Cats Win Homecoming Matchup With Warriors (10/05/14)

The Clarion Bobcats hosted the Moniteau Warriors in their Homecoming game on Friday (October 3) at Veterans’ Memorial Stadium, and came away with a 56-21 win. The win was the second in a row and the fifth in six tries this season.

(Photos by Bri Nellis) Ian Corbett goes around right side

Ian Corbett, Taylor Smith and Thomas Plummer all had big nights for the Bobcat offense. Corbett rushed for 146 yards and 3 touchdowns on 11 carries and had 102 yards and 2 touchdowns on three receptions. Smith threw for 142 yards and 4 touchdowns while going 5 for 8. He had one interception. Plummer had 48 yards and a touchdown on 4 carries, in addition to scoring 2 touchdowns on two receptions.

Corbett’s first touchdown came on a 13 yard run to the right, culminating the Cats’ first possession. After two Warrior penalties on the PAT, Clarion lined up for the two. Corbett took the pitch in and Clarion led 8-0 at 7:58 of the first.

The Warriors mishandled the kickoff and Luke Nellis recovered for Clarion. The Cats set up at the Moniteau 40. Smith hit Corbett for a 29 yard gain, to the eleven. Then Corbett ran left and cut back for the TD. Ty Burford’s PAT was good and the score moved to 15-0 at 7:19.

Moniteau cut the Clarion lead to 15-6, at 4:24 of the first, on a 25 yard touchdown. Josh McBride finished off a pitch play, carrying the ball on the left side and breaking a tackle near the 10.

The Cats would score two more times in the quarter. Corbett took a screen pass 62 yards to paydirt. Burford’s PAT was good the score was 22-6 at the 1:01 mark. He then intercepted a pass at the Warrior 36 and returned it to the 13. From there Smith hit Plummer, in traffic for the touchdown, with :36 left in the quarter and with the successful PAT the score moved to 29-6.

Thomas Plummer fighting for the ball

The Warriors cut the score to 29-13, at 6:41 of the second, when McBride intercepted a pass and returned it 20 yards for the score. But on the Bobcats first play from scrimmage, on their next possession, Corbett ran the ball 71 yards for another touchdown and with 6:23 left in the quarter, the Cats led 35-13. Clarion closed out the first half scoring, with Smith and Plummer hooking up on a 27 yard touchdown pass at the 3:00 mark. With the PAT the score moved to 42-13.

Plummer scored on a pitch to the left, at 6:37 of the third, moving the lead to 48-13. Then Corbett made a super leaping interception at the Warrior twenty-two. Several plays later, he hauled in an eleven yard pass from Smith, for another score. Josh Kreible scored on the two-point conversion and the Cats now led 56-13, with 2:44 left in the third.

2014 Homecoming Queen Sara Shingledecker

Moniteau closed out the scoring, with quarterback Cody Skiver taking the ball in on a three yard keeper with 10:28 left in the game. McBride scored on the two-point conversion, and the final was set at 56-13.

Defensively, for the Cats: Jacob Troutman had 11 tackles including two sacks. Micheal Bartley had 7 tackles, including half a sack. Luke Nellis had 6 tackles, including a sack and a fumble recovery.

Ethan Straffin had one and a half sacks included in his five tackles. Corbett had 6 tackles, including a sack and two interceptions. Plummer had five tackles. Adrian Weber had an interception and Spencer Miller recovered a fumble.

Corbett and McBride were the C93 Players of the Game.

2014 Homecoming Court – Callie Freenock, Nicki Glenn, Queen Sara Shingledecker, Maci Thornton, Anna McNamara and Emily Powers

This week the Cats will travel to Union, for a rare Saturday night game, at 7:00 PM.

Cat Quotes:

Ian Corbett: (One of his best games?) “I’d say so. I was just ready to play tonight I guess. We had to step up with some injuries this season, with some injuries… They (Moniteau) gave us some good matchups for sure. Physically, it was a tough game… Shout out to Coach Wiser for another win.”

Zack Huet: “The line was doing a good job tonight. We really stepped it up, with (Zach) Sintobin and all of them. The secondary did a real good job. We’re getting better. We’re getting better as the year goes on. Great job Coach Wiser.”

Zach Sintobin: “We all did pretty good. We were getting them pretty good. (We had) some mistakes that shouldn’t have happened, but we still won.

Coach Wiser: “Ian Corbett had another spectacular game. The key was that at the beginning of the game, we got some turnovers. We got up in score. Todd (Coach Smith) got the offense. We got up on them and got them out of their game plan. They like to run the ball. They threw the ball more tonight than they probably have the whole season.

“On their side, I’d probably give the MVP to Shiver, the quarterback. Our kids put him under duress all night and he escaped. And we obviously did a good job getting to him and tackling him, other than some early on stuff, where we missed some tackles and so forth.

“We had a number of different people go in. I thought we had a lot of contributors on both sides of the ball, making it a team effort, a nice homecoming victory again for Clarion Area.”

(Ian’s second interception): “Unbelievable. One of the more athletic plays I’ve seen. I think he would have passed the Presidents’ Physical Fitness test on that one.”

(On fixing some things before the Union game) “I’m not happy with the turnovers. Obviously some things to work on before Union, but the kids are going to enjoy their Homecoming Dance and then we are going to get back to the drawing board, over the weekend and get ready for Union.”

(Thanks to Matt Buchanan for spotting and providing notes for this story and for Coach Burkhart for MaxPreps stats.)