SLIPPERY ROCK — Last year, the Slippery Rock High football team didn't have a whole lot of fun.

A winless season will drain the joy out of a team.

The fun and joy are back.

Junior quarterback Ryan Currie rushed for 170 yards and two scores and the Rockets built a 35-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 49-7 thumping of visiting Sharon Friday night.

The win was Slippery Rock's fifth in a row and was a thoroughly dominating one.

“I remember how it feels to be on the other side of a game like this,” Currie said. “I remember walking off Sharon's field (after a 56-8 loss) last year. It's great. Coming into this year, I knew we could do it. I just didn't know it would be like this.”

Slippery Rock coach Brendan Hathaway was hired before last season and had to install a complicated flexbone offense on the fly.

This year, that offense is churning out yards and scoring points in bunches.

Currie has a free pass to change plays at the line based on how the defense lines up against the spread-out offensive line.

In Hathaway's flexbone, there is as much as four feet of space between the center and guards and guards and tackles.

On many plays, the defense parted like the Red Sea allowing Currie ample running room.

“I was just checking to whatever was there,” Currie said. “We could pretty much run whatever we wanted to.”

Slippery Rock (5-1) rolled up 215 yards rushing and 267 total yards of offense in the first two quarters.

Currie threw just one pass — a 52-yard connection with Sam Furrh that set up a 6-yard scoring run by Ben Gaul to make it 21-0 early in the second quarter.

Slippery Rock tacked on two more touchdowns in the second half and led 49-0.

Sharon's lone score came with 15 seconds remaining in the game.

“We believe in the offense we run,” Hathaway said. “They are running it very well. They're putting the work in. They're practicing hard and they are doing their job on Friday night.”

The biggest difference between the disastrous 2010 season and the resurgent 2011 campaign has been the defense.

It was showcased against a speedy Sharon team that was missing 17 players due to injury and disciplinary reasons.

Slippery Rock limited the Tigers (1-5) to a mere 101 yards of offense.

Sharon quarterback Jason Ondic was flustered all game, gaining 19 yards on 11 carries and completing just four passes for 28 yards.

The Rockets were flying to the ball with as many as eight guys in on virtually every tackle.

Junior linebacker Dylan Neal led the charge.

“We all believe in each other this year,” Neal said. “We are a band of brothers. We'll go to battle in the trenches with each other.”

That togetherness has allowed Slippery Rock to overcome teams that blew them out last season as well as low expectations others outside of the program had for the Rockets this year.

“When I saw these guys working this offseason, and these guys working in two-a-days, we knew we had something,” Hathaway said. “I've been coaching for nine years now and I've never been more proud of a team because there were a lot of doubters out there, and these guys believe. All the credit goes to the kids.”