GROVE CITY — Sam Mowrey is hoping the third year is the charm.

The first two have seen ups and downs.

“Lots of downs,” Mowrey said. “Not too many ups.”

The Eagles, though, have shown flashes in those two seasons, but have seen games slip away late on the way to a 3-17 record under Mowrey.

The roster is loaded with talent — especially young players who got ample playing time last season.

Could this be a breakthrough season for Grove City?

“This is a group that has a lot of kids that have started as sophomores and juniors,” Mowrey said. “They have a chip on their shoulder because they know they can do better than that.”

The offense begins with Kameron Patterson.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior quarterback is entering his third year as a starter and threw for 1,433 and 10 touchdowns as a junior.

“He knows what he's doing,” Mowrey said. “At the quarterback position, it's important to have a leader back there that the kids respond to and he does a good job motivating the kids. He does a good job keeping tabs on himself and not taking any plays off. That's big.”

Patterson and 6-foot, 165-pound sophomore wide receiver Logan Lutz created quite the connection last season.

Lutz caught 23 passes for 342 yards and four touchdowns as a freshman.

“Lutz is just a young kid, but he's one of those kids that you look at him, he doesn't look like the fastest kid,” Mowrey said. “You put him on the track and he's not going to be the fastest kid, but he just finds ways to get open and catches everything that comes to him. He's one of those uncanny type players.”

Patterson also has leading receiver Brayden Martin back. Martin caught 32 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns last season.

Grove City also returns four of its five offensive linemen (Tyler Locktosh, Jared Repert, Zach Herndon and Zane Fuss).

Patterson led the Eagles in rushing with 320 yards and accounted for 67 percent of the offense.

As good as Patterson is, that's a number Mowrey is hoping to lower.

“Our running game has been the focus,” Mowrey said. “Every one of our practices, our focus has been the run game. That's priority No. 1. We think we have a good, physical line ... we got to get the run game going.”

The Eagles rushed for only 1,057 yards as a team last season.

There is, however, quite a battle for playing time at running back, Mowrey said.

Senior Cordell Sanders, junior Trey Adams and sophomore Tyler Greer are slugging it out to be the main ballcarrier for the Eagles this season.

Adams led the trio with 202 yards rushing in 2015.

“That's going to be an interesting battle,” Mowrey said. “I've had a few guys ask me, 'Who's going to be your starting running back?' I'll let them decide. It's been fun.”

Mowrey and his staff have also been evaluating themselves.

They pored through tape of the last two seasons, trying to dissect what went well and what went not-so-well.

“As a staff, we went back and reviewed our past seasons and at the things we didn't like and the things we did like,” Mowrey said. “We tried to get a blend of the things that were most effective for us.”

They hope that translates to wins this season.