SLIPPERY ROCK — Strategy or faith — Slippery Rock coach Eli Christy chose the latter.

Right choice.

Facing a 4th-and-1 at his 16-yard line and clinging to a two-point lead with 1:43 to play, Christy — serving as acting head coach with Larry Wendereusz still under COVID-19 quarantine — originally sent out the punting unit.

Then he took a timeout, decided to go for the first down and the Rockets killed the remaining time for a key 35-33 District 10 Class 3A region football victory Friday night at Troy-Alan Stadium.

“I had a change of heart and called the timeout,” Christy admitted. “We preach all the time to these kids about having faith in each other and the team.

“I had to show faith and confidence in them. Put the offense back on the field and let's do this thing ... Let's play to win instead of playing not to lose.”

And the Rockets won — without Wendereusz, starting quarterback William Mokel or starting running back Brett Galcik. Mokel and Galcik both got hurt late in last week's loss against Hickory. Shane Thompson, another starting back, is already lost for the season due to injury.

Ryan Montgomery, a senior, took a handoff from sophomore quarterback Eli Anderson and was bottled up at the line of scrimmage, then dragged a couple of tacklers two yards for a first down.

Montgomery then broke free for runs of 32 and 50 yards, the latter run a sure touchdown before Montgomery gave himself up at the Sharon 1-yard line.

“I just decided to do that on my own,” he said of stopping at the 1. “I've seen too many NFL games where guys score, then somehow wind up losing.

“I don't care about statistics or touchdowns. I just want to win.”

He and his teammates wanted to go for that 4th-and-1 as well.

“We were begging the coaches to leave us out there,” Montgomery admitted. “We knew we could get it and we didn't want to give the ball back to them.”

Sharon (2-2, 5-3) rolled up 442 yards of offense. Mikey Rodrigues threw for 250 yards and a touchdown, rushing for one as well. Jayveerh White ran for 100 yards and two TDs, Ja-on Phillips had six catches for 156 yards.

But the Tigers failed on a pair of two-point conversion passes in the fourth quarter, leaving them short on the scoreboard.

Slippery Rock (3-1, 5-1) trailed 21-14 at halftime, but scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter to take a 28-21 lead into the fourth. Anderson scored the go-ahead TD on a 9-yard run. The sophomore connected with John Sabo for an 8-yard score in the first half.

Anderson completed eight of nine passes for 76 yards.

“You'd never know he was making his first varsity start,” Christy said. “It's just that kid's nature ... cool, calm, collected, nothing really ruffles him.”

Maddox Allen, a junior making his first varsity start at running back, rambled for 184 yards — including scoring jaunts of 68 and 53 yards — on 19 carries for the Rockets.

“That was all about our O-line,” Allen said. “I tried to make a few people miss, but those guys did all the work.”

Christy said Allen had “never played a meaningful snap in a varsity game before tonight. He was amazing.”

Montgomery rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown — and wasn't surprised by Allen's productivity.

“We have a next man up mentality here,” Montgomery said. “We believe in each other.”

A pass deflection by senior Dylan Twentier on 3rd-and-21 forced Sharon to punt the ball away with 4:05 to play. The Tigers had two timeouts at the time, but never got the ball back.

Twentier blocked a Tiger punt to set up a Rocket touchdown in the first half.

Senior defensive lineman Tony Pilosi made a number of stops in the backfield or along the line of scrimmage to help keep the explosive Sharon offense at bay.

Slippery Rock honored its 14 seniors before the game — along with the late Luke Leone, a former Slippery Rock youth football player who would have been part of this senior class. He died in an accident when he was in sixth grade.

Sharon 7 14 0 12 — 33

Slippery Rock 7 7 14 7 — 35

First Quarter

S — Jayveerh White 9 run (Nick Schimp kick), 5:00

SR — Maddox Allen 68 run (Nick Kingerski kick), 4:40

Second Quarter

SR — John Sabo 8 pass from Eli Andersion (Kingerski kick), 11:56

S — Mikey Rodrigues 18 run (kick failed), 7:55

S — Cortez Nixon 6 run (White run), 4:11

Third Quarter

SR — Ryan Montgomery 1 run (Kingerski kick), 7:38

SR — Anderson 9 run (Kingerski kick), 1:32

Fourth Quarter

S — White 3 run (pass failed), 10:26

SR — Allen 53 run (Kingerski kick), 8:48

S — CC Harrison 8 pass from Rodrigues (pass failed), 8:01

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Sharon, Mikey Rodrigues 7-22, Cortez Nixon 12-56, Jayveerh White 9-100, Ja-on Phillips 1-14. Slippery Rock, Ryan Montgomery 14-100, Eli Anderson 8-23, Maddox Allen 19-184.

Passing: Sharon, Mikey Rodrigues 11-17-250-0. Slippery Rock, Eli Anderson 8-9-76-0.

Receiving: Sharon, Ja-on Phillips 6-156, Jayveerh White 1-5, Cortez Nixon 1-20, CC Harrison 3-65. Slippery Rock, John Sabo 2-11, Ryan Montgomery 4-40, Maddox Allen 1-14, Colton Glass 1-11.