Bobcats Down Gremlins, Move to 3-0 (09/09/18)
The Bobcat Football Team traveled to Karns City, on Friday Night, and came away with a 21-14 victory.
(Photo by Tina Buchanan)
Bobcat offense set to run a play against Gremlins
The first quarter was scoreless, ending with the Cats on the Karns City thirty yard line. The Cats continued the drive and scored at 9:14 of the second, when quarterback Archer Mills hit wide receiver Ethan Burford on an 11 yard slant. Mills kicked the extra point to give the Clarion a 7-0 lead.
The Gremlins received the kickoff and set up at their own thirty-eight. In the first play from scrimmage, Hunter Jones took off on a 62 yard touch down run. Steve O’Donnell kicked the point after and the score was tied with 8:53 left in the half.
(Photo by Tina Buchanan) Game action
Neither team scored in the third quarter. With 1:45 left in the quarter, Logan Minich caused a fumble and the Cats recovered at midfield and drove down the field capped by a 1 yard run by Mills, at 11:07 of the final stanza, and with the PAT, Clarion led 14-7. There were two key pass plays in the drive a 14 yarder from Mills to Sam Minich and a 25 yard pass from Mills to Burford along the sidelin, which set the Cats up at the one.
Clarion’s final score came from the defense, with Sam Minich pressuring the quarterback and Tyler McCord-Wolbert picking off the pass and returning it 35 yards to paydirt, with 1:43 left in the game.
(Photo by Tina Buchanan)
Karns City’s pre-game program honoring Veterans
Karns City had a nice program to honor the Veterans prior to the game. A number of vets were introduced. God Bless America and the National Anthem were sung, Taps was played in honor of those who died along with a Twenty-One Gun Salute. Very touching ceremony.
CAT QUOTES
LOGAN MINICH: (On coming back after missing two games with an injury) It felt great, obviously a lot better than sitting on the sidelines for sure.
(On the team’s play) We had a few miscues in the first half. We needed to figure out who we were blocking. But the second half, I think we did a little better job. We did more of our own responsibilities and did a good job with that in the second half.
NICK PORCIELLO: We just played with a lot of heart. We went out there and we executed. Obviously the first half was difficult. But we just had our teammates’ backs; we had each others’ backs. We knew we had that. We just went out there and executed and did a good job tonight and we bounced back (from the first half); it’s good.
TYLER MCCORD-WOLBERT:
(On the interception) Sam put good pressure on the quarterback and I was there to make the play; just being at the right place at the right time.
The team effort, we came out a little slow in the first half. But we made some halftime adjustments and came out firing in the second half and made a lot of plays.
COACH WISER: We came in and made quite a few mistakes in the first half. To be honest with you, we were probably fortunate the game was just 7-7. We made some key defensive plays; we were able to make enough plays to keep the game tied at the end of the first half. They seemed to have a lot of momentum.
Tyler McCord-Wolbert (Explore Clarion’s Player of the Game for the Bobcats), Logan Minich and Nick Porciello
They stopped us, coming out in the third quarter after the kickoff. Then they started moving the ball down the field. We went into our goal line defensive package and Nick came through and caused the fumble and we got the recovery. That may have been one of the big turning points of the game.
That pass from Archer to Ethan was big. And we got some short passes off earlier and got some good first downs. Sam Minich (running the ball) and we got some good runs from Colton Zacherl. I thought we had it in the first time. But it was definitely in the second time, to move the score up.
Four or five minutes to go in the game and they were moving the ball down field again. We ended up with a key fourth down play, when they decided to go for it on fourth-and-four. Tyler McCord-Wolbert, who earlier knocked down a pass, intercepted the pass and took it into the end zone. I call that one “a thirty year memory”. Something he’ll remember forever. If they have a 50th Class Reunion, it’ll be a big key point of discussion.
Defensively, we didn’t play our greatest game. But we played well enough to win and we’re 3-0 at this point. As a coach, I’m happy and we’ll get to look at some film. We’ll try to fix and tinker and hopefully get some people back healthy again.
The Cats will host the Brookville Raiders on Friday night (September 14th) at Memorial Stadium.
(Thanks to Tina Buchanan for her photos and to Matt Buchanan for spotting for CSZ. Keep it rolling Cats!!!!)