MEADVILLE — Slippery Rock’s Jeff Croll made the most of his nine carries to lead the Rockets past Meadville, 42-7, in both teams’ Region 5 opener at Bender Field on Friday.

Croll scored on his second and third carries of the game and finished with three TDs and 148 yards rushing on nine carries.

“I’m just so proud of him,” third-year Slippery Rock coach Brendan Hathaway said. “I’ve never had a harder worker.”

The loss dropped Meadville (1-1, 0-1 Region 5) to .500. The Rockets (2-0, 1-0) climbed to the top of the Region 5 standings.

Slippery Rock quarterback Ryan Currie, coming off 129-yard, four-touchdown rushing game in the opener, carried three straight times on the Rockets’ first possession, gaining 11 yards and setting up a first down at Meadville’s 24-yard line. Croll bowled forward to the 21 and two carries later the 5-foot-11, 191-pound fullback barreled up the middle from the 12-yard line to put the Rockets up 7-0 with 6:10 left in the first quarter.

After Meadville’s second punt, Slippery Rock took over at its own 30-yard line. Currie took the first down carry 70 yards right up the gut to put the Rockets up 14-0 eight minutes into the game.

“When you face an option team you have to have someone assigned to the quarterback, someone assigned on the dive and someone on the pitch,” Meadville coach Mike Feleppa said. “When you don’t, you get hurt. It’s my job to make sure we are better prepared for that.”

Looking to slow the bleeding, Meadville put together a solid drive on its third possession. The Bulldogs moved from their own 20 to Slippery Rock’s 34 where the drive stalled when they couldn’t convert a fourth-and-8. The Rockets answered with a six-play, 70-yard drive.

When Croll — who rushed for 23 yards on three carries, including a 9-yard score, on the drive — wasn’t hurting them up the middle, Currie was hitting perfectly timed and executed passes. The biggest play was a 39-yard pass completion to Dustin Mellott. That was followed one play later by Croll’s third TD and a 21-0 Rockets lead with 8:56 left in the first half. Currie complete 3-of-5 attempts for 71 yards and a touchdown.

“That’s what we try to do,” Hathaway said. “We have receivers who can catch and a quarterback who can throw so we try to take advantage of that when we can.”

The Bulldogs were without Division I Temple recruit Artrel Foster, who is recovering from a knee injury. He took a helmet to the knee in last week’s win and is day-to-day, Feleppa said.

“He’s such a special player,” Hathaway said about Foster.

Meadville looked as if it was going to shift the momentum on its fourth possession. Ryan Harkness rushed for 22 yards on the Bulldogs’ first carry to get the ball out to the 42. On the next carry, Trevor Martin was battling for yards at the end of an 18-yard run when he fumbled. Slippery Rock’s Spencer Rea recovered it at Slippery Rock’s 40.

Eight plays later, Currie capped a 60-yard drive with a 16-yard scoring pass to Chris Reeseman.

Meadville again showed signs of life driving from their own 28 to the Slippery Rock 12 with 61 seconds left in the half, but Harkness was stuffed for no gain on a fourth-and-1 play.

“When a team has you reeling like we were reeling, you have to change the momentum,” Feleppa said. “We weren’t able to find that momentum change.”

Slippery Rock delivered more of the same to start the second half.

Frank Conlon took the second-half kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, breaking one last tackle just inside the 10 and staggering into the end zone. The Bulldogs pinned Slippery Rock back at its own 10 after a wonderful 61-yard Patrick Adams punt. But Currie sprinted through the Meadville defense for a 90-yard touchdown and a 42-0 lead with 8:31 left in the third quarter. Currie finished the game with 12 carries for 139 yards.

Martin punched in a score from one yard out with 15 seconds left in the third quarter to finish off an efficient 10-play, 72-yard drive that took 7:55 off the clock. Martin finished with 79 yards and a score, while Harkness led the ’Dogs with 92 yards on 15 carries. Meadville averaged 5.5 yards per carry. Tim Bolden added 76 yards on 11 carries.

Hathaway said he expects to see Meadville again.

“Meadville is a team to be reckoned with,” he said.

Last year, the Bulldogs lost to Slippery Rock, 25-18, in overtime in the regular season only to beat the Rockets 43-7 in the District 10 Class AAA quarterfinals.

The Bulldogs’ two-game homestand ends next Saturday when they hit the road to face Erie East (0-1). East plays Central Tech (1-0) today.

“Any time you lose, you face some adversity,” Feleppa said. “You have to battle back and get better.”