SLIPPERY ROCK — Greenville football coach Brian Herrick watched film of the Slippery Rock game against Perry and found yet one more thing he and his coaching staff must prepare for.

A passing game — from the Rockets.

Junior quarterback Bailey Mertens threw nine passes for Slippery Rock in the 24-13 season-opening with over Perry.

Last season, Jake Whitmer threw just 33 passes during the entire regular season and more than nine passes in a game just once in his 23 career games under center.

“The quarterback can run a little bit and he can throw,” Herrick said. “It makes them all the more difficult to defend. We're going to have our hands full.”

Slippery Rock (1-0) has won 20 consecutive region games.

Greenville (1-0) will put that streak to the test with its own young offensive weapons in quarterback Gage Gladysz and running back Hunter Hause.

Gladysz started at quarterback last season as a junior and threw for 672 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Hause played mostly defense last season and rumbled for 135 yards and a touchdown on just 11 carries for the Trojans in the 27-12 win over North East in the season opener.

“Hunter definitely has very good speed,” Herrick said. “He's a very good athlete and he's someone who we need to feed the ball.”

Slippery Rock handed Greenville its only regular-season loss a year ago. The Trojans went on to the District 10 Class AA championship game, where it lost 12-7 to Hickory.

But like Slippery Rock, Greenville lost some key seniors from that team.

“I think we're in the same situation as Slippery Rock,” Herrick said. “We lost some seniors and we have some young guys playing in new roles. So that first week for us was huge.”

It was also huge for Slippery Rock, which had to overcome a long lightning delay that pushed the start of the game against Perry back nearly three hours and then found itself trailing at halftime.

Slippery Rock coach Travis Sarver, though, was pleased with how his team responded.

“These guys were not used to being down at halftime,” Sarver said. “I was really happy with how they handled the adversity.”

Sarver said it took his team a half to get used to the speed of the game.

“Mentally, we have to be sharper,” Sarver said. “We can't have the mental mistakes we made last week against Greenville.

“We have to be able to stop the run,” Sarver added. “Greenville is going to run the ball. They are going to come right at you. What they do doesn't change a whole lot. They've been doing it for years.”

Slippery Rock also has been doing largely the same thing for years.

Ryan Lauster rushed for 97 yards on 15 carries for the Rockets in the win over Perry. Sarver said Lauster also was all over the field on defense.

“Ryan Lauster made plays on offesne, on defense and on special teams,” Sarver said.

The Rockets will need that again against Greenville.

“We have to keep challenging ourselves to get better,” Sarver said. “We have to realize every week, every game is going to be a battle. We have to keep getting better, no matter what.”