EDINBORO — Coach Clyde Conti threw his arm around junior quarterback Jonathan Powell, tears welling in his eyes, to console him.

In the somber Slippery Rock High locker room, Conti made his way around to each of his players, shaking some hands, offering hugs to others. When he came to senior wide receiver Zack Ejzak, too shaken to remove his helmet, Conti patted him on the head.

The Rockets won the football game in the box score, outgaining General McLane in yardage, plays run and first downs. But on the scoreboard — the statistic that counts the most — Slippery Rock looked up at a 49-21 loss in the first round of the District 10 Class AAA playoffs at Edinboro University on a cold and snowy Friday night.

"It wasn't enough (to make the playoffs) for these kids," Conti said. "That's why they hurt right now."

Statistics sometimes lie. That was no more evident than in this contest.

Slippery Rock (6-5) outgained General McLane (8-3) by 78 yards, racked up 19 first downs to just seven for the Lancers and ran 67 offensive plays to 32 for its opponent, but lost by four touchdowns.

Turnovers were mostly to blame. The Rockets led in that dubious statistic, too, losing five fumbles and throwing two interceptions. They also had a punt blocked that led to one of many quick scores for the Lancers.

"Did we really? Did we turn the ball over seven times?" Conti asked. "I guess you don't factor that in.

"I just want to say that anybody who made a mistake here was responsible for getting us to this game tonight. You don't have to be perfect in this world. I choose to focus on the positive things we did tonight."

Slippery Rock did do a lot of good things, when it was able to keep the football off the frozen Field Turf.

Senior fullback Ryan Ferguson rushed for 99 yards in the first half and finished the game with 117. Powell threw for 179 yards and a pair of scores and hooked up with Ejzak seven times for 115 yards.

Ejzak finished his one-year football career with school records for receptions (44) and yardage (889) in a season. He wasn't far off the career marks in either category.

The Rockets' defense, which packed 10 — and sometimes 11 — players in the box to stop the Lancers' option attack, stuffed McLane for much of the first half until the big plays came like snow squalls off Lake Erie.

"We tried to do some things, tried to make some adjustments, but you just can't make errors," Conti said. "They were just too athletic for us."

General McLane, which will meet rival Erie Strong Vincent next week in the district title game, scored on the first play of a possession twice and had scoring drives of two plays twice.

The Lancers, who also returned a fumble for a touchdown, averaged 1.5 points for every play run.

McLane's Kellen O'Neill, who had a big game when the teams met in October, was held to negative-8 yards rushing, but he completed three passes for 116 yards. All of his completions went for touchdowns.

He opened the scoring with a 44-yard touchdown pass to Steve Nero, then connected with Blidi Wreh-Wilson on a swing pass that turned into a 57-yard score.

"They were obviously trying to put a lot of people in the box," said General McLane coach JimWells. "So, we had to go for the big plays, and we hit them."

Slippery Rock, picked by many to finish near the bottom of its region, instead finished second behind Titusville and made the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

"I think the kids had great chemistry," Conti said. "I think they were very resilient with all the injuries. I told them they may not be the most talented guys we're had, but they got the most out of themselves that they could."

General McLane 49, Slippery Rock 21

SlipperyRock 0 7 0 14—21General McLane 7 14 21 7—49SR GM19 First Downs 743-186 Rushes-Yards 28-171179 Passing Yards 11612-24-2 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 3-4-0365 Total Yards 2878-5 Fumbles/Lost 5-22-25 Penalties-Yards 3-23

First QuarterGM — Steve Nero 44 pass fromKellen O'Neill (Ryan Skelton kick), 1:58

Second QuarterSR — Derrick Orloski 4 pass from Jonathan Powell (Josh Powell kick), 10:16GM — O'Neill 15 run (Skelton kick), 8:27GM — LeRoy Jenkins 80 run (Skelton kick), 4:57

Third QuarterGM — Jenkins 6 run (Skelton kick), 8:51GM — Nero 15 pass from O'Neill (Skelton), 5:22GM — Blidi Wreh-Wilson 57 pass from O'Neill (Skelton kick), 4:04

Fourth QuarterSR — Zack Ejzak 6 pass from Jonathan Powell (Josh Powell kick), 11:54GM — Kyle Majewski 81 fumble return (David Olszewski kick), 9:22SR — Trent Knight 2 run (Josh Powell kick), 1:06

Individual Statistics

Passing: Slippery Rock, Jonathan Powell 12-23-179-2, Zack Ejzak 0-1-0-0. General McLane, Kellen O'Neill 3-4-116-0.

Rushing: Slippery Rock, Ryan Ferguson 21-117, Jonathan Powell 14-19, J.R. Thompson 2-1, Andrew Novak 3-27, Zack Ejzak 2-20, Trent Knight 1-2. General McLane, LeRoy Jenkings 4-89, Kyle Majewski 7-71, Ryan Skelton 5-26, Scott Bickle 1-1, Kyle Ponsoll 1-(-1), Blidi Wreh-Wilson 3-(-7), Kellen O'Neill 7-(-8).

Receiving: Slippery Rock, Zack Ejzak 7-115, Derrick Orloski 3-30, Andrew Novak 1-19, J.R. Thompson 1-13. General McLane, Steve Nero 2-59, Blidi Wreh-Wilson 1-57.