GROVE CITY — Seth Slater was given an opportunity — and holes to run through.

And the Slippery Rock High sophomore running back made sure he took full advantage of both.

Slater, who had the fullback position all to himself because of an injury to senior Dalton Hilliard, rushed for 141 yards and two touchdowns, plowing for yardage and showing shiftiness as well, as the Rockets rolled to a 52-18 win over rival Grove City at Forker Field Friday night.

“We had a sophomore step and play really well tonight, Seth Slater, and he did a phenomenal job,” said Slippery Rock coach Travis Sarver, who knows a thing or two about playing fullback — Sarver was a starting fullback for the Rockets the last time Slippery Rock beat Grove City at Forker Field (33-14) in 2003.

While Slater's emergence might come as a surprise to some, not so for Sarver.

“He showed us some things last week against Greenville,” Sarver said. “And Dalton was hurt and couldn't play tonight and (Seth) took advantage of his opportunity and he excelled with it. Very good job by Seth.”

It was a good job for the Slippery Rock offense as a whole.

The Rockets (2-1, 1-1) rolled up 440 yards on the ground and six touchdowns.

Slater's scoring runs of 3 and 27 yards got the Rockets off to a 14-0 lead in the first half.

Ryan Lauster added the knockout punch with two second half scoring runs of 65 and 2 yards as Slippery Rock turned a fairly close 17-6 game at the half into a rout.

Lauster finished with 168 yards on just 13 carries.

“The kids didn't want to feel the way they felt last week (in a 27-22 home loss to Greenville),” Sarver said. “They were very attentive in the locker room at halftime when we made some adjustments. They were very confident and they played their hearts out on the field. I was very proud of them.”

While Slippery Rock's offense was firing in the second half, its defense was also making life tough for Grove City.

The Eagles (0-3, 0-2) did manage to score a touchdown at the end of the first half on a perfect timing pass from Kameron Patterson to Brayden Martin in the corner of the end zone with 22 seconds left to cut the lead to 17-6.

But Lauster took off on his 65-yard run, out-racing several Grove City defenders to the end zone.

Grove City answered thanks to the running, not the passing, of Patterson, who rolled up 57 yards on the ground on an 80-yard touchdown drive that was capped by his own 4-yard touchdown run.

Slippery Rock, though, put the game away by scoring the next 28 points.

Grove City capped the scoring on a 1-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Brady Callahan to freshman Logan Lutz.

Another loss has left Eagles' coach Sam Mowrey still searching for answers.

“Finally at the end of the half it looked like we had some momentum going for us,” Mowrey said. “Then they got a stop and were able to capitalize and that changes things in a hurry.”

Patterson had a good game for Grove City, throwing for 120 yards and rushing for another 85.

Patterson accounted for 205 of the Eagles' 221 total yards.

The junior also played safety on several series — something Mowrey was hesitant to do because of the risk of injury.

“It wasn't probably our plan going into the season,” Mowrey said. “But at this point, we have to do what we can to move the football and put points on the scoreboard. He's hungry for that and he's up for that challenge. We can't be afraid of something happening. We're playing football.”