GROVE CITY — Down two scores early in the fourth quarter Friday, Grove City wasn’t fazed.

The Eagles (1-0) charged to score 20 unanswered points and defeat General McLane, 34-28, in the football season opener for both teams at Forker Field.

“Talk about a team effort,” said Grove City coach Sam Mowrey. “Special teams made some great plays. Defensively, second half we gave up one score, and offensively we were able to make some plays despite good coverage.”

Quarterback Ethan Laird scored from 2 yards out with 11 minutes remaining to give the Lancers (0-1) a 28-14 lead.

At that moment, it looked like Grove City, a team that went 3-17 the past two seasons, was going to start the season off in bad shape.

The Eagles got to work, though, bolstered by Trey Adams’ runs up the middle and a 36-yard pass from Kameron Patterson to Logan Lutz to get into McLane territory.

With a little more than eight minutes to play, Patterson found A.J. Turner for a 34-yard touchdown pass. However, a bad snap on the point-after attempt meant Grove City trailed 28-20.

The Eagles caught a break when Lancer fielded the kickoff from inside the 5-yard line and was pinned at the 5.

With poor field position, the Lancers went three plays and out and the Eagles took over inside opposing territory.

Once again, they used Adams to gain ground before Patterson connected with Logan Lutz for a 21-yard touchdown.

The two-point passing attempt failed, and the Eagles found themselves down 28-26.

However, on the ensuing drive, the Lancers fumbled the ball with a little more than two minutes to play in their own territory, and Grove City recovered.

“We didn’t protect the ball when we were in traffic,” said McLane coach Jim Wells. “That’s really what it came down to. We tell them to protect the ball when you’re in traffic and they just didn’t do it.”

The Lancers finished with three fumbles, one of them lost.

Grove City started at McLane’s 46. Two runs and a 12-yard pass to Lutz got them to the 23, and then another pass to Lutz advanced them to the 15.

On third-and-2, Adams gutted out four yards for the first down.

The next play found Patterson turning a broken play into an 11-yard run for the score. The two-point pass to Lutz connected for the Eagles to take the 34-28 lead.

The Lancers took over with under a minute remaining, but failed to advance past midfield.

“You got to give credit to Grove City, who wanted to win a football game, and they did what they needed to do to win a football game,” Wells said.

Patterson finished 16-of-25 passing for 213 yards and three touchdowns.

Mowrey commented on their passing game.

“We had a few routines in that we felt we could beat them in their coverage, and it was trying to be patient,” he said. “We didn’t want to just start taking shots down the field and forcing things, but definitely there were some routes that we wanted to come to and get some people the football.”

Grove City scored first on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Patterson to Turner a little more than a minute into the game.

The Lancers answered a minute later with a 20-yard sweep to the end zone by Nasir Singleton. They then took the lead before the quarter ended with a 22-yard scamper up the middle by Dominic West.

McLane scored again after Laird dashed down the right sideline for a 35-yard score midway through the second.

Grove City answered when Adams scored from 1 yard out near the end of the half, and went into the locker rooms trailing 21-14.

“Halftime, the kids felt confident,” Mowrey said. “They knew that we left some plays out on the field, both on offense and defense, and they felt confident in what they were doing.”