SLIPPERY ROCK — Trap game? George Mihalik isn't buying it.

The Slippery Rock University football coach takes a young team riding a three-game winning streak to Tullio Field in Erie for a 1 p.m. Saturday kickoff against Mercyhurst, a team The Rock has never faced and a program looking for its first winning season since 1997.

Just over the horizon, SRU (3-1, 1-0) travels to rival Indiana (Pa.) next weekend.

"Our guys are well aware of the opponent this week because they play football the same way we do,"Mihalik said.

"They get after it physically, they use their running game to try to set up play-action passing. — sound familiar? They even wear green and white."

The Lakers (2-2, 1-0) are coming off a 41-7 win over Clarion and rank second overall in the PSACin rushing defense, passing defense and total defense.

SRUrushed for only 75 yards in last week's 24-16 win over Gannon — a game in which the opposition outgained The Rock by more than 200 yards.

The struggling Rock running game took two more hits last Saturday as right guard Brian Henion went down with a sprained ankle that will sideline him for two to four weeks. Running back Corey Manfull returned to SRU's lineup last week, but aggravated his knee injury on the game's first play.

"Corey was carrying out his block, was on the ground, and another player inadvertently rolled into his knee,"Mihalik said. "The previous injury didn't reoccur, but (Manfull) is hobbling and he's doubtful this week."

Henion's injury occurred a week after another right guard, freshman Austin Fedell, was lost to injury for the season. Right tackle Mike Tomaino is shifting to right guard and Kyle Bond is taking over at right tackle.

"We are very thin up front right now. That's a concern, facing this team,"Mihalik said.

Mercyhurst's defense ranked near the bottom of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference a year ago, allowing 38 points per game. The Lakers' top two tacklers from 2006, linebackers Bryan Boyce and Jimmy Kokrak, missed all of last season with injuries, however.

Boyce and Kokrak are back this year, are one-two in tackles again and Mercyhurst is allowing only 11.2 points per game.

"They are very good players, and they have a major impact on our defense,"Mercyhurst coach Marty Schaetzle said. "We run a stack defense and it's only our second year of doing that. The unit as a whole is catching on to that system."

The Mercyhurst offense ranks second in Division IIin possession time, keeping the football for more than 35 minutes per game.

"That ball possession does two things,"Mihalik said. "It wears down your defense and keeps your offense standing on the sidelines for extended periods of time. It's hard to develop continuity that way."

Ben Jennings leads the Lakers' rushing attack with 66 carries for 367 yards. Richard Stokes adds 56 carries for 241 yards.

Quarterback Joe Laffey has been out all season with a broken bone in his throwing hand, but Garrett Kensy has thrown for 357 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.

In his seventh season with the Lakers, Schaetzle is 23-45 overall. Mercyhurst hasn't won more than four games in a season in the past four years.

Rock quarterback Brandon Frohnapple, who has thrown 88 consecutive passes without an interception, has thrown only one pick this season.

"Our offense has done a great job of protecting the football," Mihalik said. "We've come to realize what we are. We don't have the dominant offense we've had in the past and we're not going to blow teams out.

"We need to keep finding ways to win, like we've been doing. Not turning the ball over is a big part of that."

Schaetzle played against SRU at Bucknell and he coached against The Rock as an assistant at Shippensburg.

"I know what they're about,"he said. "They've had a stable coaching staff that's helped the continuity of that program. This game is a challenge for us."