GREENVILLE - "We got handled - badly."

Slippery Rock High School head football coach Clyde Conti didn't even try to sugarcoat Friday night's 19-6 football loss to host Reynolds in District 10, Region 3, Class AA action.

"The better team won tonight," Conti continued in his up-front assessment of the action. "They were stronger and more physical tonight. They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. We didn't run block or pass block well at all."

The end result was a loss that snapped a 12-game district win streak for the Rockets (1-1, 0-1) and a memorable first-ever win for rookie Reynolds head coach Tim Scarvel.

"This is the second proudest day of my life," Scarvel said after the game, "Second only to the day my daughter was born last year."

Scarvel's counterpart, Conti, was gracious in his lauding of the victors.

"Their young coach deserves all the commendations for a job well done," Conti said.

The final statistics don't accurately convey the Raiders' dominance of the game. In terms of total yards, Reynolds (1-1, 1-0) enjoyed only a 202-187 advantage in total offense.

The Rockets, who played from behind the entire game, had twice as many passing yards (103-53) as the hosts.

The fact that Reynolds marched 72 yards on 11 rushing plays for a touchdown on its opening drive of the game drove home a point for Conti.

"I told our kids early in the preseason that we had some guys who prepared well during the offseason, but that I also knew we didn't have enough who had done that," Conti said. "We need to learn that Friday night efforts are not enough; we need to put in the time and effort to prepare for Friday nights."

Because of that, Conti said, "I am not going to say I'm stunned with what happened tonight. I don't think this was an upset."

Reynolds dynamo Jake McBride rushed for 99 yards on 26 carries. He had 53 of the yards on eight carries on the first drive and capped the march with a 1-yard burst.

Raiders quarterback Cory Shaffer threw for 53 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 36 yards on 10 carries.

The second Raiders' TD came on a 95-yard kickoff return by Tom Shollenberger to open the second half.

Slippery Rock answered Shollenberger's score with a six-play, 71-yard scoring drive, capped off by a 25-yard pass from Ben Collins to Sean Ray with 8:32 left in the third period. The duo connected for a 36-yard gain four plays earlier.

"We knew at halftime that the key for us was going to be coming out the second half and taking control of things," Conti said. "So, when they returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown, we knew we had a lot of work to do.

"I was happy to see us come right back after that touchdown to score, but we were never really able to assume control."

Scarvel said he never really felt comfortable with the way things were going until the final minutes of the game.

"I expected Slippery Rock to come right back after Tommy's kickoff return because they are a championship football team," he said.

Even when Shaffer hit Andy Combine for a 17-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter to make it a two-touchdown game, Scarvel was still nervous.

"The final eight minutes seemed like the longest in my life," he said, sighing with relief.