Bobcat Gridders Down Dutch 35-12 (10/27/15)

The Clarion Area Bobcat Football Team traveled to St. Marys, last Friday (October 23rd) to face the Flying Dutchmen, and came away with a 35-12 win.

(Action photos by Bri Nellis – Bri Nellis Photography) Adrian Weber with a touchdown catch

The game was scoreless until 3:42 of the second quarter, when Bobcat quarterback Brendan Miller scrambled 40 yards for the touchdown, ending a Clarion scoring drought that had lasted over eleven quarters. Cameron Craig kicked the PAT giving the Cats a 7-0 lead. Craig would hit on all five of his extra point kicks on the night.

The Dutch closed the gap to 7-6, with forty-two seconds left in the half, with Brady Bauer catching a 23 yard pass from Pat Schlimm for the score.

After forcing St. Marys to a three-and-out, on their first possession of the second half, the Cats took over at their own thirty-seven. Several plays later, Miller hit Josh Kriebel with a 2 yard touchdown pass. The PAT made the score 14-6, Bobcats at 5:39 of the third. The big play on the drive was a 22 yard keeper by Miller.

Spencer Miller had a big defensive series, on St. Marys next possession. On the first play, he registered a sack for a ten yard loss. Then two plays later, he jumped a Dutch pass and returned it 19 yards for the score. Craig’s third successful kick moved the score to 21-6, with 3:59 left in the third.

Spencer Miller with an interception return for a touchdown

Kriebel found the end zone, once again, at the forty second mark of the third, on a 41 yard run. The score was 28-6 heading into the final stanza.

Matt Marconi put St. Marys on the board, with a 4 yard touchdown run, with 9:06 left in the game. The conversion failed and the Cats now led 28-12.

Clarion would score one more time, with Brendan Miller hitting Adrian Weber with a 16 yard scoring strike, on the right side of the end zone. Craig’s kick set the final at 35-12.

Brendan Miller completed 9 of 13 passes for 115 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 30 yards and had six tackles on defense. For his play against the Dutch, Miller made the D9Sports.com weekly Honor Roll. Spencer Miller had a big night on defense, with 15 tackles, 1 sack and the touchdown interception.

Colton Rapp had 98 total yards (55 rushing and 43 receiving). He also registered thirteen tackles. Kyle Patterson had ten tackles and Thomas Wurster had a sack.

The Bobcats will now host the Redbank Valley Bulldogs, this Friday (October 30th), in a game to decide the KSAC Small School Championship.

CAT QUOTES

Assistant Coach Lee Weber: “It was nice seeing the offense clicking a little bit, this week, because all year long, the offense hasn’t been consistent. It was nice to see a couple drives, legitimate drives. The line, the running backs, the quarterback, the receivers blocking was much better, today, against a usually tough St. Marys team. That was pleasant to see.

“And of course, the defense turned it around this week. Last week, the defense didn’t play very well. Today, we got back to our usual aggressive style of defensive play. It’s a little relief as a coach, because it has been frustrating the last couple of weeks to see Clarion Football to play the way they have been. So it is nice to see that, for at least this week, we turned it around and hopefully that will continue the rest of the year.”

Brendan and Spencer Miller

Brendan Miller: “It was definitely a big turn around for us, that we needed. Hopefully the season continues this way. The offense is going again. That really helps. The passing game is coming along. Defense, D-Line stepped up really big and had a lot of stops at the line. Mention(ing) our offensive line, too. We had piles five yards down field, which is  great to see.”

Spencer Miller: (On TD on interception) “They ran that play before and I saw that he was there. But he never really looked at him. So, I just sort of let him go. I think he talked to the quarterback and I just saw him looking at him. So I ran out and some how got it.”

(On team’s play) “Going into the game, I thought we had great team chemistry. In the locker room, we were joking around. We were having fun with it. And I think that’s really what we needed. We needed to have fun playing football. We weren’t doing that before.”

(On the Dutch) “They are always big and they always hit pretty hard. They are always a good team.”

Thanks to Matt Buchanan for spotting for this article and to Bri Nellis of Bri Nellis Photography for her photos.