HERMITAGE — Even the ugliest wins are better than the prettiest losses. Slippery Rock High School’s football team is a living testament to that.

The Rockets came out trying to turn their fortune around after back-to-back losses. In some ways they were able to do that, but mistakes that sometimes prove to be very costly were happening all over the place Friday night before the Rockets pulled out a 23-20 victory at Hickory.

The first mishap of the game came just five minutes into the opening quarter of play when Hickory’s William Acrie took a punt 60 yards to the house. The Rockets’ answer to that play didn’t come until closing stages of the first, but lucky for them they have a William of their own who is a game-wrecker.

William Mokel was able turn to a broken play into a 65-yard touchdown when he avoided multiple rushers, broke a few tackles and finally got outside the pocket and saw Maddox Allen wide-open inside Hickory’s 35-yard line.

“He’s special, we’ve said that for three years, but we did some things in the games the last couple weeks to get his legs into the game,” Slippery Rock coach Larry Wendereusz Jr. said. “And again, you get a kid who can run the ball the way he is and the ball the way he does, that makes it tough on a defense.”

At the half, Mokel’s stats were better than some quarterbacks have in a single game. He went 10-17 with three touchdowns in the first 24 minutes of play. Every point was crucial against a tough Hornets team.

But in the second half, the mistakes seemed to multiply. A missed field goal try kept Hickory in the game, but the Rocket defense held its own. After forcing the Hornets off the field, however, the Rockets gifted them a golden opportunity off a muffed punt.

“We’ve put ourselves in bad spots all season special teams-wise, we continue to make changes, rep it and spend time on it,” Wendereusz said. “And we continue to get the same result, the definition is doing the same over and over again and expecting a different result, well we have to do something different because it’s been the same thing week in and week out.”

Hickory capitalized on the favorable field position when Zander Telesz found Ty Holland for the tying score.

It was on the Rockets to answer back, and they did just that with a 13-play, 80-yard drive that led to a Nick Kingerski game-winning field goal. Ironically, the specials team that almost cost them the game was able to win it for the Rockets.

It was a much-needed win for Slippery Rock, especially when it comes to standings. For Wendereusz though, the game just shows how much they have to work on.

“At this point, we’ve got to get better and playoffs aren’t even in my thoughts,” Wendereusz said. “We’ve got to be a better football team, because you can’t win ugly football games week in and week out.”

Hickory 6 7 0 7 — 20

Slippery Rock 7 13 0 3 — 23

First Quarter

H — William Acrie 60 punt return (Lukas Jones kick failed), 7:19

S — Maddox Allen 65 pass from William Mokel (Nick Kingerski kick), 1:53

Second Quarter

H — Zander Telesz 36 run (Lukas Jones kick), 10:34

S — John Sabo 10 pass from William Mokel (Nick Kingerski kick), 3:55

S — Eli Anderson 5 pass from William Mokel (Nick Kingerski kick failed), 2:32

Fourth Quarter

H — Ty Holland 7 pass from Zander Telesz (Lukas Jones kick), 5:05

S — Nick Kingerski field goal, 1:04

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Hickory, Zander Telesz 11-54, Sean Kennedy 8-30, DayMar Trewick 4-8, Luke Nevil 1-0, Ty Holland 1-0, Logan Woods 3-(-6). Slippery Rock, Maddox Allen 20-102, William Mokel 9-43, Sal Mineo 6-40.

Passing: Hickory, Logan Woods 5-10-71-2, Zander Telesz 3-7-51, William Acrie 1-1-41. Slippery Rock, William Mokel 20-32-224-1, Eli Anderson 2-2-28.

Receiving: Hickory, Luke Nevil 5-126, Keenan Scullin 3-26, William Acrie 1-11. Slippery Rock, John Sabo 9-82, Maddox Allen 2-73, Sal Mineo 4-45, Eli Anderson 2-17, Sam Schwartz 1-8, Brody Galcik 1-0.