Bobcat Gridders Move To 2-0 With Win At Brookville (09/10/14)

When facing an opponent, on the gridiron, who is pass heavy and capable of putting up big numbers, three major keys to victory are to keep their offense off the field by eating up the clock, poor field position to start possessions and play tough, opportunistic defense.

On Friday night (September 8th) at Brookville, the Bobcats worked that plan to near perfection and came away with a 58-22 victory over the Raiders. The Clarion offense piled up 469 yards, 385 of them on the ground, with Colton Rapp running for 242 yards on 28 carries and three scores, following some blocking by his line and the other backs and gained a lot of yards on his own, with nice moves and speed. The line, led by Zak Bauer who had 6 pancake blocks, had a dominating performance, controlling the line of scrimmage all night, driving off the ball and opening some major holes . Rapp scored another touchdown shovel pass from Spencer Miller.

The defense, for the most part, held the Raiders aerial attack in check and limited them to 37 rushing yards. It was a case of bend but don’t break for the Cats as the Raiders completed a number of passes, but didn’t amass the kind of attack they had in their previous two games. All three level of defense, line, linebacker and defensive backs performed very well. And Archer Mills and the kickoff team kept Brookville inside their own 30 to start most of their drives.

The Bobcats scored on every possession, except when they knelt down to finish the game.

The Cats opened the scoring at 6:57 of the first quarter, on a 1 yard run by Sterling Conner and with Mills’ kick the Cats’ led 7-0. Brookville came back, scoring just over a minute later, with Tyler Park hauling in a 32 yard pass from freshman quarterback Jack Krug. Donovan Hoffman kicked the extra point and the score was tied at 7-all.

Krug, a freshman, threw for 156 yards and two touchdowns on the night and made some throws you don’t expect a ninth grader to make. It’ll be fun watching him the next several years.

Rapp scored his first touchdown, with under a minute left in the quarter, on a 3 yard run. The kick failed and the Cats led 13-7 after one.

Clarion moved the lead to 34-7, in the second quarter, with three touchdowns. Camdon Boggess scored on a two yard run, at 6:46. On the Raiders ensuing possession, Sterling Conner jumped a pass, in the flat on the home side of the field and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown, with 6:o4 left. Rapp scored his second touchdown, at 3:48 on the shovel pass from Miller and running down the visitors’ sideline for 38 yards. Bauer had 6 tackles, 3 for loss, including a sack. Mills was successful on all three kicks.

Brookville scored again, this time with junior wide receiver Bryan Dworek scoring a 3o yard touchdown on a pass from Krug. Dworek had a good game on both sides of the ball. With Hoffman’s kick the score was now Clarion 34 – Brookville 13.

The Cats would put together one more drive before the half, working the two minute drill masterfully, culminating in a 31 yard field goal, by Mills as time ran out. The teams headed into the locker rooms with Clarion holding a 37-14 lead.

An 18 yard touchdown run by Rapp and Mills’ kick at 8:35 moved the score to 44-14, Cats. Rapp’s final touchdown came on a 42 yard run, with 5:26 left in the quarter and with the extra point score moved 51-14 and the Mercy Rule’s running clock was set into play.

With both squad’s second teams in, each scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Logan Minich ran the ball in from ten yards out for Clarion, at 10:09. The kick was good. Then Brookville’s Kyle MacBeth hauled in a 6 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tyler Ochs. Osowaldo Casares ran for the two point conversion to set the final.

Rapp now sets at number four on the Bobcats’ Career Rushing list, with 3,361 yards and Miller’s touchdown throw, the 22nd of his career has moved him into third place in Career Passing.

Miller also had a fine game defensively, with six tackles and an interception. Minich had 7 carries for 54 yards. Bogess ran 5 times for 22 yards . On defense he had 8 tackles, two for loss, including a sack. Conner had three carries for 19 yards and had 2 tackles, one for loss. Keeven Weaver had one reception for 27 yards. Mills caught a pass for 8 yards, was successful on 7 of 8 PATs and had the field goal.

For Brookville, Dworek caught 6 passes for 75 yards and Park had 4 catches for 55 yards. Brandon McGranor ran 11 times for 46 yards. And with the youth on Brookville, it looks like the program is on the way up.

The 2-0 Bobcats will face Keystone, at Memorial Stadium in the first home game of the season, this Friday night (September 15th). The Bobcats’ next victory will be number 500 for the illustrious Clarion Football program, which dates back to 1927. It would be great to see as many former players and coaches as possible at the stadium to cheer on the Cats.

(Great job, Cats!!!!)

CAT QUOTES

Coach Wiser: I’m pretty pleased with all three units.

Colton Rapp, with the help of the offensive line, our fullback and so forth. They did a great job of opening holes and stuff like that. From that stand point, I was very pleased.

Defensively, minus a couple of things here and there, I thought the game plan was really good to try to take away (what Brookville was trying to do). They have a very diverse offense and some good skilled kids and have been scoring a lot of points. You got some key turnovers, with Spencer’s interception, Sterling’s interception and so forth. Scott (Coach Miller) and Lee (Coach Weber) really worked hard on the secondary, all week, on the pass defense and it showed on the field.

Special teams, I thought Archer and the kickoff team did a good job, not giving them good field position. They were (held on kickoffs) most of the time inside the 30, which were win-wins. It’s very difficult for a team to drive the length of the football field. And obviously our extra points and kicking our field goal. That was nice to get the field goal.

Overall, one of our goals was to become a better football team and I think we did tonight. We wanted to keep the ball away from their offense. We felt the best way to do that was to eat the clock and we did that. I can’t say enough about that aspect of our game.

The kids kept their eye on the prize. Old Clarion football.

Jacob Selker

Lineman Jacob Selker: I thought our line did a pretty good job tonight. (We’re) a pretty cohesive unit. We work really well together, work very hard in practice. Whenever one of us makes a mistake, wealways try to pick each other up and we always try to do our best to get positive yardage. And no matter what, the backs always do a good job. Whenever all cylinders are firing, it’s a pretty scary thing.

I think we’re just going to continue to work hard and look ahead to next week, to Keystone.

Sterling Conner

Running Back/Defensive Back Sterling Conner:  (On his interception for a touchdown) Well, on the pick six tonight, I give props to our scout team. They came out every day during the week. And they ran plays against us, we practiced them. Scoot, Coach Miller helped us out. He told us what to do. We practiced that all week and it showed up and helped in the game. I think the scout players play the biggest role on our team.

On offense, this is really the first varsity game I’ve ever played. I give props to the line. They were unbelievable tonight. They drove back. They held their ground. They did good. And Colton, Colton’s just doing what he does. He just runs hard. He breaks tackles.

BOBCAT CAREER PASSING TOUCHDOWNS

John Katis – 50

Brandon Heeter – 29

Spencer Miller – 22

Adam Bevevino – 21

Ben Bevevino – 21

BOBCAT CAREER RUSHING YARDS

Kyle Cathcart – 4,449

Ian Corbett – 3,660

Chris McSwain – 3,567

Colton Rapp – 3,361

Damien Slike – 3,092