SLIPPERY ROCK — Tanner Garry's passes were effective and occurred often in Slippery Rock University's season-opening football victory last week.

Coach Shawn Lutz hopes the effectiveness of the air game remains.

The frequency of it?

Not so much.

The Rock opens its home season at 6 p.m. Saturday against No. 24 West Chester at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium. The Golden Rams are coming off a 51-9 home victory over Bentley.

“They're ranked 24th in the country and are favorites to win the (PSAC) East for a reason,” Lutz said. “They return a lot of people and they are very complex on offense.

“They use a lot of motion and move people around. That creates confusion for a defense and we've got an inexperienced defense.”

While Garry threw for 390 yards and five touchdowns last week — earning himself PSAC West Offensive Player of the Week honors — with Marcus Johnson and Cornelius “Milly” Raye catching the bulk of those passes, SRU's running game struggled.

Raye made a spin move past two defenders down the left sideline that made the ESPN college football highlight package that day.

“We're still going to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers,” Lutz said. “But we need to be able to run it, too.”

Veteran Isiah Neely will start at running back over Chacar Berry Saturday night, though both will play. Berry fumbled twice at Kentucky State last week.

“The (field) conditions were horrible there, but that's no excuse,” Lutz said. “We have to run the football this week. We need to limit West Chester's possessions.

“If we don't run better than we did last week, I have a hard time seeing us winning this game.”

The Rock holds a 9-8 edge in the all-time series between the teams. Six of the previous 17 meetings with West Chester were in the PSAC title game, including SRU's 61-12 road win in 2015.

The Rock won a wild 36-28 decision over the Golden Rams last year. SRU has won 22 of its last 23 home games and West Chester hasn't won at The Rock since 2006.

SRU has also won its last 10 games against PSAC East opponents.

“They have a winning tradition there and they play physical football,” said Rams coach Bill Zwaan, in his 15tyh season. They've shown they can throw the football. We're going up against a formidable offense.”

The Rams' offense isn't bad in its own right. Six different players scored touchdowns for West Chester last week and quarter back Paul Dooley completed 12 of 15 passes for 183 yards in three quarters.

West Chester rushed for 213 yards, including 68 from Jarel Elder and 82 from Mark Dukes.

“Elder isn't very big (5-foot-7, 165 pounds), but he's elusive and does a good job of hiding behind their big line,” Lutz said.

Zwaan admitted SRU's defense is green, but said “that toughness is still there. They run to the ball.”

Lutz concurred with that assessment.

“I looked at our films and we made a lot of mistakes on defense, but we're learning,” he said. “What I loved was our aggressiveness and how hard we played. All 11 guys ran to the ball and that made up for a lot of those mistakes.”

Senior defensive end Marcus Martin had a school-record six tackles for loss last week. He needs six more to break the NCAA Division II record for career tackles for loss. He needs four sacks for the Div. II record in that category.

One player who won't be in West Chester's lineup Saturday night is Seneca Valley graduate Cody Boozel. The sophomore tight end suffered a knee injury last spring and is out for the season.

“We had a nice offensive package put together for him and he would have played quite a bit this year,” Zwaan said. “Cody will take a medical redshirt now and he has a good career lying ahead with us.”

Already off to a good collegiate career is Butler graduate Tim Vernick, who had 10 tackles and a sack last week. He was making his first start at middle linebacker as a redshirt freshman.

“Tim is such an intelligent player,” Lutz said. “He's smart and he knows where the play is going to be. That type of anticipation can go a long way.”