CLARION 30, PUNXSUTAWNEY 27

Sept. 19, 2008

By Chris Rossetti

PUNXSUTAWNEY – In a hard-fought game at Punxsutawney’s Jack LaMarca Stadium Friday night, Clarion held off a resurgent Chucks squad to get a 30-27 win in the first-ever KSAC matchup between the two teams.

Clarion (3-1 overall, 3-1 KSAC) overcame an injury to starting quarterback Dan Walters and a couple of costly turnovers to beat back Punxsutawney (0-4, 0-3), who was trying to end a 13-game losing streak.

The game wasn’t decided until the final four minutes when Clarion’s Matt Bauer dropped Punxsutawney quarterback Logan Weaver three yards short of a first down on a fourth-and-4 play from the Punxsy 37.

 “We came up with a big play,” Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. “The play (they ran) really bothered me. We had stopped it during the week of practice, but there was something about it that bothered me. But we rose to the challenge.”

Punxsy went with the quarterback option play after calling time-out before the fourth-down play after not liking what Clarion had lined up in on defense. The option had worked at times during the night, but mostly when Weaver had given the ball to running back Brennan Niver, who rushed 11 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns on the night.

 “You can second guess (the call) all night long,” Punxsutawney coach Blake Moilan said. “But I think the option was a good play. It had been working all night. Unfortunately we didn’t get the first down.”  

Clarion never gave Punxsutawney another chance, as the offense wore down the Chuck front seven and the remaining 3:47 on the clock by driving 36 yards to the Punxsy 1-yard before time expired.

It was fitting that Clarion’s running game closed the deal considering it was the running game that propelled the Bobcats to the victory.

Playing without Walters, who injured his knee late in the first half, for the final 28-plus minutes, Clarion grounded out 30 points running the ball 52 times for 324 yards and four touchdowns. The 52 carries were the most for the Bobcats since they had 53 in the epic 14-6 D9 Class A semifinal win over Clarion-Limestone Nov. 12, 2005.

“The line played a heck of a game moving the ball,” Wiser said. “And our backs ran well.”  

Bubba Rue (18 carries, 124 yards, 1 TD), Jon Kemmer (12 carries, 119 yards) and Kevin Grejda (17 carries, 65 yards, 1 TD) did the bulk of the heavy lifting. It marked the first time Clarion had two 100-yard rushers since Kyle Cathcart (212) and Ben Bevevino (131) both broke the barrier Oct. 5, 2001, in a 48-6 win over visiting West Shamokin.  

“We knew their quarterback was hurt,” Moilan said. “We knew they were going to try to run the ball down our throats … they didn’t try, they did and had success doing it.”

Clarion needed every bit of its rushing attack to hold off a Punxsutawney team that was remarkably balanced against what had been a pretty stout Bobcat defense this season – Clarion was coming off back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 2000.

Punxsy amassed 303 yards of total offense including 184 on the ground and 119 through the air. The running game was the main focus in the first half with Punxsy picking up 142 yards on the ground in the half, and then the passing game took over in the second half with freshman Logan Weaver passing for 102 of his 119 yards in the second half. Weaver really grew up in the second 24 minutes completing 7 of 10 tosses and getting a scoring toss.

“He has grown up the last four weeks,” Moilan said. “That’s a huge step going from eighth-grade starting quarterback to varsity starting quarterback. He definitely grew up and became a leader tonight. We look for big things for him next week.”

While the second half belonged to Weaver, the first half belonged to Niver. The junior came out of nowhere – he had zero carries in the first three weeks – to average nearly 10 yards a carry against Clarion including a 53-yard scoring run that gave Punxsy a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter, the Chucks first lead and first first-half touchdown of the season.

“We needed somebody who was going to run between the tackles,” Moilan said. “We hadn’t gotten that the first three games. He definitely ran between the tackles. He ran hard, and the offensive line came off the line and made some holes for him. We are pretty excited with that. That’s going to open up the rest of the game for us. I think that is what you saw tonight.”

After Niver’s touchdown gave Punxsy the 7-0 lead, Clarion responded with two quick touchdowns of its own.

First, Walters scored on an 11-yard run to tie the game at seven in the closing seconds of the first quarter, and then Grejda scored on a 1-yard run in the opening minutes of the second quarter to give the Bobcats a 14-7 lead.

But after Walters left the game with the injury, which was originally suffered on the scoring run and latter aggravated on a passing play, Grejda lost a fumble giving Punxsy the ball at the Clarion 15-yard line.   

The officials then took over acting like people had come to watch them instead of the players.

After a couple of questionable calls – one in each direction – Weaver scored on an 8-yard run to cut the Clarion lead to 14-13 with 3:44 left in the half.

The officials, though, continued to act like the show flagging Punxsy for a celebration penalty forcing the Chucks to go for two, and then whistling Clarion for a holding call on an incomplete pass around the 10-yard line on that conversion try. Things continued to go wrong for the men in stripes when Logan Weaver hit Easton Weaver with a pass on the next conversion try, but Easton was dropped at the 1 1/2-yard line. After being tackled, he reached the ball over the goaline, and remarkably the official gave him credit for the 2-point score and a 15-14 Punxsy lead.

Clarion answered the only way it could taking a 22-15 halftime lead by going 60 yards in eight plays scoring on a 2-yard Grejda run with 20.5 seconds left in the half. Backup quarterback Brandon Heeter then hit Jarrod Carpin with the 2-point conversion pass.

“No one is going to change what happens out there when it comes to that,” Wiser said. “We’re the ones that are going to make a difference. You have to play beyond what’s going to happen with those calls. That’s the nature of the beast at times.”  

Even though their team was in the game, Punxsutawney fans had to be nervous when Clarion took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched 67 yards down the field, all on the ground, to take a 30-15 lead on a 1-yard run by Rue and a 2-point conversion run by Dylan Reinsel on a fake kick. It was starting to look a lot like the first three weeks for the Chucks, who had second-half meltdowns after being in the game at halftime.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Bobcats blowout.

The Chucks responded with a 70-yard, eight-play drive that was capped by Niver’s second touchdown of the game, this time on a 9-yard run, to cut the lead to nine at 30-21 with 4:21 left in the third quarter. The extra point was no good leaving Clarion lead at two possessions.    

“I was proud of the way we responded in the second half,” Moilan said. “Especially after they came down and scored. Our kids could have given up and said ‘here we go again.’ But they came back and responded. We were on the sideline saying ‘guys we have to respond quickly.’ I think we came out and played tough.”  

After the Niver touchdown, the game took on a more defensive posture with the teams trading punts before another Clarion miscue breathed life back into the Punxsutawney offense.

Rue fumbled the ball at the Punxsy 46, and the Chucks recovered at their own 47 as time ran out in the quarter.

“Some of those fumbles, guys were trying to get the extra yards, trying to go beyond themselves,” Wiser said. “It’s hard to sit there and pick apart the heart of Bubba when he was reaching, scratching for every two inches he could get on the football field.”

Punxsy quickly covered the 53 yards in six plays scoring on a 31-yard pass from Logan Weaver to Ben Blazavich with 9:47 to play. The 2-point conversion failed, but the Chucks were within three at 30-27.

Clarion burned some clock on its next drive moving from its own 31 to the Punxsy 47 while killing over four minutes on the clock before having to punt giving the Chucks the one last chance.

“I thought it was going to be tough coming down here to play,” Wiser said. “I really did. They are 0-3 and this was a big game for them. I thought we came out pretty flat. Hopefully, we take this as an education.”

Clarion returns to the road Friday when it travels to New Bethlehem to take on unbeaten Redbank Valley (4-0, 4-0) at 7 p.m., while Punxsy hits the road going to A-C Valley (0-4, 0-4) in a battle of teams on long losing streaks. The Chucks have now lost 14 straight, while the Falcons have dropped 26 in a row following a loss to Moniteau Friday night.    

CLARION 30, PUNXSUTAWNEY 27

Score by Quarters

Clarion 7 15 8 0 – 30

Punxsutawney 7 8 6 6 – 27

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

P – Brennan Niver 53 run (Derek Kerr kick), 3:38

C – Dan Walters 11 run (Jon Kemmer kick), 0:18.9

Second Quarter

C – Kevin Grejda 1 run (Kemmer kick), 9:28

P – Logan Weaver 8 run (Weaver pass to Easton Weaver), 3:44

C – Grejda 2 run (Brandon Heeter pass to Jarrod Carpin), 0:20.5

Third Quarter

C – Bubba Rue 1 run (Dylan Reinsel run), 9:11

P – Niver 9 run (Kerr kick missed), 4:21

Fourth Quarter

P – Ben Blazavich 31 pass from L. Weaver (Weaver pass failed), 9:47

Team Statistics

       C         P

First Downs            20        13

Rushes-Yards         52-324 29-184

Passing Yards         (-1)      119

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       2-7-0    8-17-0

Total Yardage        323      303

Fumbles-Lost         2-2       0-0

Penalties-Yards      7-60     8-85

Punts-Avg. 4-35.7  5-26.2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Clarion: Bubba Rue 19-124, Jon Kemmer 12-119, Kevin Grejda 17-65, Dan Walters 2-18, Kris Burkhart 1-2, Corbin Ragley 1-minus 4. Punxsutawney: Brennan Niver 11-106, Logan Weaver 11-47, Nick Wehrle 5-32, Easton Weaver 2-minus 1.

Passing – Clarion: Dan Walters 0-for-5, 0 yards. Brandon Heeter 2-for-2, minus 1 yard. Punxsutawney: Logan Weaver 8-for-16, 119 yards, 1 touchdown. Ben Blazavich 0-for-1, 0 yards.

Receiving – Clarion: Kevin Grejda 2-minus 1 yard. Punxsutawney: Ben Blazavich 5-70, Brennan Niver 2-26, Nick Wehrle 1-23.

Punting – Clarion: Jon Kemmer 4-143. Punxsutawney: Ben Blazavich 5-131.