GROVE CITY — The Grove City Eagles clipped their own wings with four turnovers and were caged shy of the goal line on two occasions Friday night, but they still remained unbeaten.

On the strength of a 47-yard touchdown run by junior fullback Wesley Phipps early in the fourth quarter, the Eagles (6-0) escaped with a 7-3 victory over visiting Wilmington in a battle of high school football powerhouses.

The loss was a rare second consecutive defeat sustained by Wilmington (4-2), which got its only points Friday night on a 21-yard field goal by Harrison Sturm with 4:16 left in the second quarter.

"We don't like to lose, and we're not used to losing two games in a row because we haven't done that for quite a while," Wilmington coach Terry Verrelli said. "But we'll be all right.

"We played all right and we had our opportunities tonight, we just couldn't make the big play on offense," he added.

Aside from Phipps' TD run and a 71-yard sprint by classmate Erik Record on the next Eagles possession, neither team was able to make the big play on offense.

For Grove City, the primary problem was turnovers.

Eagles quarterback Tyler Dagres had his first pass attempt picked off by Anthony Derrick on the game's opening play. Three lost fumbles on five bobbles followed before the final horn sounded.

The third and final Grove City turnover, a lost fumble, came with six minutes left to play, five plays after Record 's long jaunt put the ball on the Greyhounds 14. Dagres attempted to leap over a pile of players at the goal line on a third-down play, but lost control of the ball before breaking the plane.

One and a half quarters earlier, the Eagles had a first down at the Wilmington 1, but GC couldn't crack the defense and was forced to settle for a field-goal attempt.

The Eagles came up dry on that drive when Brian Murone's 20-yard field-goal attempt fell well shy of the crossbar, allowing Wilmington to go into halftime with a 3-0 lead.

"We definitely did not play our best game tonight," Eagles head coach Jeff Bell said. "It's fair to say we made enough mistakes tonight to lose most games.

"We've got to start doing a better job holding onto the football," he added.

Grove City held Wilmington to 223 yards of total offense, 213 of which came on the ground, mainly by making Greyhounds standout Sutton Whiting work hard for his yards. Whiting finished with 80 rushing yards on 19 carries.

The Eagles, meanwhile, managed to gain 281 yards behind 82 yards on four carries by Record and 75 yards on 14 totes by Phipps, who fumbled three times. Dagres passed for 72 yards.

"Wesley had a tough game, but I had a feeling before the game was over he was going to score, and I told him that when he came off the field after his second fumble," Bell said.

"I don't care if he fumbles 25 times, we're going to keep giving him the football," Bell continued. "And in the end, he came through for us, both offensively and defensively. "

Phipps, who in addition to being the Eagles' fullback also plays linebacker on defense, made what probably was the game-saving tackle with 45 seconds left to play. He shook off a blocker to nail Derrick for a 2-yard loss on a fourth-and-1 play at the Grove City 17-yard line and, in the process, to snuff out the Greyhounds.