MEADVILLE — Was it 2006 or 2003?

It was the kind of effort from the Slippery Rock Highfootball team that harkened back to the glory days of chasingDistrict 10 championships.

In 2003, SlipperyRock came one quarter away from a trip to the state title game, Since then, the Rockets have posted an 8-17 record.

ButFriday, it was as if the Rockets stepped into a time warp.

Quarterback Jonathan Powell rushed for 169 yards and Ryan Ferguson piled up 133 yards on the ground as the Rockets dominated Meadville on the way to a 28-12 win Friday night.

"I thought our kids played pretty hard tonight," said Slippery Rock coach Clyde Conti. "It was a pretty good effort."

Slippery Rock (2-6, 2-2) had 390 yards on the ground and 422 total. Meanwhile, the defense limited Meadville (0-8, 0-5) to 137 yards and no offensive touchdowns. The only two Bulldogs scores came on kickoff returns.

In fact, JonRoncolato had more yards on his kickoff return scores of 89 and 91 yards than Meadville had in total offense.

The long returns didn't matter much because Meadville was almost powerless to stop Slippery Rock's running game.

Powell was particularly deadly running the ball out of one distinct play.

Powell faked to fullback Jesse Kniess, then ran to his left through a gaping hole made possible by seal blocks by Dan Dillman.

The sophomore quarterback ran this play 17 times, accounting for all of his yardage. He had a 42-yard run down to the Meadville 2 that set up a short scoring run by JesseKniess to open a 14-6 lead midway through the first quarter.

Powell's run was the longest run from scrimmage this season for the Rockets.

"We just didn't do what we were supposed to do," said Meadville coach Matt Pendolino said. "It wasn't anything we didn't know. We knew coming in what was going to be coming at us."

Conti didn't plan on running Powell so much — his quarterback came into the game with just 111 yards on 55 carries.

"We varied a little bit of our offense, and it worked," Conti said. "The way things have been going for me, not much has worked. But this did. I guess it was the law of averages kicking in."

Powell put the Rockets on the board first with a 12-yard run to cap a 51-yard drive made possible by a Meadville fumble on its first offensive play.

It was a sign of things to come. The Bulldogs fumbled six times, losing three, and were also intercepted twice.

After Powell's score, Roncolato took the Slippery Rock kickoff and burst up the middle nearly untouched to cut the lead to 7-6.

But Slippery Rock wasted little time answering and wresting the momentum back, driving 65 yards on three plays that took 22 seconds.

It took Roncolato 19 seconds to return the kick for a score.

Powell also tossed a 32-yard touchdown pass to Vince Papley. It was Powell's only completion on three attempts.

SlipperyRock didn't need to put the ball in the air much.

"I think it's important to go out, prepare and do your best at all times," Conti said. "I thought we executed probably better than we have (this season)."