GROVE CITY — Death by a thousand paper cuts.

Or in this case, 5-yard runs.

The Grove City High football team had a clear game plan against rival Slippery Rock Friday night: Control the ball and the clock.

The Eagles executed that plan to perfection, possessing the ball for nearly 35 minutes and rolling up 64 rushing plays on the way to a 34-14 win over the Rockets at Forker Field.

“That was our plan coming in,” said Grove City quarterback Jared Graham, who didn't attempt a pass in the game. He didn't need to. “It feels really good that we were able to go out and do it.”

“We did not want to give them the football,” added Grove City coach Jeff Bell.

Grove City (6-1) gained 363 yards on the ground and piled up 25 first downs.

The Eagles had a scoring drive of 11 plays that chewed up 5:45, a drive of 17 plays that consumed 10:35 and a 13-play march that gobbled 6:50 off the clock.

Grove City didn't punt in the game and at one point was winning the time of possession battle 27 minutes to 5.

It was a clinic in hardnosed, stop-us-if-you-can offense.

Slippery Rock (6-1) couldn't and suffered its first loss of the season because of it.

“They came out and pounded us,” said Slippery Rock coach Brendan Hathaway. “They won on first down. They won on second down and they won on third down. There wasn't any secret to what they wanted to do. They wanted to run the ball and they did it and we couldn't get our hands on it.”

Foster Reznor capped a 79-yard march for Grove City on the opening drive of the game with an 8-yard run.

Slippery Rock, though, had a chance to answer after a botched kickoff that simply fell off the tee gave it the ball at the Grove City 40. But Joey Meyer was thrown for a 6-yard loss on a fourth-and-goal from the 2 to turn the Rockets away.

“That was big,” Bell said. “When that kickoff happened — we may end up on ESPN after that one — we stopped them. That was a big stop in the game.”

Grove City then went on a prodigious 17-play, 92-yard drive that ate 10:35 off the clock to take a 14-0 lead. Graham punched it in from the 3 for the first of his three rushing touchdowns in the game.

The Eagles got the ball right back after Slippery Rock quarterback Ryan Currie was hit while he was throwing, forcing an interception on the first play of the Rockets' drive.

Graham scored from the 1 to give Grove City a 21-0 lead.

Currie, though, found Jake Whitmer on a 50-yard touchdown pass to close the gap to 21-7 at halftime.

At the break, Slippery Rock had run just 10 offensive plays and possessed the ball for a mere 28 seconds in the second quarter.

Grove City held Slippery Rock to a three-and-out on its first possession of the second half.

“We talked about that at halftime,” Bell said. “We told them the biggest thing was to get the ball back on offense.”

Chad Williams scored on a 4-yard run and Graham on a 13-yard gallop to cap the scoring for Grove City.

Slippery Rock got a 3-yard TD run by Meyer early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 28-14, but an onside kick by the Rockets was recovered by the Eagles.

Despite nearly 400 rushing yards, Grove City didn't have a 100-yard rusher. Harold Price led the Eagles with 96 yards on 14 carries. Reznor had 93 yards on 13 attempts, Williams 91 yards on 12 rushes and Graham 76 yards on his 15 attempts.

The Eagles, banged up on the offensive line all season, finally had everyone back in uniform up front and it showed. Shawn Seybert, Grant Craig, Jake Graham, Shaun Smoker, Devon Smoker and Ryan Palmer opened up huge holes for the Eagles.

“You have to give our offensive line a lot of credit,” Bell said. “They did a heck of a job tonight.”

For Slippery Rock, it must find a way to move on from the disheartening loss.

“We didn't play our best game tonight,” Hathaway said. “And I didn't coach my best game tonight. When those two things happen against a good program like Grove City, this is the end result.”