Colton Rapp Has Big Night AsBobcats Down Raiders In KSAC Football Action (09/11/16)

Junior running back Colton Rapp rushed for 189 yards and scored twice to lead the Clarion Area Bobcats as they defeated the Brookville Raiders 31-0, in a KSAC football match-up on  a very rainy Friday Night (September 9th) at Memorial Stadium.

(Photo by Forest Madison Mills)Bobcats lined up on offense

The soggy conditions were partly responsible for a number of miscues by both teams, especially in the first half, before the rain eased off.

Neither team scored in the first quarter.

Clarion dented the scoreboard at 9:20 of the second, when Sterling Conner intercepted a pass at the Brookville twenty and returned it down the left side of the field for the touchdown. Archer Mills connected on the PAT.

The Raiders had a big scoring opportunity denied on their next possession, as they drove all the way down to the Clarion ten. But a holding call moved the ball back to the twenty-nine. On the next play Bobcat Spencer Miller intercepted a pass. This would be the only scoring in the first half and the Cats took a 7-0 lead into the locker room.

Clarion received the second half kickoff and marched down the field for their second score, with Rapp netting 64 yards on the drive, including a beautiful 43 yard run, following his lead blocker down the field and a seven yard run to pay-dirt. Mills PAT try was good and the Cats led 14-0, with 9:43 left in the third.

After the Raiders turned the ball over on downs, the Bobcats drove for another score. The drive was capped by Rapp’s second touchdown, on an eight yard run at 3:51 in the quarter. Mill’s PAT looked like it would be good, but hit the upright and bounced in front of the standards. Clarion now had a 20-0 lead.

It didn’t take Mills long to “bounce” back. The Raiders fumbled on third down, of their next series and Bobcat Colt Stimmell recovered at the Brookville fifteen yard line. After being held in check, for the first three downs, Coach Larry Wiser decided to let his freshman placekicker attempt a twenty-nine yard field goal. The kick was high enough, but as it came down, it hit the crossbar. This time the carom went in favor of the Cats, with the ball hitting the ground behind the posts, moving the lead to 23-0, with 1:46 left in the third.

The Bobcats final score came with 1:00 left in the game, with sophomore Sam Minich taking the ball in on a thirty-five yard run. Traeson Douglas threw to Riley McMaster for two points after pressure thwarted a chance for the kick, setting the 31-0 final.

This was Coach Wiser’s 198th victory as a head coach. The Bobcats travel to Keystone on Friday (September 16th) and could possibly notch number 200, for Coach Wiser, (the “Holy Grail” of Pennsylvania coaching victories), as early as the next Friday (September 23rd), when the Cats host the Clarion-Limestone Lions.

It would be great to see as many former players and coaching staff members as possible, turn out to cheer the Cats on when number 200 looms, and join in the celebration when it is achieved.

Some key stats for the Bobcats, who have outscored their first two opponents 72-0:

Team – 323 yards rushing; Colton Rapp – 22 carries for 189 yards and 2 touchdowns, 7 tackles; Sam Minich – 3 carries for 48 yards and 1 touchdown; Michael McCloskey – 7 carries for 53 yards; Sterling Conner – 22 yard interception; Spencer Miller – 30 yard interception, 1 fumble recovery; Colt Stimmell – 7 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries; Josh Vanek – 6 tackles; Tom Wurster – 1 sack, 1 fumble caused; Archer Mills – 29 yard field goal, 2 PATs.

CAT QUOTES

Colton Rapp: (on his 189 yards and two touchdowns) It was good. I don’t think anybody was really completely satisfied with last week’s offense. We played really hard, but we knew we had more in us. We hit the drawing board and we hit our blocks. The line looked really good again tonight. They really stepped it up and opened up those holes. Because without them, I wouldn’t have had anything like that number.

They hit the drawing board and knew ‘this is what I need to do to hit the end zone.’ And those guys do it. That’s what’s awesome about it. We were just using every part of the field and getting the ball into as many people’s hands as we could, tonight. We got it to Michael McCloskey and Kyle Patterson quite a bit and I thought they did pretty good with the ball too.

Spreading that offense around this year, really helps everybody gain. Instead of hitting the same guy over and over, we spread it pretty good. I like that.

Our defense played really good tonight. We knew what we were supposed to be doing and we did the whole big thing of playing your own gap. Worry about what’s in front of you. Don’t worry about what the guys next to you are doing. Play your position. I think we did pretty good. We were bringing the pressure. We had them scrambling and our ends did a pretty good job of keeping them inside, so we could wrap them up and take them down.

Archer Mills: (on the field goal) It felt great. Last week, I came out and missed two and I knew I could do better than that. As a team, our line did good. I’m happy that they are good at blocking. Traeson did great at holding (on kicks). We put it together and it works.

They feel good when you get them. I’m thankful for Traeson for holding it and the line and everything. Couldn’t ask for a better team. A team effort. We’re all good. When you work together, you see how good we can be. I know that we’re going to do pretty good this year.

Coach Wiser: (On the big night rushing) Obviously, the offensive line played a big role in that. Everybody plays a role in it, the team’s prepping this week.

The one aspect of it was such a sloppy game, because of the weather. I don’t know how many teams across the league experienced the same problems. Both teams, just holding on to the ball. It was a torrential downpour out there. But I thought the second half, our kids came out and made a couple of adjustments at halftime, both offensively and defensively. We kind of got steady. We threw an interception. We were trying to balance things out a little bit there and probably should have just maybe kept it on the ground there, that second half.

But we also need to look at some of that stuff on film, to make any corrections that we need.

I thought some of our inside stuff with our fullback went well, got us some key first downs with Michael and Kyle both picking up some short yardage – three, four, five yard bursts on third down and so forth. Obviously, one thing I thought Colton did so much better this week than last week: last week I think he was trying to make everything go for a touchdown. I think he was willing to take five, ten and then he was breaking tackles routinely. Especially, you started to see it coming in the second half; you weren’t going to arm tackle him. Which is nice to see. That’s where I want to see him keep progressing from there. He’s not necessarily a McSwain type back that we’ve had here, but he’s also kind of like a Kyle Cathcart. He has some speed. He has some power, strength.

I thought our line just keeps getting better. I’m making this comment without looking at film, but I can see some times that we were putting some people on the ground. I love seeing our line being that physical and that aggressive.

My biggest problem tonight was just getting dry towels. I was probably an idiot on the sideline trying to get something to get the ball dry. We’d get a long six, seven, eight yard run and then the next play, we’d fumble the ball. That’s the most frustrating part of it.

I’ve got to give the kids credit. At one point, they came out, ‘Let’s keep our heads about ourselves.’ That’s a good sign.

We’re two weeks in to it. We’ve got to come back out on Monday. My theme tonight was ‘don’t listen to the noise that was being said. You win games on the field, never in the press.’ You’ve got to come back with that same methodology and the same methodology is ‘I want to be a better football player, next week at this time, verses where I was tonight.’ It’s not a ten mile hike; it’s take one aspect of your game: maybe it’s just hustle a little more at practice, or keep your hands inside, or work a little more at catching the ball. That type of thing.

From our standpoint, team-wise  continue to expand our offense, improve our timing so we can throw the ball down the field, at different places. Not just down deep right, down deep left; but we need to put the ball down the middle and hit some stuff underneath.

So we’ll work hard on the passing game this week.

The secondary, with a starter missing: they (Brookville) had a pretty impressive passing performance against Karns City. You wouldn’t know it by the score. They moved the ball pretty well, up the field. So even though they couldn’t throw the ball very well, in that first half, I thought when they could, our kids were really there. Then Sterling Conner’s big catch got things rolling, getting that touchdown from a defensive standpoint.

We didn’t lose a lot of our fumbles. But we have to make sure we keep working on that, but the weather was a major contributor in that.

The chemistry of great football teams is there willingness to come back and work, after either a win or loss. Last week is over. Two zeros are nice. But next week we go from there.

(Thanks to Matt Buchanan contributing to this article and to Forest Madison Mills for the photo. Keep up the good work Cats!!!!)