CLARION 43, A-C VALLEY 0

Sept. 5, 2008

By Chris Rossetti - D9Sports.com 

FOXBURG – Clarion evened its record at 1-1 overall and in the KSAC with a 43-0 win at A-C Valley Friday night.

The Bobcats used a strong defense and a balanced offense to beat the Falcons for the 10^th straight time and for the 31^st time in 35 meetings.

“I was very pleased with how we played tonight,” Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. “The kids came back (from last week’s loss to Moniteau) with a lot of resolve.”

Offensively, Clarion got touchdowns from six different players while 10 different Bobcats gained yards helping Clarion rack up 400 yards on the night including 308 on the ground.  

“I was very pleased (with our diversity),” Wiser said. “We pretty much stayed with our script for the most part except for a couple of third-and-long plays.”

Defensively, Clarion was even more dominating limiting A-C Valley (0-2 overall, 0-2 KSAC) to 40 yard of offense including just two yards rushing. The Falcons, losers of 24 in a row, had five yards of offense at halftime.

“I’m pretty pleased with how we played on defense,” Wiser said. “Other than a few plays, I thought we played much better defense in the sense of everyone playing their assignments and carrying out their assignments.”

Kevin Grejda dominated defensively in the first half sacking A-C Valley quarterback Michael Orrvick three times giving the junior defensive end six sacks in just two games.

“He is truly amazing coming off the outside,” Wiser said. “He takes it to another level. I think Taylor Sessions has the school record with 11, so he is coming on that pretty quick.”

Grejda and the defense got the ball rolling early when they dropped the Falcons for negative 19 yards in their first three plays including two sacks by Grejda leaving A-C Valley facing fourth-and-29 from its own 1-yard line. That turned disastrous for the Falcons when the punt snap bounced back to Luke Walker, and he was tackled in the end zone by Matt Bauer for a safety and a 2-0 Clarion lead.

“We started pretty fast there,” Wiser said.

The Bobcats quickly made it 8-0 on their first offensive possession when Grejda scored on a 5-yard run.

Clarion extended the lead to 29-0 at halftime with three second-quarter touchdowns.

First, Jon Kemmer scored on a 2-yard run, and Corbin Ragley followed with an electrifying 54-yard end-around run to make it 22-0. Sophomore quarterback Dan Walters closed out the first-half scoring when he scored on a 15-yard scramble with 1:15 left in the half.

Clarion’s starters then played one series in the second half and quickly put the game into the 35-point Mercy Rule (running clock) when Bubba Rue scored on a 9-yard run a little under five minutes into the half.

Sophomore backup Lewis Armstrong concluded the scoring with a dazzling 35-yard scoring run on the last play of the third quarter. The 6-foot, 161-pound Armstrong took a third-and-9 handoff and appeared to be stopped four yards short of the first down at the 30-yard line. But he somehow maintained his balance and kept pushing the pile before breaking free into the clear and outracing the defense for his first career touchdown.

“He kept his feet driving,” Wiser said. “He never quit on it. That is something you preach, and he look it literally.”

The only real negative for Clarion was a penalty issue. The Bobcats committed seven infractions including six holding penalties for 65 yards. Those penalties had the effect of stopping momentum a couple of times and probably cost the Clarion more points.

“We made a lot of mental errors,” Wiser said. “I was very unhappy about the penalty issue.”

Clarion returns to action Friday when it hosts Keystone, while A-C Valley travels to winless Clarion-Limestone.

CLARION 43, A-C VALLEY 0

Score by Quarters

Clarion 8 21 14 0 – 43

A-C Valley 0 0 0 0 – 0

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Safety (Matt Bauer tackled Luke Walker in the end zone), 10:06

C – Kevin Grejda 5 run (Run failed), 7:33

Second Quarter

C – Kemmer 2 run (Kemmer kick), 8:28

C – Corbin Ragley 54 run (Kemmer kick), 5:46

C – Dan Walters 15 run (Kemmer kick), 1:15

Third Quarter

C – Bubba Rue 9 run (Kemmer kick), 7:12

C – Lewis Armstrong 35 run (Mitchell Rhoades kick), 0:00

Team Statistics

C                     A

First Downs                        15                    5

Rushes-Yards                     40-308             26-2

Passing Yards                     92                    38

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       5-8-0                6-11-0

Total Yardage                    400                  40

Fumbles-Lost                     4-0                   1-0

Penalties-Yards                  7-65                 3-10

Punts-Avg.                         5-26.4              0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Clarion: Bubba Rue 7-58, Kevin Grejda 3-20, Corbin Ragley 2-71, Dan Walters 8-39, Scott Campbell 1-3, Lewis Armstrong 8-60, Jon Kemmer 8-55, Joel Matticks 1-1, Tyler Oates 2-1. A-C Valley: Michael Orrvick 8-negative 12, Dillion Montgomery 9-19, Luke Walker 4-negative 13, Corey Sherman 1-negative 4, Brent Hindman 2-10, Codey Sherman 1-3, Team 1-negative 1.

Passing – Clarion: Dan Walters 5-for-8, 92 yards. A-C Valley: Michael Orrvick 6-for-11, 38 yards.

Receiving – Clarion: Kevin Grejda 2-13, Corbin Ragley 1-5, Jarrod Carpin 2-74. A-C Valley: Dillion Montgomery 2-negative 1, Darren Buckholtz 3-19, Jake Armstrong 1-20.