Bobcat Football Team Completes Great Season In State Semi-Final Loss (12/08/13)

A season that will be talked about fifty years from now, came to an end for the Clarion Bobcat Football Team, on Saturday afternoon, with a 39-12 loss to the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, Trojans, at E. J. Mansell Stadium in Dubois.

North Catholic built a 22-0 lead with two first quarter rushing touchdowns by P. J. Fulmore and one second quarter touchdown by Jerome Turner.

The Bobcats set up at their own 45 after the kickoff following Turner’s touchdown and proceeded on a 6-play drive down the field mixing runs and passes. The score came on a pass from John Katis to a wide open Damien Slike, who came out of the backfield and caught the ball on his knees, just inside the goal line, making the score 22-6, Trojans.

Slike, who was held out of his linebacker spot for the game, due to injury, came up from the play noticeably hurting. Slike continued to play on offense, before he was held out for the second half.

(Slike’s limited play, combined with running back / defensive end, Ian Corbett’s being out the whole game with an injury, took away much of what the Bobcats are capable doing on both sides of the ball, as can be attested to by some of their stat coming into the game: Slike – 1869 rushing yards, 37 rushing touchdowns, 103 tackles; Corbett – 1247 rushing yards, 20 rushing touchdowns, 90 tackles, 12 sacks).

But Coach Wiser would not use that as an excuse, saying, “As a coach I will not make any excuses for not having all my players. I feel this is part of football and as a coach it would be a disservice to those players who replaced them saying that they were not good enough for the task.”

Fulmer scored again in the second quarter, on a 5 yard run and North Catholic led 29-6, at the half.

After receiving the second half kickoff, the Bobcats starting at their own 39 yard line, marched down the field on a 13-play drive. On the ninth play Antonio Troese caught a pass from Katis at the 17 yard line and ran it through the middle and stretched out with the ball over the goal line. But the official ruled him down at the one. But four plays later, Katis hit Tyler Allen with a pass on the right side, for the Bobcats’ last touchdown of the finest season in the program’s history.

Another Turner touchdown run, in the third period and a field goal well into the fourth quarter, set the final score.

Unofficial stats show John Katis throwing for 162 yards on 13 completions, which gives him a career total of 4086 passing yards, and Cody Hearst who had some amazing catches, with 8 catches for 116 yards giving him 2021 career receiving yards.

Coach Wiser shared these thoughts: “I want to thank the Clarion Community for their support thru out the season.

“This football TEAM and this senior class set a great standard for the future. The unselfish TEAM play and hard work help this TEAM set this standard. Yesterday in the 2nd half to me defined this TEAM. They came out the second half and played their hearts out.

“I want to thank Cam Kirkland, Jessica Falvo and her staff, Nathan McClaine, Scott Miller, Kevin, Vance & Cam Slike, Todd Smith, and Lee Weber for the hard work.”

Though the season ended one game and two victories earlier than we had all hoped for, wasn’t this season something fantastic?!!!

Congratulations to the team that has gone farther than any other team in school history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And best wishes to the Seniors who played their final game for the Orange and Black!!!!!!!!!!

(Thanks to Chris Rossetti and D9Sports.com for some of the stats and information used in this article. Official stats will be on MaxPreps later.)