CLARION DOMINATES REMATCH WITH REDBANK VALLEY

First Round of District 9 Class A Playoff

Clarion 19, Redbank Valley 0

Nov. 7, 2008

District 9 Playoff Home

By Chris Rossetti

NEW BETHLEHEM –Zack Stiglitz, Mark Divins, Keaton MacBeth, Ryan Johnson, Pat Tack and Gavin Griffin aren’t names you usually think about when you think about Clarion High School football.

But those six players were the huge reason why the seventh-seeded Bobcats (7-4) are moving into the District 9 Class A semifinals after a dominating 19-0 win over second-seeded Redbank Valley (7-3) Friday night at Redbank Valley in the opening round of the D9 postseason.

See, Stiglitz, Divins, MacBeth, Johnson and Tack are the five starting offensive linemen for the Bobcats, and Griffin is the tight end. The six of them were big reason why Clarion was able to outgain Redbank Valley 344 yards to 101 while running 60 plays to the Bulldogs 38 and out possessing the home team 31:52 to 16:08.

“What a heck of a job (the offensive line) did,” Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. “We weren’t hiding where we were going with the ball. We worked all week on staying on our blocks for the length of the play. I thought we got to the second level tonight and were moving people.”

Thanks to the blocking of the big fellows up front, Clarion had three running backs go for over 75 yards. Fullback Kevin Grejda led the way with 103 yards, while tailbacks Bubba Rue (93 yards) and Jon Kemmer (79) combined for 172 yards.   

“They weren’t doing anything but running it right up the middle,” Redbank Valley head coach Brandon Rapp said. “That’s one of the most demoralizing feelings you can have when you know what’s coming and you can’t stop it.”

Clarion’s defense also played a huge role in the win holding Redbank Valley to negative yardage on 14 of the Bulldogs 38 plays. In fact, 114 of Redbank’s 101 yards came on five big plays. On the other 33 plays, Redbank Valley lost 13 yards.  

“Our defense was just outstanding,” Wiser said. “We played a similar scheme that we did the first time (when Clarion held Redbank Valley to seven points in regulation and 189 total yards of offense). We tightened some things up a little bit, and the big thing was we didn’t give up any big plays and pretty much stayed in our gaps.”

Clarion’s defense was at its best against Redbank Valley senior star running back Alex Bladel, who ran for 106 yards against the Bobcats in a midseason 28-21 triple overtime Bulldog win. Bladel came into the game as the third leading rusher in District 9 with 1,044 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also had ran for 3,335 career yards with 43 career rushing touchdowns.

But the Bobcats held Bladel to his third lowest total of the season (50 yards) and held him to negative yards on five of his 12 carries including his final four.

“They were doing the same thing everybody’s done to him, put a couple of guys on him and spy him,” Rapp said. “That’s been the way teams have played us for the whole second half of the year. There’s no one to blame but me. I haven’t found a way to stop it.”

Bladel didn’t get a whole lot of help from Redbank’s passing game. Junior quarterback Shiloh Buchleitner missed on all five of his first-half passes and finished 4 of 12 for 26 yards while being sacked four times. Kasey Haines did complete one wide receiver reverse pass for 32 yards giving the Bulldogs 58 yards passing, their third lowest total on the year.

“I actually thought Shiloh played well,” Rapp said. “We dropped a couple of balls and fumbled a couple. He played hard, and he is definitely a leader on the team.”

Buchleitner’s Clarion counterpart, Brandon Heeter, meanwhile, played a lot better than he did the first time around against Redbank Valley. Making his first-ever start in the game in New Bethlehem in late September, Heeter was picked off three times including on the last play of the game. This time around, he was 5 of 6 for 74 yards and a touchdown. He was a perfect 5 of 5 in the first half.

“I thought Brandon hit some nice passes in the beginning of the game which opened up some stuff,” Wiser said.

Clarion scored twice in the second quarter going ahead 6-0 when Heeter hit Erik Hartle with a 7-yard pass on third down seven seconds in to the quarter and then scoring with 35.9 seconds left in the half on a 3-yard Grejda run to make it 12-0.

Redbank Valley had a chance to get back into the football game late in the third quarter before a strange serious of events quashed the Bulldogs hopes.

First, the Bulldogs drove to the Clarion 30-yard line only to have Jerrett Magagnotti fumble the ball after a pass from Shiloh Buchleitner with Clarion’s Jarrod Carpin recovering at the Clarion 33.

But the Bobcats gave the ball right back on the first play when Rue fumbled a lateral pass at the Bobcats 25.

Some controversy then struck when Buchleitner appeared to throw an incomplete pass. Clarion’s Joel Matticks pounced on the loose ball at the Clarion 29. The referee immediately came in and signaled Clarion ball. But one of the linesmen came over and said it was an incomplete pass. The officials then got together and finally ruled it a fumble.

 “I don’t know what it was, an incomplete pass or a fumble,” Rapp said. “That’s a heck of an officiating crew. They got together and probably made the right call.”

After the fumble, Clarion drove 71 yards in just six plays, all runs, to make it 19-0 on 10-yard run by Kemmer, the Bobcats fourth run of the drive that went at least 10 yards.

NOTES – Clarion becomes the first lower seed to beat a higher seed in the first round since District 9 expanded its Class A playoffs to eight teams in 2004. The lower seed were 0-15 going into Friday night (only 7 teams entered in 2004) … This was the first-ever playoff meeting between Clarion and Redbank Valley but the 83^rd overall. Clarion now leads the series 42-36-5. The win was Clarion’s first in New Bethlehem since 2000 and breaks a 3-game win streak in the series by Redbank Valley … The Bobcats will play the winner of Saturday night’s Elk County Catholic at Curwensville game next weekend at a site and time to be determined. For the first time, the semifinal game will be scheduled for a neutral field … Clarion had 21 first downs to Redbank Valley’s six and two of the Bulldogs first downs came courtesy of Bobcat penalties.

CLARION 19, REDBANK VALLEY 0

Score by Quarters

Clarion 0 12 7 0 – 19

Redbank 0 0 0 0 – 0

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter

C – Erik Hartle 7 pass from Brandon Heeter (kick failed), 11:53

C – Kevin Grejda 3 run (run failed), 0:35.9

Third Quarter

C – Jon Kemmer 10 run (Kemmer kick), 0:06.7  

Team Statistics

                                           C                     R

First Downs                        21                    6

Rushes-Yards                     60-270             25-43

Passing Yards                     74                    58

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       5-7-1                5-13-0

Total Yardage                    344                  101

Fumbles-Lost                     2-1                   3-3

Penalties-Yards                  6-72                 5-33

Time of Possession             31:52               16:08

Punts-Avg.                         1-47.0              4-40.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Clarion: Bubba Rue 26-93, Jon Kemmer 12-79, Kevin Grejda 18-103, Erik Hartle 2-0, Brandon Heeter 1-minus 4, Team 1-minus 1. Redbank Valley: Alex Bladel 12-50, Kasey Haines 3-10, Shiloh Buchleitner 10-minus 17.

Passing – Clarion: Brandon Heeter 5-for-6, 74 yards, 1 touchdown. Jon Kemmer 0-for-1, 1 interception. Redbank Valley: Shiloh Buchleitner 4-for-12, 26 yards. Kasey Haines 1-for-1, 32 yards.

Receiving – Clarion: Erik Hartle 2-16, Jarrod Carpin 1-29, Kevin Grejda 1-21, Gavin Griffin 1-8. Redbank Valley: Jerrett Magagnotti 4-64, Alex Bladel 1-minus 6.  

Punting – Clarion: Jon Kemmer 1-47. Redbank Valley: Shiloh Buchleitner 4-160.

Interceptions – Redbank Valley: Jerrett Magagnotti

Sacks – Clarion; Kevin Grejda 1.5, Jon Kemmer 1, Bryan Biertempfel 1, Bubba Rue 1. Redbank Valley: Brent Shuster 1.