SLIPPERY ROCK — Clarion controlled the football, but Slippery Rock controlled the scoreboard.

The Rock built a 27-0 in just over two quarters of action Saturday and produced a 34-13 college football homecoming victory at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.

“We stopped them when he had to,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “We had some turnovers that put our defense in some tough spots today.

“It seemed like they had the ball on our side of the 50 most of the second half.”

Clarion (3-4, 1-3) ran 35 plays in Slippery Rock territory over the final two quarters. The Golden Eagles possessed the ball for 40 minutes on the day.

A muffed punt handed the Golden Eagles the ball at the SRU 23-yard line in the third quarter. Six plays later, Bobby Thomas scored the first of his two 1-yard touchdown plunges in the quarter.

The second score was set by Julian Howsare’s second interception of the period. He picked off a Nigel Barksdale screen pass at The Rock 5.

“The big thing was, we didn’t let them score every time they got down there,” Rock nose tackle Tony Papley said. “We denied them points.”

Clarion’s Phil Esposito was wide on field goal attempts of 24 and 42 yards in the first half. Barksdale threw touchdown passes of six yards to John Schademan and 7 yards to Ken Amos to give SRU (6-1, 3-1) a 13-0 lead in the first quarter. Brian Shaw’s first PAT attempt was blocked.

After Esposito missed his 42-yard attempt with 3:01 left in the first half, The Rock embarked upon 10-play, 75-yard drive. Teddy Blakeman ended the march with a 1-yard touchdown run with 21 seconds left in the half.

“I feel like we played right with them the entire game,” Clarion coach Jay Foster said. “We didn’t finish. You have to finish.

“I never sensed or saw any frustration on our sidelines. The only thing frustrating to me is the final score.”

Blakeman’s 3-yard run capped a 75-yard Rock drive to begin the second half. And after Clarion scored twice, Drew Scales returned the kickoff 46 yards to set up Shamar Greene’s 31-yard touchdown run.

“All year, it seems we’ve had the ability to answer scores by the opposition,” Mihalik said.

Penalties hurt The Rock along with four turnovers. A holding penalty wiped out a 38-yard scoring run by Barksdale in the second quarter. A roughing the passer call took away Anthony Saunders’ second interception of the day.

“We weren’t as sharp as we’ve been in recent weeks,” Mihalik allowed.

“I felt like we were up and down today,” Barksdale said of the offense.

Regardless, The Rock defense had the answers.

Papley, who led the team with 14 tackles, stopped Chris Liberto for a loss on fourth and less than a yard at the SRU 11 in the third quarter. Thomas was nailed for an 8-yard loss on fourth and goal from the 3-yard line early in the fourth period.

Matt Peacock recovered a Clarion fumble at the SRU 26 with 4:44 left to cement the win.

Greene led SRU’s ground game with 15 carries for 131 yards. Barksdale threw for 276 yards.

“They were stopping our ground game early and I appreciate the coaches sticking with it,” Greene said. “The holes started to open up. That was our line. Those guys did the job.”

“I love our backs,” Barksdale said. “They all have different styles, but they run downhill and they run hard.”

Notes: The Rock is 22-4 in homecoming games under Mihalik. ... SRU maintained possession of the milk jug for the fourth straight year and has defeated Clarion nine times in the past 10 seasons. ...Shaw missed a 40-yard field goal attempt as he replaced injured kicker Mike Wainauskas for the second straight game. ... Barksdale has 22 touchdown passes on the year, one shy of Nate Crookshank’s SRU record of 23 set in 2007. Barksdale is 86 passing yards shy of Cody Endres’ school mnark of 2,551 in 2011. ... Linebackers Quindell Dean and Gary Allen had 12 tackles each for SRU.

SRU 34, Clarion 13

Clarion 0 0 13 0 — 13

Slippery Rock 13 7 14 0 — 34

C SR

15 First Downs 24

59-187 Rushes-Yards 38-217

74 Passing Yards 289

8-22-1 Comp.-Att.-Int 18-34-2

261 Total Yards 506

2-1 Fumbles-Lost 2-2

7-44 Penalty Yards 5-44

First Quarter

SRU — John Schademan 6 pass from Nigel Barksdale (kick blocked), 11:27

SRU — Ken Amos 7 pass from Barksdale (Brian Shaw kick), 3:45

Second Quarter

SRU — Teddy Blakeman 1 run (Shaw kick), :21

Third Quarter

SRU — Blakeman 3 run (Shaw kick), 13:24

C — Bobby Thomas 1 run (run failed), 8:47

C — Thomas 1 run (Phil Esposito kick), 4:07

SRU — Shamar Greene 31 run (Shaw kick), 3:14

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Clarion, Bobby Thomas 28-70, Darelle Carson 14-57, Matt Futkos 3-23, Travis Day 7-21, Chris Liberto 7-16. SRU, Shamar Greene 15-131, Teddy Blakeman 7-36, Brett Crenshaw 7-29, Jimmy Zubik 3-17, Nigel Barksdale 5-4, Zack Newsock 1-0 .

Passing: Clarion, Darelle Carson 7-21-82-1, Matt Futkos 1-1-(-8)-0. SRU, Nigel Barksdale 17-32-276-2, Zack Newsock 1-2-13-0.

Receiving: Clarion, Mike Deitrick 2-26, Matt Lehman 2-16, Chris Liberto 1-19, Caleb Mancini 1-12, Trent Shanahan 1-9, Travis Day 1-(-8). SRU, John Schademan 4-93, Ken Amos 4-85, Drew Scales 3-39, Julian Harrell 2-28, LaQuinn Stephens-Howling 2-25, Brett Crenshaw 1-10, Robert Joyce 1-7, Shamar Greene 1-2.