Colton Rapp Goes Over 1000 Yards On Season, As Clarion Area Gridders Down Union-A-C Valley, Move To 7-0 (10/23/16)

Colton Rapp needing just 30 yards to go over the 1000 yard mark for the season, wasted no time achieving the milestone, with an 80 yard scamper to pay dirt on the Clarion Area’s first play from scrimmage, in a 54-0 victory over homestanding Union/Allegheny-Clarion Valley, on Friday night (October 23rd). Rapp, who finished the game with 220 yards (149 in the first half) on thirteen carries, crossed the goal line at 8:53 of the first quarter. Archer Mills added the extra point to give the Bobcats  a 7-0 lead.

Then, with 5:20 left in the first quarter, Bobcat signal caller Spencer Miller hit his favorite target, Ty Burford with a 20 yard scoring strike. Mills’ PAT moved the Cats’ lead to 14-0. Miller was 8 of 19 for 124 yards, in the game, while Burford caught 4 passes for 68 yards.

The second quarter saw the Cats score three more times. Rapp had a 27 yard touchdown run, at 10:57 and Miller and Burford hooked up on a five yard touchdown completion, at 6:30. Mills was successful after both touchdowns. Tight end Dominic Fleming caught a 30 yard aerial from Miller, with nine seconds left in the half. The PAT was blocked and Clarion led 34-0 going to the locker room.

Clarion scored three more times in the second half. Kyle Patterson had a 5 yard touchdown run at 4:56 of the third and with the successful PAT, the score moved to 40-0. Patterson ran the ball in from 1 yard out, with 10:30 left in the final stanza, giving the Bobcats a 47-0 lead. Sam Minich capped the night off with a 4 yard tote for a score. Mills’ extra point kick set the 54-0 final.

The Bobcats had 316 rushing yards and 124 passing yards to finish with 439 total yards.  The Bobcat defense played extremely well surrendering just 55 total yards.

The Bobcats will host St. Marys this Friday (October 28th) at Memorial stadium. The Cats will enter that contest at 7-1, with the Dutch coming in at 6-2. The winner will claim the second place spot in the KSAC Large School Division.

With the Cats’ next win, Coach Larry Wiser will move into a tie for second place all-time in District Nine Coaching Career Victories, with former Coudersport Coach Paul Simco, at 204 wins apiece. They trail only Clearfield’s Tim Janocko who has 255 wins, entering this week’s match-up with Karns City.

CAT QUOTES:

Coach Larry Wiser: “…. Just our team coming back from a tough loss last week and continuing to get back on the field and practicing, the way we’ve been all season. You never know how you are going to come back after a loss. I was pleased. We came back in Monday and Tuesday; we did a little more screaming and yelling than we usually do during the week. But hey, you want to make sure. The pundits saying who is going to win what and I never believe that stuff. The game’s still played on the football field. It’s not played in the paper.

“The things I’m a little disappointed in, some of the stupid penalties. It’s something you can’t keep giving. I said to them at halftime, ‘Their best offense has been that yellow flag. At one point there, it just kept moving us back.

“But I’m glad for Colton and the offensive line. Getting a thousand yard rusher and I told Colton on the sidelines, ‘It’s great.’ He knows, he’ll credit the line. But Spence getting the ball down the field to loosen teams up, and they’re not putting as many in the box, is giving us some room to get outside and so forth. But overall, we’ll get back next week and get ready for St. Marys and we won’t think about the next trip (first playoff game), until the following week.”

Colton Rapp: (On going over 1000 yards) “It was a big personal goal for me but it’s not something I could have achieved alone. I’ve been fortunate enough to run behind some really great lineman.”

 Center Seth Nellis: “We were working pretty hard in practice. We opened up holes.”

Ryley McMaster: “We played a really good game. We weren’t making many mistakes and made big plays, the best way to get the win. ”

(On his interception) “Tom Wurster tipped it right to me. He’s been blocking passes all year. He did a great job. Made it easy for me, hit me right in the stomach.”

(Thanks to Matt Buchanan for assisting with this article. Great Job Cats!!!!)