MCSWAIN LEADS CLARION PAST KARNS CITY

Oct. 1, 2004

CLARION – Chris McSwain ran for 244 yards and two touchdowns to lead Clarion to a hard-fought 13-7 win over visiting Karns City Friday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

"I just run right through the holes," McSwain said. "We have a huge offensive line, and they just push guys right out of the way. There isn’t much on my part there. They are a good group of guys."

The game was a lot closer than many thought it would be, as Karns City (2-3 overall, 1-3 KSAC) was coming off its worst loss since 1976 (51-7 to Redbank Valley) while Clarion (5-0, 4-0) was fresh off a 50-0 win over Union and had beaten Redbank Valley two weeks ago.

"A win is a win," Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. "It doesn’t matter who ugly or how it came about. I hoped it wouldn’t be as close. But I felt it was going to be a tough football game. I was telling everybody all week they looked like the same Karns City team that has been playing the last two or three years. They have some young kids on the team, but they are a good football team."

While the game was close, it was played to Clarion’s liking with the Bobcats using two long drives and a staunch defense to get the win.

The Bobcats scored on drives of 99 and 80 yards and twice held on downs when Karns City drove inside the 10-yard line including one stop on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line in the second quarter.

Clarion’s offense once again controlled the clock running off 28:54 to Karns City’s 19:06. The Bobcats had two drives over five minutes and five of 3:56 or more.

McSwain was the chief contributor for Clarion carrying the ball 34 times. It is the second time in three weeks McSwain has gone over 30 carries, although he had just one last week against Union.

"He is a heck of a runner," Wiser said. "He is a 195 pounds of power. We needed to keep the ball away from them."

While McSwain stole the offensive show, the Clarion defense used a team effort to halt the Gremlins, especially on the ground where Karns City gained 112 yards on 29 carries including just 17 on 10 carries in the second half.

The Bobcats biggest defensive stand came midway through the second quarter when they stopped Josh Fiscus a half-yard short of the goal line on a fourth-and-goal run from the 1-yard line.

"We just told our defensive line to dig down and start pushing and not give up any ground," McSwain, who was on the field at linebacker during the stand, said. "That is what we did. It was a big defensive stand."

Making the failure sting even more for Karns City was the fact it had an 8-yard touchdown pass from Stephen Black to David Black called back for an illegal formation earlier in the drive. It also marked the second time in two possessions Karns City had failed to score after reaching the Clarion 10. Luke McClaine missed a 27-yard field goal on the Gremlins first drive of the game.

Karns City’s defense, though, was coming up with big plays of its own stopping Clarion on a fourth-down play from the Gremlins 12-yard line on the Bobcats first drive and then forcing Clarion into a third-and-10 situation from the 1-yard line following the goal-line stand.

But it was on the third-and-10 situation that things started to go wrong for Karns City, as Clarion’s Sean Wolf was able to draw the Gremlins offside giving Clarion a much more manageable third-and-5 from its own 6. The Bobcats were able to convert the first down with a 10-yard run by McSwain, and that helped start a 14-play, 99-yard drive for the Bobcats first score.

"We spent a lot of time this week trying to work on tempo and changing our cadence count," Wiser said.

McSwain played a huge role in the drive breaking off gains of 10, 21 and 39 yards before scoring on a 1-yard run with 2:17 left in the opening half giving Clarion a 6-0 lead.

"We have a pretty confident team," McSwain said. "We stand behind our line. They work hard week in and week out. We figured we could drive down there and score."

Clarion was able to recover from having a 7-yard touchdown run by McSwain called back because of an illegal motion penalty.

The game remained 6-0 into the fourth quarter when Karns City got a big play from David Black who returned a Clarion punt 26 yards to the Clarion 41 with 9:20 left in the game.

The Gremlins were then able to move to the Clarion 23 before disaster struck. It started with Fiscus fumbling a pitch but picking it up and advancing to the Clarion 20. But at the 20, he was hit and fumbled a second time with Clarion’s Nick Hager picking up the loose ball right at the 20-yard line.

Clarion then preceded to give itself some breathing room with a 10-play, 80-yard drive that ended with McSwain scoring on a 27-yard run with 3:09 left in the game making the score 13-0. McSwain carried the ball on nine of the plays for 71 yards.

"I like running the ball," McSwain said. "But a more balanced offense would help us down the road. I get kind of tired."

Karns City wasn’t quite ready to give up the ship marching 81 yards in seven plays scoring its lone touchdown on a 36-yard pass from Stephen Black to David Black with 1:03 left cutting Clarion’s lead to 13-7. A 15-yard pass interference penalty on Clarion helped the drive along.

The Gremlins then tried an on-side kick, but Clarion’s Justin Arner was able to cover the ball at the Clarion 45-yard line to seal the win.

NOTES – With the win Clarion is 5-0 for the first time since the 2000 season when it went 9-0 in the regular season and 10-1 on the year losing in the District 9 Class A title game to Curwensville … 2000 also marked the last time Clarion beat Karns City (21-0) … With the loss, Karns City is under .500 this late in the season for the first time since 1995 when it started the season 0-5 on its way to a 2-7 record … It also marks the first time the Gremlins have lost three regular-season games going 6-3 in 1999 on its way to an 8-4 record and the District 9 Class AA title … McSwain now has 765 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.

CLARION 13, KARNS CITY 7

K – 0 0 0 7 – 7

C – 0 6 0 7 – 13

Score by Quarter

Second Quarter

C – Chris McSwain 1 run (Kick failed), 2:17

Fourth Quarter

C – McSwain 27 run (Zack Seitz kick), 3:09

K – David Black 36 pass from Stephen Black (Luke McClaine kick), 1:03

Team Statistics

K C

First Downs 13 16

Rushes-Yards 29-112 51-314

Passing Yards 182 24

Passing: Comp-Att-Int 10-22-0 1-5-2

Total Yards 294 338

Penalties-Yards 3-20 2-20

Punts-Avg. 3-46.0 1-37.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 4-0

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Karns City: Josh Fiscus 15-51, Wayne Harris 9-57, Stephen Black 409, David Black 1–(-5). Clarion: Chris McSwain 34-244, Brad Rapp 3-6, Manny Carpin 9-59, Cody Dolby 2-2, Ryan Hritz 1-4, Sean Wolf 2-10, Team 3-(-5).

Passing – Karns City: Stephen Black 10-for-22, 182 yards, 1 touchdown. Clarion: Sean Wolf 1-for-5, 24 yards, 2 interceptions.

Receiving – Karns City: David Black 4-66, Kyle Texter 4-83, Josh Fiscus 2-33. Clarion: Manny Carpin 1-24.

Punting – Karns City: David Black 3-138. Clarion: Chris McSwain 1-37.

Interceptions – Karns City: Kyle Texter, David Black.

Fumble Recoveries – Clarion: Nick Hager

Sacks – Clarion: Zack Seitz