OIL CITY — The legend of Jono Powell grows.

"You have to cut the heart out of Powell to beat him," said Slippery Rock High football coach Clyde Conti.

Instead, Powell carved the heart right out of Oil City.

The senior quarterback-safety passed for two touchdowns, ran for one and returned an interception 90 yards for a score as the Rockets rolled to a 40-12 win over the shellshocked Oilers.

"Our game plan was to stop Powell," said Oil City coach Matt LaVerde. "We had guys on him in the running game. We had guys covering in the passing game. It didn't matter."

Powell completed 6-of-11 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns.

He connected with Derrick Orloski on a 13-yard scoring strike to cap a drive that featured two fourth-down conversions.

Powell then hit Isaac Osborne on a short pass over the middle that Osborne turned into a 72-yard score to give the Rockets a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

Slippery Rock (2-0, 1-0) ran only 18 plays in the first half. Eight were passes.

Air Conti? More like Air Powell.

"He's smarter than I am," Conti said. "Those touchdowns were on checkoffs."

But Powell's biggest play came on defense.

With Slippery Rock leading 20-6, Oil City methodically drove from its own 20 to the Rockets' 14.

Facing a fourth-and-2 play, Oilers quarterback Steven May dropped back and fired a quick pass to his left.

But Powell was there instead of the OilCity receiver and he raced down the right sideline for a touchdown.

The interception came on the 15th play of the OilCity drive and it was a huge momentum swing for the Rockets. Instead of pulling to within one score, Oil City found itself down by 21 points.

The interception was the result of a receiver running the wrong route, LaVerde said.

It was just one of many Oil City blunders inside Slippery Rock territory. The Oilers lost fumbles at the Rockets' 23 and 7 in the first half.

"You know what? The inexperience excuse no longer works for me," LaVerde said. "That interception — it was a route we've run 100 times. But what can you do? We did some good things, too."

Oil City will lament this loss for a while, though.

The Oilers ran nearly twice as many plays as the Rockets, who had only five offensive snaps in the second quarter, and outgained their foe 347-300.

Conti took a deep breath after the game, realizing the result could have been much more in doubt than it was.

"They're going to sting somebody this year," he said. "I'm glad it's not us. They're skilled and they're scary. They had me scared to death."

Mays, a first-year starter as a junior, was 17-of-28 for 178 yards. Sophomore backup Matt Kulinski was 5-of-8 for 97 yards and a touchdown to Logan Carson on the final play of the game.

Ben Koyak, a 6-foot-5 tight end, was a beast for the Oilers, catching five passes for 76 yards. Slippery Rock double-covered the senior the entire game with little success.

The Rockets' plan was to let Oil City dink and dunk all they wanted and force a mistake.

That plan worked to perfection.

"We didn't want to give the big plays up," Conti said. "We wanted to make them march. That team is awfully good, too."