SLIPPERY ROCK — Mercyhurst wants to stay grounded — and ground Slippery Rock University’s lethal offense at the same time.

The Lakers (1-2, 0-1) invade Mihalik-Thompson Stadium for a 6 p.m. kickoff Saturday night in a battle of PSAC West football teams coming off disappointing losses.

While SRU (2-1, 0-1) continually made mistakes — 16 penalties, five failed possessions inside the opposing 25-yard-line, four turnovers — in a 38-27 loss at Gannon, Mercyhurst suffered an error-plagued 20-13 loss to Clarion.

“What Slippery Rock did at Gannon, we’ve done in all three of our games,” Lakers coach Marty Schaetzle said. “We haven’t put together a good game yet.

“I’m really disappointed in my team in that regard. We simply have not played well.”

Mercyhurst does run the ball well, however, as Brandon Brown-Dukes and Allen Jones II both ran for 100-plus yards in a 38-23 win over The Rock last year. Both are back this season.

Brown-Dukes has 359 yards and five TDs on the ground thus far in 2013. Jones has 151 yards on 30 carries.

“We better have our big-boy pads on if we want to tackle those guys,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “They are physical, downhill runners.”

The Rock has been adept at throwing the ball thus far, leading the PSAC with a 16.6-yard per completion average. SRU ranks second in the league with 535.7 yards of total offense, 342 yards and 45.3 points per game.

Mercyhurst is allowing only 14.7 points per game.

“Slippery Rock has a fantastic team,” Schaetzle said. “Whenever a team has a lot of starters coming back, they have an excellent chance to win the conference.

“Our passing numbers are spread out (no one with more than seven catches)because we don’t have that go-to receiver. Our game is playing physical and allowing the run game to set up our passing.

“Teams have been able to control the clock on us a little bit. We need to reverse that,” Schaetzle added.

Mihalik said the Lakers’ play-action passing game is cause for concern.

“We’d love to get a decent lead early and force them away from that running game,” the SRU coach said.

The Rock has spent plenty of time on special teams practice this week. That unit cost the team 21 points at Gannon, along with having a PAT blocked and missing a 24-yard field goal.

“We’ve re-evaluated our schemes and personnel on special teams,” Mihalik said. “Much of the play on that unit is attitude. Special teams has a tremendous impact on the outcome of games. We demonstrated that last week.”

One bright spot on Rock special teams has been punter James McCombie. The senior is tied with Kevin VanVoris of West Texas A&M for the Division II lead with a 48.6-yard punting average.

Receiver John Schademan has produced three consecutive 100-yard games and shares the PSAC lead with four touchdown catches.

Quarterback Nigel Barksdale has thrown for 1,019 yards and 12 touchdowns through three games.

“Our defense has done a good job of keeping teams out of the end zone,” Schaetzle said. “But we need to improve on third-down and get ourselves off the field.”

Mars graduate Austin Miele leads SRU in tackles with 23, including five tackles for loss from his safety position. Slippery Rock High graduate Tony Papley has 4.5 tackles for loss.

Sophomore Kyle Henderson will make a second consecutive start at center as Joe LoSchiavo and Seneca Valley graduate Dean Ketterer are sidelined by injury.

“Kyle did a tremendous job Saturday. He didn’t know he was starting at center until Thursday,” Mihalik said.

Mercvhurst owns a 3-2 edge in the series between the teams, the home squad winning each time. The Rock edged the Lakers 28-21 here in 2011 and 17-16 in 2009.

“The last three PSAC West champions — IUP last year, Slippery Rock in 2011, Mercyhurst in 2010 — had 6-1 records,” Mihalik said. “We need to get on a roll right now and we’re capable of that.

“A lot of golfers take a mulligan early and hit great shots the rest of the way. That’s what we need to do.”