Bobcat Football Team Wins Regular Season Finale, Face Curwensville In First Round Of Playoffs (11/02/14)

Senior Night 2014 (Friday, October 31) saw the Bobcat Football Team post another dominating win, as they downed the Brookville Raiders 59-0 at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Cats will host Curwensville, this coming Friday (November 7), at 7:00 PM, in a District Nine Class-A First Round Playoff Game.

(Photos by Bri Nellis – Bri Nellis Photography)
Colton Rapp

Clarion scored on nine of eleven possessions. One of the non-scoring possessions was when they took a knee to end the game. The game saw every Bobcat who was suited up, getting playing time.

It was a night of old school, smash mouth, Clarion Area football with eleven, that’s right, eleven Bobcats carrying the ball 33 times for 407 yards.

Senior Ian Corbett led the way with 215 yards and three touchdowns on just eight carries. With his effort, Corbett moved his season’s yardage total to 1788, moving into third place on the Bobcat’s Single Season standings, 34 yards behind Kyle Cathcart’s second place total of 1822 yards and 108 yards behind Damien Slike’s 1896 yard total.
Corbett averaged 26.9 yards per carry.

Freshman Colton Rapp wasn’t far behind with a 20.0 average, carrying twice for 40 yards and two touchdowns. In all the Bobcats had seven ball carriers average nine yards per carry or better and five runners scoring touchdowns.

With the rushing game hitting on all cylinders, the Cats only attempted 4 passes on the night. Quarterback Taylor Smith made the most of his opportunities though, completing three of the four passes, for 40 yards (13.3 yards per completion) and a touchdown to Ethan Straffin. Smith’s quarterback rating was 145.8.

The Cats scored 21 points in the first quarter, 20 in the second, 12 in the third and six in the final stanza.

Jacob Troutman

Corbett opened the scoring parade with a 35 yard touchdown just a minute and twenty-five seconds into the game, giving the Cats a 6-0 lead. Bruising back Destin Strauser had a two yard scoring run, at 3:35 of the first, and Smith hit Adrian Weber with a pass for the conversion, moving the score to 14-0.

A 23 yard touchdown run by Corbett, and a Ty Burford, PAT kick made the score 21-0 with 2:13 left in the quarter.

Rapp had his first touchdown run at 7:21 of the second quarter and Burford again kicked the extra point, moving the score to 28-0. Then came the Smith to Straffin scoring hookup, covering two yards, at 5:02. Burford’s kick made it 35-0.

Corbett closed out the first half scoring, at 1:40 moving the score to 41-0.

There was a moving clock in the second half, due to the Mercy Rule, but the Cats still managed three scores. The first came from Thomas Plummer, on a two yard run with 10:08 left in the third, moving Clarion’s lead to 47-0.

Then Rapp scored again, this time from 28 yards out, and the Bobcat lead increased to 53-0.

The game’s final score came on a fifteen yard run from Caleb Bailey, setting the final at 59-0.

Plummer had 56 yards on five carries and two catches for thirty-eight yards. Bailey ran the ball three times for thirty yards. Strauser carried 3 times for 18 yards. Jacob Troutman had 44 yards on three carries. Spencer Miller ran once for twenty yards and Kyle Patterson had two carries for eighteen yards.

Defensively, the Bobcats had three players register 10-plus tackles; Troutman had 16 tackles, followed by Colton Rapp with 14 and Luuuuke!!! Nellis, with thirteen. Strauser nearly broke into double-digits with nine.

Troutman had 2.5 sacks and Straffin had half a sack. Straffin and Patterson each had an interception.

Two Raiders had good games, running the ball: John Frank carried 16 times for 127 yards and Jonah Sampson ran 27 times for 93 yards.

Cat Quotes
Ethan Straffin: (On sharing the sack) “With my buddy, Jacob Troutman. We always seem to get back there at the same time and just be there at the right moment.”

(On his touchdown catch) “We were on the goal line. It was just tossed in there. It was real simple.”

(About Curwensville) “That will be a great opponent. We haven’t played them. I haven’t played them in my high school career. It’ll be an interesting matchup; it’ll be a fun time.”

Thomas Plummer (About his score and the play leading up to it) “On my touchdown, I got close and then I went down hard on my knee. I was hoping Coach was going to take me out, but he didn’t. Then he called 49 Jet Sweep and I had to tough it out and I made it in. I had good blocking from my line and everybody.”

(Difference between the Redbank Valley and Brookville games) “A lot different. They didn’t pass near as much. Dougherty is one of the best quarterbacks in the league. We tried our hardest and we fixed what we did over the week. I think we just played good in the secondary and shut it down for the passing game.”

(And thanks) “I just want to say thanks to all the fans and my parents especially for all the support.”

Coach Larry Wiser: (On his seniors) “It’s a tribute to this class, 2015 Class. I think it’s pretty awesome, they ended up 29 and 1 over their career. From a post season stand point, many of these guys have been contributors over the last two years to some of the finishes, from being District Nine runner-up to being District Champs last year. I’m looking forward to the new season, per se.

“And it is nice to close a nice little chapter for those guys, for what they did.”

(On the challenge of facing unorthodox offensive plays) “Overall, tonight’s game, what we thought they were going to run, they ran some. But they ran a lot of stuff you and I have probably seen in the sixties, the polecat offense and some different things and that’s (Brookville Coach) Chris Dworek. He’s the master of trying everything. As a coach, he has fun doing that kind of stuff. The opposite side of the ball, being defensive coordinator, isn’t fun.”

(On the fun) “I thought our kids had a lot of fun. I’m very pleased for our seniors obviously and the team too. We got a chance to get everybody in there to play tonight.”

(The next opponent) “It is Curwensville, I understand. I’m counting on (D9Sports.com’s) Chris Rossetti, that he’s got his T’s crossed and his I’s dotted. Knowing Chris, that’s probably the case. We’re planning on Curwensville right now.

“Somebody said he’s (Curwensville Coach Andy Evanko) throwing a little more. We’ve got some film on them. I’m going to look at it. He always does a good job at it, year in and year out. They are always, for the most part, in the District Nine playoffs. I don’t know how many titles, but I know he’s spoiled a couple of my runs, possibly getting there.”