets ahead 14-0 with 2:33 remaining.
“I'm so happy he was the first player to score at the new field,” Slippery Rock coach Brendan Hathaway said of Anderson. “He never says a word, never complains about not getting the ball. He blocks his tail off on every play and came through huge.”
The Rockets (5-0, 4-0) took turns coming up big against the Hornets, who have won the past three District 10 Class AA titles.
Brady Kadlubek intercepted a pass in the endzone before halftime to halt a Hickory drive. Whitmer also intercepted a pass in the redzone.
“We didn't win the line of scrimmage, which was disappointing. We threw the ball well and made some mistakes,” Hickory coach Bill Brest said. “It's going to haunt us, the three turnovers in the redzone instead of being up by a big score of halftime.”At halftime, the game was a scoreless deadlock. Then Slippery Rock had center Colten Raabe lead the game with an injury.Camren Neal slid over and replaced him and helped lead the Rockets on a 9-play drive that chewed up nearly four minutes and ended with Anderson's touchdown run.“Our offense, every one of our linemen plays every position,” Neal said. “One lineman goes down, we get another guy in and we work it like that.”Travis Lauster, who didn't carry the ball in the first half, had carries of 11, 13, 15 and 16 yards to set up the score.Lauster finished with a game-high 66 yards on eight carries.“In the triple-option, you don't know who's getting the ball,” Hathaway asid. “Coach Croll said to me Travis Lauster didn't have a carry, so we made sure we got him carries at the beginning of the second half. He did a great job.”Hickory out-gained Slippery Rock 230-210.Hornets quarterback Nick Cannone passed for 159 yards and cut the lead to 14-7 with 1:20 remaining on a 10-yard pass to Andrew Pryts.Hickory's onside kick attempt was recovered by Lauster. Slippery Rock was then able to run out the clock.“We're a second-half team. We do a lot of conditioning for the second half,” Neal said. “We like to smack teams and let them know we're still here and not getting put down.”
