GROVE CITY – Wes Phipps stole the show Friday night in a battle between rivals.

The Grove City High senior ran for five touchdowns and racked up 244 yards on visiting Slippery Rock as the Eagles moved to 8-0 with a 55-0 football win at Forker Field.

“He's something else,” Grove City coach Jeff Bell said. “Kind of at the beginning of the game, the idea was to use him as more of a decoy and we kind of got out of rhythm. Once we started giving the ball to him, things started to jell and come back.”

The Eagles had come out in the District 10 Region 5-AAA tilt looking to throw. Following a Slippery Rock (5-3) punt on the Rockets' initial possession of the game, Grove City quarterback Tyler Dagres found Foster Reznor open for a 23-yard gain. Dagres' next two passes fell incomplete, but Phipps took over on third down.

The burly running back broke loose for a 57-yard score to finish a four-play, 80-yard drive.

Later in the opening quarter, after another Rockets' punt, Grove City took over in Slippery Rock territory. Dagres found fellow senior Chauncey Miller open on an 8-yard out and Phipps followed with an 8-yard rush to the Slippery Rock 33. Dagres then hit Harold Price for a 23-yard gain and Phipps punched it in from the same spot.

The Rockets didn't relent, though. On the next Slippery Rock possession, coach Brendan Hathaway's squad had moved into Eagles' territory on a drive sustained by a third-down pass from quarterback Ryan Currie to Spencer Rea.

After moving the chains, Ben Gaul ran for eight yards to give the Rockets another first down at the Grove City 36. On the ensuing play, a Currie pass was pilfered by Mason DePeal of the Eagles and the momentum seemed to shift back to Grove City.

The Eagles put then put together a 12-play drive, capping it off with a 6-yard Price run for the score.

Grove City added another TD at the 2:40 mark on a 7-yard run by Chad Williams to pull ahead 27-0. Williams saw his role increase a bit after senior Erik Record was lost for the season last week with a knee injury.

“ Every week he makes a couple of big plays for us,” Bell said.

Kyle Trinch of the Eagles intercepted Currie to end the Rockets' next possession, setting things in motion for a wild finish to the half.

Phipps ran for a 48-yard TD on the Eagles' next play to give Grove City a 34-0 lead. The Eagles then took over again around the 1-minute mark after a fumble, but a Dagres pass was picked off by Gaul.

The Rockets lost the ball again on another fumble in the final minute, but Dagres again was picked off before the half came to a close — this time by Dustin Mellot.

Phipps went on to add another pair of TDs in the second half and had a 65-yard kick return. Reznor added another TD on a 63-yard run as the Eagles added to their cushion.

Bell couldn't help but to be impressed by Phipps after.

“ he plays that kid makes,” the veteran coach gushed. “We ran a couple draws and he had good blocking, but he makes a lot of people miss. He runs over people, through people.”

The loss was Slippery Rock's second in a row, but Hathaway said it's important the Rockets, already a lock for the D-10 playoffs, close things out strong.

“ I told our kids in the huddle, our goal right now is (to finish the regular season) 7-3,” Hathaway said. “These guys have a lot to be proud of. We have to build momentum for the playoffs and we have to get better.

“ We went up against a very good team tonight. That's a special team that Grove City has. I can't say enough about them. They have players. They have great coaching. That's a heckuva team.”

Bell said he hoped moving the ball through the air a bit will help the Eagles down the road.

“We've been trying all year (to pass) and we haven't had the opportunity to throw the ball,” Bell said.

“ We're going to be playing teams that are going to put eight, nine guys in the box and stop the run, so we have to take advantage of some of those things.”