CLARION SHUTS DOWN UNION

Sept. 24, 2004

CLARION – Clarion’s defense held Union to negative 55 yards of total offense while scoring 16 defensive points to lead the Bobcats to a 50-0 win over the Golden Knights Friday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

"Defensively, we got ourselves some good field position and some scores," Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. "They gave us some things to look at. From that point, I think the game was successful. It is hard to tell when you get into a game like this. We just tell our kids that they have to be their biggest competition. We tried to do some things on offense and defense that we haven’t been doing."

Clarion was so dominate that it scored seven first-half touchdowns despite having only five first-half possessions. The Bobcats recovered two Union fumbles in the end zone for touchdowns and also came up with a safety on another Union fumble when the Golden Knights were trying to punt.

Overall, Union fumbled the ball 10 times and lost six of them while also throwing an interception.

All the turnovers led to great field position for Clarion, whose average first-half starting position was the Union 38.

Of the five Clarion possessions in the opening half, two started inside the Union 20 and two more inside the Golden Knight 40. The worst first-half starting position for the Bobcats was its own 39, and they scored a touchdown on that drive.

"Those are positive things," Wiser said. "It is a tough situation for them with the number of kids they have. Tom (Kidder) prepared his team, and they played hard."

It took both teams a little while to settled down early with both fumbling away the ball on their opening possessions.

But Clarion finally got into gear on its third possession of the game scoring on a 53-yard touchdown run by Chris McSwain with 4:39 left in the first quarter to go ahead 6-0. It was McSwain’s lone carry of the night after he carried 35 times in the Bobcats 13-6 win over Redbank Valley last Sunday.

"We know what Chris can do," Wiser said. "We needed to get the ball into the hands of a few other people and work on some things. That is the first time I have really took that approach."

Clarion’s defense set up the Bobcats next score, as Zack Seitz recovered a Josh Holden fumble at the Union 5.

Two plays later, Sean Wolf hit Manny Carpin with a 1-yard scoring pass to make it 13-0 with 2:35 left in the first quarter.

Clarion’s defense accounted for the next Bobcat score when McSwain recovered a Holden fumble in the end zone for a 20-0 Clarion lead with 52 seconds left in the first half.

A Justin Arner interception ended Union’s next possession and set Clarion up at the Union 27 early in the second quarter.

Two plays after the interception, Wolf found Arner on a screen pass for an 18-yard scoring play making it 27-0 Bobcats with 10:49 left before halftime.

On the Bobcats next possession it was the Wolf to Arner connection again, this time for 17 yards, that made the score 34-0 with 5:56 left in the half.

That pass was the last time Clarion’s offense touched the ball in the half.

But it didn’t matter, as the Bobcats special teams and defense rolled off 16 more points in the half.

The first two came when punter Toby Best counted handle the snap and was forced to kick the loose ball out of the end zone for a safety making it 36-0 with 4:16 left in the half.

Carping then returned the ensuing free kick 67 yards for a touchdown making it 43-0 with 4:04 remaining.

On Union’s next possession, Holden fumbled again, and this time Seitz recovered the loose ball in the end zone for Clarion’s second defensive touchdown of the game making it 50-0 with 1:52 to go before halftime.

The final first-half tally for Union was negative 74 yards of offense, eight fumbles, five lost fumbles, one interception and one first down.

Clarion, meanwhile, had 50 points despite only gaining 169 yards and six first downs.

With the Mercy Rule in affect and Clarion getting all of its players into the game, the second half went by quickly.

GAME NOTES – Union has now lost 15 straight games, the longest current losing streak in District 9. The Golden Knights have been outscored 169-0 this season while gaining just 113 yards of total offense in four weeks. Youth is ruling the day for the Golden Knights, as 11 of the 21 players listed on the roster are either freshmen or sophomores including quarterback Holden, a sophomore, center Drew Logue, a freshman, and running backs Brett Moore and Clint Lineman, both sophomores.

Score by Quarter

U 0 0 0 0 – 0

C 20 30 0 0 – 50

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Chris McSwain 53 run (Pass failed), 4:39

C – Manny Carpin 1 pass from Sean Wolf (Zack Seitz kick), 2:35

C – McSwain 0 fumble recovery (Seitz kick), :52

Second Quarter

C – Justin Arner 18 pass from Wolf (Seitz kick), 10:49

C – Arner 17 pass from Wolf (Seitz kick), 5:56

C – Safety (Kicked out of end zone), 4:16

C – Carpin 67 free kick return (Seitz kick), 4:04

C – Seitz 0 fumble recovery (Seitz kick), 1:52

Team Statistics

U C

First Downs 2 8

Rushes-Yards 37-(-68) 26-143

Passing Yards 13 84

Passes-Comp-Att-Int 2-9-1 7-10-0

Total Yards (-55) 227

Penalties-Yards 2-10 5-45

Fumbles-Lost 10-6 4-2

Punts-Avg. 5-32.8 1-50.0

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Union: Josh Holden 13-(-53), Colton Davis 7-40, Toby Best 6-1, Clint Lineman 8-0, Team 3-(-56). Clarion: Sean Wolf 5-27, Chris McSwain 1-53, Cody Dolby 1-4, Manny Carpin 1-1, Brad Rapp 6-39, Larry Stout 6-9, Tony McMillen 2-5, Adam Dolby 2-(-1), Matt Smith 2-6.

Passing – Union: Josh Holden 2-for-8, 13 yards, 1 interception. Toby Best 0-for-1, 0 yards. Clarion: Sean Wolf 7-for-10, 84 yards, 3 touchdowns.

Receiving – Union: Kasey Kriebel 1-2, Brett Moore 1-11. Clarion: Blake Lantelme 3-40, Manny Carpin 2-9, Justin Arner 2-35.

Punting – Union: Toby Best 5-164. Clarion: Paul McGinley 1-50.

Fumble Recoveries – Union: Ton Rainey, Team. Clarion: Chris McSwain 2, Zack Seitz 2, Anthony Driscoll, Team.

Interceptions – Clarion: Justin Arner.