SLIPPERY ROCK — Lucky seven or a glorious first?

Slippery Rock University travels to Clarion for a noon kickoff Saturday at Memorial Stadium for the annual Milk Jug football game.

The Rock (5-3, 2-3) has won the jug in each of the six years it's been in existence. The winner of the game keeps the jug for the year.

“We'd love to keep that jug here,” East Brady graduate and second-year Clarion coach Chris Weibel said. “We're doing what we can to prepare to try to beat them.

“They're banged up and so are we. The team that wants this game the most will probably win it.”

Clarion (2-6, 1-4) has missed standout quarterback Connor Simmons the past three games because of an undisclosed injury. He had thrown for 1,464 yards and 10 touchdowns before getting hurt. North Allegheny product and freshman Jeff Clemens has been filling in.

Clemens has completed just 39 of 93 passes for 468 yards, six TDs and six interceptions.

“He's coming along. He just doesn't have the experience,” Weibel said of Clemens.

Simmons may return to the Clarion lineup Saturday. He will be a game-time decision.

“Simmons throws a nice ball and he's got skilled people to throw to,” SRU coach Shawn Lutz said.

Kevin Genevro and Matt Lehman have split 72 catches this season, good for 1,448 yards and 12 touchdowns.

SRU has quarterback issues of its own. Don King III is definitely out Saturday with concussion symptoms. Augustus Necastro, a freshman from Brookfield, Ohio, will get the start after completing 17 of 22 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns in a relief role last week.

No. 2 quarterback Nathaniel Musselman has a bruised leg — not a broken one as originally feared — and has been practicing this week.

“He's (Musselman) hobbling around a little bit. Augustus earned this start and he'll get it,” Lutz said. “We may wind up doing a rotation thing and stay with one if somebody gets hot, but Augustus will start the game.”

He will face a young Clarion defense that graduated a bevy of seniors from last year. Six starters are either freshmen or sophomores.

The lone veteran starter returning to that unit — Seneca Valley graduate and senior defensive end Matt Koerper — has been injured and is not listed on the Golden Eagles' two-deep lineup this week. Koerper has only 22 tackles this season in limited action.

“We are very young on defense,” Weibel conceded.

Rock center Joe LoSchiavo will not play Saturday because of a fractured foot. Seneca Valley graduate and senior Dean Ketterer will play center.

Isiah Neely became the third starting Rock running back to rush for 100 yards in a game this season when he tallied 135 in last week's last-second 37-35 loss to Edinboro.

That defeat ended any Rock hopes of securing a fourth straight NCAA Division II playoff spot.

“It's been tough getting over that one, but we have to move on,” Lutz said. “As long as we have games left, there will be fight in this football team.

“We have to get this out of our system, take it out on Clarion. That's what we want to do.”

Clarion is riding a four-game losing streak, allowing an average of 45 points per game while doing so.

“We don't have the depth here that some teams have,” Weibel said. “There's a big drop-off when we have to go to second-string players and we're going through a stretch of playing California, Indiana and Slippery Rock while we're banged up.

“This has been a tough stretch. But we have to take what we have, go out there and compete. This experience will be good for us in the long run.”