Butler County football is certainly making an impact on Slippery Rock University’s success so far this season.

The Rock’s top two tacklers — outside linebacker Austin Miele (Mars) and Bob Vernick (Butler) — were standout players locally. Miele rushed for well over 1,000 yards for the Planets and Vernick had more than 100 tackles in their respective senior seasons.

For SRU this year, Miele has 39 tackles, two interceptions and 1.5 quarterback sacks. Vernick has 37 tackles, an interception and QB sack.

A third player from the county, Seneca Valley graduate Nick Dahlstrom, is among The Rock’s top 10 in tackles with 15. He has 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hits.

Four other county gridders — 275-pound freshman offensive lineman Ryan Bosch from Slippery Rock, 275-pound sophomore offensive lineman Dean Ketterer and 270-pound freshman defensive lineman Steve Gaviglia from Seneca Valley, sophomore receiver Alex Strezeski from Knoch — are on SRU’s roster and could be heard from down the road.

While that local representation is pretty solid, another PSAC Western Division school has even more county players.

Clarion has 10 Butler County graduates on its roster, including center Cameron Cress and guard Shane Cress, a pair of starting offensive linemen from Mars. Another Mars grad, Jake Tuminello, is seeing action at defensive wend as a freshman and has eight tackles in five games.

Butler graduate Jordan Cratty is one of the backup Golden Eagle quarterbacks and has an 18-yard carry this season. Gunther Gaiser is a freshman defensive end, Canan Roskovski a freshman receiver from the Golden Tornado.

Other county players on the Clarion roster are freshman receiver Travis Ganter of Mars, sophomore defensive lineman Matt Koerper and freshman defensive end Tucker VanDyke of Seneca Valley, freshman outside linebacker Shane McKillop of Freeport.

Clarion coach Jay Foster — a former defensive coordinator at SRU — and Rock coach George Mihalik both have heavy Western Pa. representation on their rosters.

Don’t expect that to change in coming years. Both programs lean heavily on talent from this region, the prime portion of their recruiting base.

It’s nice to see that local players don’t have to stray far from home to continue their football careers.

One side note — Slippery Rock won’t be the only school with Butler County products taking the field next Saturday at the Big House when SRU ventures to Michigan.

Mercyhurst has junior tight end Donny Holl from Seneca Valley, red-shirt freshman defensive backs Alex and Chris Smith from Mars on its roster.

That day should provide the thrill of a lifetime for some of these players, a taste of the big time.

Consider those countless days training in the August heat for so many years — it’s a moment well deserved.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.