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By Rich Rhoades

CLARION — With yards and points flying all over the place the past few seasons, the Brockway Rovers would like all of that to lead to a District 9 Class AA title and a deep trip into the state playoffs.

They can make that first step Friday night when the 10-0 Rovers take on the 9-2 Brookville Raiders at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Last year’s Rovers put up big numbers, but came up short in a 42-40 loss to Karns City in the district finals. While it was one of the more exciting championship games in recent memory, coming out on the losing end certainly provided motivation for another run this year with a senior-laden roster.

So naturally, the expectations were big from the start.

“We’ve met them up to this point, but by no means this was where we set our goals,” Brockway head coach Frank Varischetti said. “We want to play in Hershey. We talked about it all year with the kids. We’ve set that as our highest goal. I think the buzz around town was there from beginning of the year, but after we lost some kids with injuries, I’m not sure how many were sure it would happen outside team and kids.”

The Rovers lost starting running back Chad Melillo and two-way starter Tom Vervoort to knee injuries early in the season, but they’ve rebounded pretty well. Brockway ranks third in the state in scoring at 50.1 points per game and is averaging over 500 yards per game offensively, actually running for more yards per game than passing with record-breaking quarterback Derek Buganza.
“They’re balanced, they’re strong, they’re quick and they’re experienced,” Raiders head coach Chris Dworek said. “There’s not a glaring weak spot you can exploit. We have to go in with the mentality that we’re hitting a granite rock, keep hitting away, trying to get a crack.”

Defensively, the Rovers are also much better, allowing about 125 yards and five points per game less than last season.

So there’s no doubt that the Rovers are the heavy favorites going into Friday’s game, trying to win their first district title since 2003. They’ll meet the Raiders in the finals for the second time and first since 1998. Brookville last won a crown in 2006 and return to the finals for the first time since then and after two straight losing seasons.

Raiders head coach Chris Dworek thought his team could get to this point last year, knowing that Karns City was losing a big class of seniors and the Rovers would probably be waiting on the other side of the field.

“We thought they had to play somebody, so why not us,” Dworek said.

“I thought it was going to be us,” Dworek admitted. “I thought all along in the preseason. I almost said something to Frank in the passing league during the summer that we’ll probably see them in the middle of November. But I figured I’d better not, that wouldn’t have been right.”

The Raiders came into the season with very little returning rushing yardage out of the backfield and a quarterback decision to be made. Instead of going with last year’s QB platoon of Garret Weaver and Tyler Dombrowski, Dworek went with junior Steven Kennedy. And then he decided to give the ball to junior tailback Ryan Kerr, a lot.

Kerr ranks fourth in District 9 in rushing with 1,439 yards to go along with 15 touchdowns. Kennedy has also performed well running the Raiders’ veer offense, passing for 999 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for 781 yards and 10 scores.

The Raiders also feature their record-breaking senior receiver Jared Heschke, who owns team career records in receptions, yardage and touchdowns.

Brockway has faced Curwensville and Elk County Catholic, teams that features the first- and third-leading rushers in the district and fared well, but Varischetti believes the Raiders will be at least as much of a challenge.

“Brookville is definitely more diverse than any one of those teams and they’ve played a bigger schedule,” he said. “Their only losses are to Class AAAA and AAA teams. They’re a very good football team.”

“Air Raid” Stoppable?

Brockway’s spread offense is based on the Texas Tech scheme, dubbed “Air Raid” that was developed by coach Mike Leach and coordinator Tony Franklin.

It’s an offense — with one running back with five receivers and no tight end — featuring short passes from a quarterback who’s able to audible in and out of plays depending on how the defense is aligned. It uses short passes as an extension of a running game, forcing defense to tackle well in the open field.

The Brockway coaching staff, a few years ago, saw the opportunity to install this complex system because of the talent coming up through the system. Buganza and his teammates have thrived.

Buganza threw for a state-record 3,824 yards a year ago and currently holds other state records in passing yards in a game (594) and career yards, which, with 48 against the Raiders, would increase to 9,000 in just three years.

“Our kids buy into the case that they can’t be stopped because of the system,” Varischetti said. “They’re talented as well and it builds a lot of confidence as well. The kids know that they’ll get the ball right back after the other team scores. They don’t get discouraged.”

The system and success has impressed opposing coaches, including Dworek.

“I don’t know how they teach it, how they call stuff,” Dworek said. “Last year watching Brockway against Moniteau in the semifinals, I was just sitting high in the stands and watching how their receivers were covered for 15 or so yards, Buganza had protection and patience to keep going … the receivers keep running their routes, he got 5-6 seconds of blocking. Who has time like that? It’s impressive to watch.”

This year hasn’t been quite as big on the passing side of things because of a couple of injuries sustained by Buganza earlier in the season. He injured an ankle and actually broke and dislocated a thumb prior to their Week 6 game against Curwensville. But despite missing the Johnsonburg game and playing halves in games against Kane and Ridgway, he’s still managed to pass for 2,205 yards and 21 touchdowns with nine interceptions.

“Derek hasn’t been caught up in the numbers,” Varischetti said. “We knew if he stayed healthy he would break the (career yardage) record. It hasn’t been the season he expected, but with emergence of the running game, he’s had a lot more fun and not feeling as much pressure as in the past.”

No kidding. Varischetti added a wishbone set to his “Air Raid” playbook and it wound up working very well. The Rovers average 252 yards a game on the ground, just a head of their 250 passing yards per game.

Senior Mike Vervoort, listed as a 5-foot-9 receiver, has rushed for 894 yards and 16 touchdowns while catching 37 passes for 652 yards.

“He’s definitely a matchup problem,” Varischetti said. “What helps him is that he’s not very tall, but he’s thick, 195 pounds and runs very well ... He sees a lot of single coverage because of the other guys.”

Receivers Kyle Braun (35 catches, 706 yards), Jake Shaffer (29 catches, 479 yards) and Zack Freemer (13 catches, 240 yards) along with fullback Chris Marshall (444 yards rushing; 22 catches, 282 yards) provide Buganza with many options.

“I didn’t think we’d be as split down the middle as we have been,” Varischetti said. “We wanted to run the ball more efficiently and 150 per game would be great, but we’ve been able to run the ball more effectively and a big key was going to some wishbone formations. We’re lucky. We can go from 4-wide to a wishbone without changing any personnel. We’ve been very fortunate.”

So can the Raiders stop it, or contain it, or score with it?

“The simplest thing I can say is if our defensive ends have a heckuva game, it’s going to be a good game,” Dworek said. “They put a lot of pressure on the ends in their pass and run games.”

While a Raiders offense that sustains long drives and pounds the ball down the field could be their best defense against Brockway, keeping the Rovers’ offense off the field, Dworek knows his defense is going to have to play lights-out.

“If it gets into a basketball score, it’s going to have to be (perfect),” Dworek said of his offense. “It all depends on how our defense plays. I was impressed with how when Brockway fell behind and answered back at times. Even if we get a lead, they won’t panic.

“Holding them under 20 points will be something that I would hope would happen, but it’s not realistic.”

When the Raiders have the ball

Dworek’s offense thrives the most when Kerr and Kennedy are gaining hunks of yards with their legs, setting up some Kennedy passes to Heschke.

Going into the season, Kerr had rushed for just 126 yards on 31 carries. He’s carried the ball that much in a single game twice, both of them against Moniteau, including a 33-carry, 204-yard effort in last week’s playoff win over the Warriors. He needs just eight carries to break the team’s single-season attempts record and with another healthy ahead of him, a career team record isn’t out of the question.

“I told Ryan I wanted him to be as strong as he could because he was going to be a workhorse,” Dworek said. “I wanted him to be able to carry the ball 25 times a game because you have to be strong to take the pounding.”

Kerr’s averaging 20.6 carries per game, but has gone over that amount in the team’s last five games for an average of about 24 per contest. Plus, he’s a key performer at linebacker, dealing out almost as many hits, as he seems to do while carrying the ball.

“Kerr is an animal,” Varischetti said of the reigning District 9 Class AA javelin champion. “You don’t see many kids with his build. He’s put together very nice, has good speed, he’s tough to tackle and coach Dworek puts him in some good positions to run. And Kennedy is one of the fastest guys we’ve seen this year.”

Kennedy made a splash as the Raiders’ new signal-caller right out of the gate as he rushed for 139 yards and a touchdown in the Raiders’ season-opening 15-14 win over St. Marys. And as the season gets close to the end, he’s not that far from boasting a 1,000-1,000 season, something that’s known to have been done just twice in district history, with Moniteau’s Kyle Armagost pulling off the feat this year.

The Rovers faced District 9’s No. 1 and No. 3 rushers in Curwensville’s Alex Holland and Elk County Catholic’s Ricky Pearsall and limited Holland to a season-low 82 yards and Pearsall to 113 yards, his second lowest total of the year. But Varischetti said that the Raiders more balanced.

The threat of the 6-foot-4 Heschke at receiver is worth noting. He’s caught 35 passes for 598 yards and five touchdowns. He’ll be a downfield target of Kennedy’s or a quick pass off the snap, basically turning him into a running back on the edge.

“Jared is a heckuva run blocker and we run a lot more, so for him to be ready in pass situations tells people he’s a clutch receiver,” Dworek said earlier this season. “He’s been starting for three years. He’s a veteran, he knows the moves and tricks, and he has good hands and knows to catch it, run and score.”

Heschke has also been the Raiders’ leading tackler at inside linebacker since he’s started there.

A competitive rivalry

This is the 63^rd meeting in an even matchup between the Raiders and Rovers, with the Rovers holding a slight edge at 30-29-3.

It’s the first time the Raiders and Rovers have met since the 2006 Class AA semifinals when the Raiders won, 39-20, also at Memorial Stadium. Brookville holds a 4-2 edge in playoff meetings, also beating the Rovers in 2004 (20-13), 1999 (21-10) and 1998 (33-6). Brockway won in 2002 (41-12) and 2000 (30-12). The only previous championship game matchup came in the Raiders’ 33-6 win in 1998.

Forty years ago in 1970, the Raiders and Rovers started the season with an 8-8 tie in their Little 10 Conference opener. As it turned out, the Raiders won the final eight games while Brockway tied two more games and finished 6-0-3, placing second behind the Raiders in the standings.

That was the second of seven unbeaten regular seasons in Rovers history, the first coming in 1960 (8-0-1) followed by 1970, 1980 (9-0-1), 1986 (9-0-1), 1987 (8-0-1), 2003 (9-0) and this year

Other odds and ends

The winner advances to next week’s PIAA playoffs to take on District 8 (City League) representative Oliver, the highest finishing Class AA team in the district standings. … District title counts: Brookville 6 (Class AAA in 1991, Class AA in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2006), Brockway 4 (Class AA in 1987, 2002, 2003 and 2005). The Raiders lost district finals games in 1992, 1993 and 1999. The Rovers lost in the finals in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2009. … The Raiders are 6-1 lifetime at Memorial Stadium, including 4-0 in the playoffs and 2-1 in the regular season against Clarion, the only loss coming last year. Meanwhile, Brockway is 3-3 on the turf at CUP.