SLIPPERY ROCK — Records are nice. Wins are nicer.

Slippery Rock University senior defensive end Marcus Martin made that message clear — on and off the field — Saturday night at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium as SRU defeated Lock Haven, 33-7.

Martin had two quarterback sacks and three tackles for loss in the contest, breaking the NCAA Division II career records in both categories. He now has 47 sacks and 79.5 tackles for loss at The Rock. He needs only seven sacks to become the all-time leader in all of college football.

“You think of all the great college football players through the years, guys who have gone on to star in the NFL ... and a guy from Slippery Rock may get more sacks than any of them,” SRU coach Shawn Lutz said. “That's a testament to how hard that kid has worked.

“And he keeps working. He's still going.”

Martin's record-setting sack occurred late in the first half. On the next play, he ran downfield and threw a block that helped spring Marcus Johnson for a 72-yard punt return down to the Lock Haven 10-yard line.

“It's all about winning,” Martin said. “Yeah, I was excited and a little tired. But if I can't suck it up for that eight to 10 seconds to help spring a play like that ... It might mean six points, maybe the winning points.

“Had we lost the game, I wouldn't be very excited about this record.”

But his team won — and Martin is excited.

“My goal was to get the record by the fourth game this year, so I can put it behind me and focus on helping this team win games,” Martin said.

SRU (3-0) led 13-0 at halftime. Johnson's punt return set up a 27-yard Jake Chapla field goal attempt, but he clanked it off the left upright as the first half expired.

Lock Haven (0-3) took the second-half kickoff and marched 73 yards in 13 plays. A John Ford 1-yard scoring run cut the Bald Eagles' deficit to 13-7.

“At that point, we found ourselves in a football game,” Lutz said.

Not for long.

SRU used 14 plays to march 65 yards on the following possession. Chapla ended it with a 25-yard field goal. Two plays later, Tim Soave recovered a Lock Haven fumble inside the visitors' 5-yard line.

Chacar Berry scored on a 3-yard run and it was 23-7.

Chapla added a second 25-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter and Tanner Garry's second touchdown pass of the night — a 60-yard bomb to Carnel Harley — concluded the scoring.

Isiah Neely rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown for The Rock, which got its previously dormant ground game untracked.

“That felt good. I didn't realize I had 100 yards,” Neely said.”It's important for us to be able to run the football. We're not going to win consistently without a balanced offense.”

Lock Haven got plenty of run production of its own — from an unlikely source.

Freshman quarterback Kyle Knight ran for 104 yards, primarily straight up the middle. He wasn't even expected to play much Saturday.

The Bald Eagles replaced previous starting QB Cameron Tobias with Jimmy Strickland, but the latter was forced from the game with an ankle injury.

It was Knight's game the rest of the way.

“The guy was on our coverage unit on special teams last week,” Lock Haven coach Dave Taynor said of Knight. “He's thrown maybe five total passes for us in practice this year.

“He didn't know our offense at all. We were drawing up plays for him in the dirt on the sidelines. It was like, here's our three passing plays for this series. It was kinda crazy.

“We graduated an all-conference quarterback last year. I guess we're on a learning curve at that position this year,” Taynor added.

Lutz didn't like the lesson.

“It hurt seeing us give up yards right up the middle as consistently as that kid got them,” Lutz said. “That's a pride thing with me. We will definitely address that.”

Notes: Lock Haven turned the ball over three times Saturday and has 13 turnovers in three games. Tavarus Sample had an interception, Soave and De'Vijan Franklin fumble recoveries. ... Sample led SRU with 12 tackles. ... SRU is 33-0-1 in its last 34 games vs. Lock Haven and improved to 24-1 in its last 25 home games. The Rock has won its last 12 regular season games against PSAC East foes. ... SRU opens PSAC West play this Saturday with a noon kickoff at Gannon.

SRU 33, Lock Haven 7

Lock Haven 0 0 7 0 — 7

Slippery Rock 7 6 10 10 — 33

LH SRU

17 First Downs 18

52-184 Rushes-Yards 31-144

86 Passing Yards 213

11-27-1 Comp.-Att.-Int 15-32-1

270 Total Yards 357

3-2 Fumbles-Lost 1-0

8-66 Penalty Yards 2-10

First Quarter

SRU — Milly Raye 38 pass from Tanner Garry (Jake Chapla kick), 13:11

Second Quarter

SRU — Isiah Neely 1 run (kick blocked), 1:25

Third Quarter

LH — John Ford 1 run (Nick Boumheri kick), 8:43

SRU — Chapla 25 field goal, 3:44

SRU — Chacar Berry 3 run (Chapla kick), 3:22

Fourth Quarter

SRU — Chapla 25 field goal, 10:35

SRU — Carnel Harley 60 pass from Garry (Chapla kick), 9:22

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Lock Haven, Kyle Knight 22-104, John Ford 10-42, Ralph Hyland 11-23, Jimmy Strickland 6-15, Bryan Greene 1-5, Tavian Dorsey 1-0, Cameron Tobias 1-(-5). SRU, Isiah Neely 20-111, Chacar Berry 6-29, Tanner Garry 3-5, Andrew Koester 1-1, TEAM 1-(-2).

Passing: Lock Haven, Jimmy Strickland 8-18-63-0, Kyle Knight 3-7-23-0, Cameron Tobias 0-2--0-1. SRU, Tanner Garry 15-31-213-1, Andrew Koester 0-1-0-0.

Receiving: Lock Haven, Kyeef Williams 4-25, Bryan Greene 3-24, Ralph Hyland 1-17, Tavian Dorsey 1-10, Kahsim Buey 1-7, David Ankney 1-3. SRU, Dylan Stapleton 3-50, Milly Raye 3-47, Marcis Johnson 3-18, Carnel Harley 2-72, Andrew Bridgeforth 1-13, Mike Merhaut 1-6, Zach Cirillo 1-5, Brian McNally 1-2.