Bobcat Gridders Remain Undefeated With Win Over Lions (09/26/17)

The visiting Clarion Area Bobcat Football Team moved to 4-0 on the season, with a 25-20 win, against the Clarion-Limestone Lions on Friday (September 22nd), in the Black and Blue Brawl.

The Lions opened the scoring, at 11:54 of the second quarter, when Colby Himes scored from six yards out on a pass from Brendan Makray. Austin Newcomb ran in for the two-point conversion and the C-L led 8-0.

Camden Boggess got the Cats on the board, with a four yard touchdown run, with thirty-seven seconds left in the half. The two point conversion failed and the score was 8-6, C-L at halftime.

C-L stretched their lead to 14-6, at 11:11 of the third, with Kyle Kerle scoring from sixty-nine yards out, on a pass from Makray. But the Bobcats scored the next three touchdowns. Quarterback Spencer Miller,who had a fine all-around game, ran for a thirty-nine yard score, at 9:41 of the third, followed by a thirty-nine yard touchdown at 2:03 in the quarter. Clarion led 18-14 after three. Then with 6:27 left in the game, Keeven Weaver intercepted a pass and returned it twenty-five yards for a touchdown, with Archer Mills connecting on the PAT to move the Cats’ lead to 25-14.

The Lions got a late touchdown, as Makray hit Riley Hummell for a nineteen yard score, at 2:47, setting the 25-20 final.

Miller led the Cats, completing 6 of 14 passes for 117 yards and running 9 times for 79 yards. Rapp ran 14 times for 75 yards. Rapp eclipsed the 3500 career rushing mark, in the game. He now has 3543 yards, and is in fourth place all-time for the Bobcats and needs 25 yards to pass Chris McSwain for number three and 118 yards to pass Ian Corbett for number two on the list.

Camden Boggess had 8 carries for 28 yards. Thomas Wurster had 1 reception for 32 yards and had 4 tackles, 2 for loss, including a sack. Sterling Conner had 2 receptions for 34 yards. He also had a big game defensively, with 11 tackles and a sack. Keeven Weaver had 2 catches for 34 yards.

Zak Bauer had 12 tackles, 4 for loss, including 2 sacks. Colt Stimmell had 10 tackles including 2 sacks. Nick Porciello had a sack and Nick Cherico had a tackle for loss.

CAT QUOTES

Coach Wiser: This was a really good game for us, to test our character. I give a lot of credit to our kids for coming back, in the second half. Things weren’t going to well for us in the first half; we were coming apart at the seams, a little bit. Our coaches talked about it and the team talked about it at halftime. I give our players a lot of kudos for coming back.

We had a key interception and some good runs. The most frustrating part seemed to be the penalties. To keep going and to have a great season, we have to fix those things.

This turned into what they call a backyard brawl. It is exciting, but there is a lot of anxiety, when you play against kids you know. In my case, Clarion-Limestone’s offensive and defensive coordinators were formerly on my staff. I give them a lot of credit. They tried to take our running game away, from us. But I thought Spencer responded with some key passes and some good runs. He can be really, really good at running the ball. That was on display a couple of times there.

Clarion-Limestone has a good offensive and defensive line.

I hope this is a wake up call for us. To be a great team, you have to step up every week. You have to look at how you can improve on what you’ve done so far. Take what you do well and do it better; take what you’re not doing well and do it better. Those are things we all take away from tonight. I’m hoping we circle the wagons, pull in and become a better team next week.

I think C-L brought some things out of us that were good and some that were bad. The good, we obviously want to keep doing well and we need to work on some things to get better.

(Don’t forget the big get together in honor of our 500th win, following this Friday’s home game with Moniteau.)