SLIPPERY ROCK - And the beat goes on.

Displaying much the same kind of dominating, ground-oriented offense that carried it to the PIAA Western Final a year ago, Slippery Rock High School opened its 2004 football season in a big way Friday night.

Behind the solid 1-2 punch of senior Trevor Gallo and junior Sean Ray, the Rockets recorded a 28-9 victory over visiting Fairview.

Gallo rushed for a game-high 139 yards on 17 carries and scored one touchdown, while Ray had 122 yards and scored three TDs.

All told, the Rockets' wing-T offense ground out 342 rushing yards. Nine different players had at least one rushing attempt.

"We had no answer for stopping their jet sweep," Fairview head coach Gerald Lightner said. "And there aren't going to be very many teams this year who will."

Slippery Rock head coach Clyde Conti returned the favor and lauded Lightner's squad, which finished the game with 125 rushing yards, paced by a 95-yard effort by senior mainstay Myles Wayne.

"Whoever beats Fairview this year in Class A will have to be very good," Conti said. "They are very physical, their tailback is very deceptive, their quarterback (Kevin Stephenson) has a good slight of hand, and they are well coached."

The final score might not indicate it, but "We had our hands full tonight," Conti said.

Fairview, on the arm of Stephenson, added 70 passing yards to finish with a respectable 195 yards in total offense.

Neither team was able to dent the scoreboard in the first quarter.

Stephenson's first pass attempt of the game was picked off by Rockets defensive back Cody Smith to end the game's first drive.

The Rockets went three-and-out on their first possession, then drove 32 yards to the Fairview 18 on its second drive before having to settle for a 35-yard field goal attempt. Craig Bicehouse's boot sailed wide left.

Sean Ray's 10-yard run with 9:12 left in the second quarter finally put some points on Slippery Rock's side of the board. The TD sprint around left end capped a seven-play, 48-yard scoring drive.

Ray got his second score a little more than four minutes later when he again swept around left end to score from 11 yards out to cap a five-play, 33-yard drive. Bicehouse's second extra-point kick gave the hosts a 14-0 lead with 4:54 left in the first half.

Fairview came right back, though, and marched 68 yards in 16 plays to set up a 24-yard field goal by Justin Pacansky as time expired in the first half.

The Eagles cut the Rockets' lead to five, 14-9, by going 45 yards in eight plays on the guests' first second-half possession. Wayne's three-yard burst capped the drive.

A holding penalty negated a successful two-point conversion pass following Wayne's TD, and a bad snap from center ruined the ensuing kick attempt.

The Rockets thwarted any upset hopes the Eagles may have had when the hosts went 80 yards in only five plays to extend the lead to 21-9 with 5:33 left in the third period.

Gallo sprinted 49 yards on the second play of the drive, then capped the march with a 14-yard rumble into the end zone.

The Rockets added an insurance score on their next possession when Sean Ray capped a 10-play, 75-yard march with his third TD of the game, a three-yard jaunt.

The drive was set up by a fumble recovery by Rockets junior defensive lineman Adam Lutz and was successful despite a pair of illegal block penalties against the offense.

"We've got some things to work on," Conti said in summarizing his team's first-game performance. "As a staff, we need to go back and re-teach some things that we will need to do better if we are going to be as successful as we hope to be.

"But, overall, I am real proud of our kids tonight. They answered a couple of challenges tonight just like we did time and time again last year."