Goin’ Out In Style, Bobcats Win Final Regular Season Game In Program’s History In Commanding Fashion (10/28/19)

(Photo: Kaoz Baker, Hunter Craddock and Cal German after win against James Buchanan)

The Clarion Area Bobcat football team couldn’t have had a better ending the last regular season in the program’s ninety-plus-year’s history, than they did on Friday (October 26th), with a 62-0 win over James Buchanan, on Senior Night at Memorial Stadium.

With the Bobcats getting a first round Bye for the District Nine Class-AA playoffs, this also was probably the final home game in the storied program’s history, with the co-op with North Clarion and Clarion-Limestone becoming a whole new entity next year (new name, new mascot, new colors).

The Bobcats had a 27-0 lead after one quarter, thanks to four touchdowns.

The first score came on a 43 yard pass from quarterback Cal German to his favorite target Ian Burford, at 10:56. German hit Burford on the right at the Rockets’ thirty-six. Burford sidestepped a defender and ran down the sideline, and cutting in at the ten between three defenders for the touchdown. Beau Verdill kicked the extra point and the Cats led 7-0.

The second touchdown came at 7:34, with Austin Newcomb taking the ball off tackle over the left side from seven yards out. Verdill’s extra point made the score 14-0. The play was set up by a beautiful 56 yard run down the right side line by Breckin Rex.

Then Newcomb took a hand off and ran around right end for a 65 yard touchdown. The extra point failed and the Bobcats led 20-0 at 4:11.

Jason Ganoe intercepted a pass, on James Buchanan’s first play from scrimmage, at the Rockets’ forty-six, with 4:00 on the clock.

Then with 3:02 left in the quarter, Tyler Schmader normally a lineman, set up in the backfield and took it in from three yards out. Verdill was good on the extra point pushing the lead to 27-0.

The Bobcats scored three touchdowns in the second quarter.

At 10:38, Cooper Shall took the ball down the left side from forty-four yards out, for the score. Cutter Boggess ran in the two-point conversion moving the lead to 35-0.

Newcomb followed some great blocking into the endzone on the left side, from twenty-nine yards out at 6:01. The point after failed. Clarion now led 41-0.    

Two plays after a beautiful thirty-one yard punt return down the left sideline by Boggess, set the Cats up at the Rockets’ ten, German hit Burford with a quick hitter from the seven for another score. Verdill’s kick was good and the Bobcats led 48-0 with 2:51 left before halftime.

Burford’s touchdown catch tied Cody Hearst for the Clarion Area All-Time Career Receiving Touchdown lead, with 21.

At the 7:54 mark, German hit Hunter Craddock in back of the right side of the end zone from twelve yards out. On the play, German tied John Katis for the Bobcats’ All-Time Single Season Touchdown Passing lead with 25. The PAT was good moving the score to 55-0.

The touchdown was set up by a 20 yard run by Boggess two plays earlier.

The final score came with 3:34 remaining in the third when Rex ran the ball around right end from three yards out. Verdill was good on the kick setting the final at 62-0.  

Rex secured the shutout with an interception at the Clarion 3 yard line, with six seconds remaining in the game.

The Bobcats out gained the Rockets 479-191. Clarion had 290 yards rushing and 189 passing.

Important Stats:

Newcomb carried the ball 4 times for 106 yards. Rex had 6 carries for 76 yards. Shall had 1 carry for 45 yards. Boggess had 3 carries for 35 yards and caught 2 passes for 43 yards. Burford had 3 catches for 64 yards. Craddock had 3 receptions for 47 yards.

German completed 9-of-16 passes for 176 yards and 3 touchdowns with no interceptions.

Sebastion Wise threw for 253 yards, completing 22-of-33 for the Rockets. Caden Stoner caught 10 passes for 88 yards. Grant Ellis had 6 receptions for 72 yards and Colton Hartman had 51 yards on three receptions.

CAT QUOTES:

Coach Wiser: It’s an exciting win. I like the way we got everybody in tonight. They all performed pretty well. Ian Hagan got his first two sacks playing Clarion football and I’d like to say many more to come.

I thought offensively, you come out of every game thinking about correcting some things, but I thought we were about as close to perfect as possible. I thought our special teams performed very well, especially the kickoff team. We only had one kickoff returned. I like that.

You know what I really like. I always like those goose eggs. That was a pretty good interception at the end of the game; that made it nice.

Hopefully the chemistry coming out of this game hopefully leads us to some good practices this week, as we get ready for the playoffs.

I want to thank, a lot of people to thank that been in this for us.

Cal German (On tying All-Time Season Passing Touchdown record): It feels pretty good. We got another great win tonight. So we can’t complain tonight. I’m looking forward to the playoffs and I think the team is as well. We’re just excited about going into the playoffs, new season. So we’ve got to come in ready.

Hunter Craddock: (On his catches) Cal just made beautiful passes. The line blocked. Everything came together. I caught the ball.

Kaoz Baker: (The line’s play) It’s OK. I guess we could do better. We could probably do a little better on pass blocks. Other than that, I guess we’re pretty good. Keep improving. Hyped for the next games to come nothing better than that.

(On the line staying disciplined) I guess we worked hard; we filled our gaps as best we could. Once we got to our gaps, it was pretty simple from there. We just chased the ball down.

They didn’t really block as well, so it wasn’t hard for us to get in there. Once I got to my gap, I could just go right through because they never really picked up on it. Towards the end they kind of got it…

Most of it was pass pro. When they tried to run, it would usually get shut down by Hunter, Tyler or me.

(Thanks to Nate McClaine for spotting and stats and Steve Smail for his stats from the Tri-County Sunday. Great Job, Cats!!!!)