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Bobcat Football Reaches Milestone With Win, Another Milestone Coming (09/07/14)

The Clarion Bobcat Football Team defeated Sheffield 68-0, on Friday night (September 5), at Veterans’ Memorial Stadium, in the first ever football matchup for the two schools. The victory was the 475th in program history, dating back to 1927, as the Cats steadily move toward the coveted 500 win mark, the “Holy Grail” for Pennsylvania high schools. (Note: Cat Quotes at bottom of article)

(All photos by Bri Nellis of Bri Nellis Photography) Luke Nellis

(All photos by Bri Nellis of Bri Nellis Photography)
Luke Nellis

Sheffield received the opening kickoff. But on third down, Bobcat, Luke Nellis intercepted a pass on the Sheffield 30 and returned it to the 10 line. On the next play, Destin Strauser ran untouched through a big hole in the middle, provided by the HOGS for a touchdown. The PAT failed and the Cats led 6-0 at 11:07 of the first.

On Clarion’s next possession and facing a third and twenty-eight, from their own 47, quarterback Brendan Miller hit Thomas Plummer behind the line on the right side. Plummer took the ball across the field following some good blocking and with a some good moves, he ran the ball to the Wolverine fifteen, for a Bobcat first down.

Then on a second and thirteen from the 18, Miller hit Taylor Smith, in stride, in the back of the endzone for a score. The two connected again, on the two-point conversion, giving the Cats a 14-0 lead at 5:15 of the first.

Sheffield looked to make some noise, as Ja’ Sani Marlow returned the kickoff 56 yards. But the Bobcats held, with Jacob Troutman finishing with a sack for a 15 yard loss on third down.

Several plays after receiving the punt, Ian Corbett followed some good blocking up the right sideline, for a 67 yard touchdown. The PAT failed and the Clarion lead was 20-0 at 2:47 of the first. The Cats scored again just sixteen seconds later, when Strauser picked up a Sheffield fumble, in stride at the Wolverine thirty-one and ran down the right side for the touchdown. Ty Burford kicked the PAT and the Cats led 28-0.

Defensive Back, Matt Wagner intercepted a pass, at the Wolverine forty-eight, shortly before the end of the quarter. A Sheffield penalty, on the play, moved the ball to the thirty-three. Then Miller took the snap, rolled right and hit Corbett at around the fifteen. Corbett ran it to the two as the stanza ended.

Thomas Plummer escorted by Alexander Burkhart

Thomas Plummer escorted by Alexander Burkhart

On the first play of the second period, Strauser followed a great line surge into the endzone for his third touchdown of the night. Burford was again successful on the PAT and the Cats led 35-0, three seconds into the quarter.

Thomas Plummer ended Sheffield’s next series with an interception and the Cats set up at the Wolverine thirty-five. But the Wolverines had a good defensive stand and took over on downs at their own sixteen.

Clarion held again. And with 6:06 left in the half, Corbett scored his second touchdown, this time going through the middle of the line from three yards out. Another Burford PAT made the score 42-0.

Later A fifty-two yard run by Strauser down the left sideline set the Bobcats up at the Sheffield ten. From there, freshman Colton Rapp scored down the middle. Rapp’s touchdown meant that each class (Senior, Junior, Sophomore and Freshman) had a hand in the Clarion scoring. The half ended 48-0, and the mercy rule was in effect for the second half.

The Cats scored three more times in the second half. Miller took it in on a bootleg at 3:52 of the third. Rapp scored his second touchdown from eight yards out, later in the third and Caleb Bailey scored from eight yards out late in the fourth to set the final.

Miller was 3 of 8 for 86 yards. Rapp had 112 yards on twelve carries. Strauser had 85 yards on 8 carries, while Corbett had 82 on five carries. The Cats had 539 total yards, with 453 coming on the ground.

Sophomore Kyle Patterson led Clarion with eight tackles. Troutman had six. Sophomore, Michael McCloskey and Rapp had five stops.

Ian Corbett

Ian Corbett

The victory over Scheffield was also 182nd head coaching victory for Coach Larry Wiser, just one shy of legendary Union Coach, Rich Vidunas’ All-Time Little 7-12/KSAC Career Coaching Victory Record of 183. One more win will give Coach Wiser a tie with Coach Vidunas; two wins will establish a new record. Coach Wiser has always been quick to express his deep respect for and admiration of the late Union mentor.

Clarion Sports Zone encourages everyone who has played for or coached with Coach Wiser, as well as all other Bobcat fans, to attend each game left on his pursuit of wins 183 and 184 to witness more Bobcat Football History.

(Special thanks to Matt Buchanan for spotting. for Coach Burkhart for MaxPrep stats and to Bri Nellis for the photos. Keep up the good work Cats!!!! )

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CAT QUOTES:
Ethan Straffin on the win: Feels great. We stick together like glue. It’s great. We have a good time, just like scoring touchdowns. It’s fun.

On being part of history – 475: It’s amazing. Everyone’s going to remember that. (On 500) We’re close, very close.

Coach Wiser: You know you’re pleased with the score of the game; we got a chance to get a lot of ball players in. Defensively I want to single out my secondary, because I know this kid (Sheffield QB, Adam Higby) came in throwing for a couple hundred yards against a pretty good Ridgway team. And we came away with three picks. I don’t know how many passes they did complete, (but they held him in check). Obviously our front put some pretty good pressure on him.

On the other side of the ball, offensively, maybe other than one series, we moved the ball. We missed maybe a couple of opportunities to catch some deep passes, which would have been nice. We made some great adjustments to some of the blitzes that they were coming with. I thought Todd (Smith, Offensive Coordinator) did a good job calling the game from a standpoint that they were using a linebacker mirroring Ian. Todd was using that against them, especially the first play of the game when Destin pretty much walked into the endzone.

On reaching win 475: I talked to the kids, earlier this week about how we were winning football games here, long before I came to Clarion.They’ve had some great coaches, Ray Austin, John Reish and obviously, Norm Zwald. And I got to meet Walter Doverspike (pioneer head coach of Clarion, Rimersburg [Union] and New Bethlehem [Redbank] programs), and some of the other guys. I never met Coach Moore (Hall of Fame coach). I heard about him obviously. Then, Harry Brickner. Alex Arth (longtime line coach) was a part of a lot of those wins with Ray, John, me and so forth and he worked with Norm. He worked with four head coaches (including Dave Bevevino).

Anybody who does this long enough realizes… I have a great staff right now. That’s helped me out over the years. And I think in years past, I think all those other coaches would give a lot of the credit to the Dave Bevevino’s (assistants)… Ray Austin was an assistant for Norm, then went on to his head coaching job. George White was a coach for me. A lot of great people.

Four-Seventy-Five, I don’t know where we stand statewide for wins, but for a program that goes back to 1927.

Coach Wiser was impressed with Sheffield’s Marlow and Steve Gregorson. (Marlow, who had a very solid game) was very good, but (Gregorson) played his heart out every play. If I was going to give an MVP to Sheffield, it would be him. I think, he played fullback and mike backer. Their quarterback is a great quarterback and I don’t know how many stops he made in the secondary, to stop some big runs. He did a good job there. He’s got a good arm. Like I say, I think we got good pressure on him and good pressure, combined with good coverage over the top, we didn’t give him too much separation there. Even our second kids came in there at the end and did a good job there.

Destin Strauser On his three TDs etc.: It felt pretty good. The line blocked well. (Zach) Sintobin made some heck of a blocks. We had a little bit of miscommunication sometimes, but other than that, the line did a heck of a job, letting me run. I just hit the hole as hard as I could.

We put up a lot of points. I think it was one of the best games we’ve played.

On 475: It felt good. I’ve been with Coach Wiser for three seasons, starting on defense and I wouldn’t pick another coach. And just to have that type of history and getting that record for our school. I wouldn’t play for another school.

Colton Rapp The line was blocking real well tonight. They were hitting their blocks and driving them. It really opened up the run for us. It definitely helped.

On getting a lot of yards on moves or driving hard: A big part of it was the line picking up the blocks. Zach Sintobin was doing a good job picking up his blocks, Zack Huet, all the guys looked good out there blocking and I thought we played really well.

On 475: Wouldn’t have it to be any other way, than with Coach Wiser. It just feels great to be part of the team this year, that we’re having the success that we’re having. We’ve just got to keep carrying it from game to game.

Taylor Smith: On how physically taxing the game was: Yeah but we got tired too. We were pretty gassed in the first half.