By Chris Rossetti

RIMERSBURG – Clarion won its 16^th straight game over Union 26-8 Friday night in Rimersburg.

“I’m very happy with the way we bounced back from last week’s loss to Moniteau,” Clarion head coach Judd Allan said. “I thought the kids did a lot better in practice all week. We had a better tempo in practice.”

Clarion raced out to 20-0 lead less than 16 minutes into the game, and that was pretty much all the offense the Bobcats needed.

The scoring started 1:24 into the game when Danny Walters stripped the ball from Union’s Mikey Harris and raced 49 yards for a touchdown like he had taken a handoff from Harris.

“That was huge,” Allan said. “It gave us the momentum, which carried almost the entire way through the first half.”

After the Bobcats first offensive possession ended in a questionable fumble call that went Union’s way – Bryce Straffin appeared to not catch a ball that was ruled a catch and a fumble – Clarion scored on its next two offensive possessions, albeit in very different ways, to up the lead to 20-0.

Clarion’s second possession lasted all of one play, as Kris Burkhart took a handoff and raced 51 yards for a score.

The Bobcats’ third possession, though, took nine plays and over five minutes off the clock and cumulated in a 2-yard option run by Marcus Smerker.

At that point, Clarion had outgained Union 171-negative 2.

But on its next drive, the Golden Knights turned the contest into a game going 73 yards in 10 plays and taking six minutes off the clock to cut the Clarion lead to 12, 20-8, with 2:16 left in the first half.

The touchdown came on a 6-yard pass from Trent Corle to Brody Pollock and was set up by a 30-yard pass to the Clarion 10 from Corle to Pollock on a fourth-and-7 play.

“I felt the Union kids really made some plays,” Allan said. “They were making plays. I wasn’t displeased with our effort.”

Clarion had a chance to answer the score right before halftime, but on the last play of the half from the Union 14-yard line, Walters was stopped one yard short of the end zone leaving the Bobcats to settle for a 12-point halftime advantage.

“It’s a concern,” Allan said when asked about not being able to put teams away. “We talked about it against at halftime.”

Whatever was said at halftime didn’t work, as Clarion’s first possession of the second half stalled after just five plays, and the second one ended when Walters was stopped two yards short of the first down on a fourth-down play from the Union 13-yard line.  

“I thought Union came out to play in the second half,” Allan said.

Union had a chance to get completely back in the game after the fourth-down stop driving 67 yards in 15 plays to the Clarion 21-yard line. But with just over seven minutes left in the game, Ian Matson came up with a stop on Corle at the 21 giving the ball back to the Bobcats.

“That was a huge stand,” Allan said. “There were a couple of plays when we had (Corle) and man he was slippery and made great plays himself. It really tested our guys’ character. What I liked about our guys was they stood up to it.”

Clarion then put the game away with a nine-play, 79-yard drive that ended on a 19-yard touchdown run by Smerker one play after Walters hit Bryce Straffin with a 26-yard pass on third-and-2.

Burkhart finished with 101 yards rushing on 14 carries and one touchdown despite leaving the game late with what Allan described as a tweaked ankle, the second time in three weeks he has left with an ankle injury.

Smerker added 98 yards rushing and two scores on 16 carries and caught one pass for 10 yards, while Walters had 84 yards rushing on 11 carries and was 4-for-5 passing for 56 yards. He also had the forced fumble, fumble recovery and touchdown and a sack on defense.

Corle was 6-for-16 passing for 84 yards and ran 14 times for 20 yards but would have had more if he hadn’t been sacked four times.

Pollock grabbed five of those tosses for 83 yards and the touchdown.

Clarion is now 2-1 overall and 2-0 KSAC Small School Division. Union is 0-3, 0-2.

NOTES – Clarion has lost defensive end T.J. Armstrong, the 2009 CHAMP D9Sports.com Rookie of the Year, for the season with a hand injury … Clarion outgained Union 376-180 … The Bobcats now have three backs over 200 yards rushing on the season led by quarterback Walters (246). Smerker has 230 and Burkhart 202. As a team, Clarion has rushed for 680 yards in three games, an average of 226.7 per contest … Points after touchdown continue to be a problem for the Bobcats. Clarion has converted just 4 of 10 on the season after going 1-for-4 Friday night. That includes just 2 of 6 on extra point attempts prompting Allan to say he will hold open tryouts for a kicker this week.

CLARION 26, UNION 8

Score by Quarters

Clarion 14 6 0 6 – 26

Union 0 8 0 0 – 8  

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Danny Walters 49 fumble recovery (Walters run failed), 10:36

C – Kris Burkhart 51 run (Damien Slike run), 2:01

Second Quarter

C – Marcus Smerker 2 run (Cameron Slike kick failed), 8:18

U – Brody Pollock 6 pass from Trent Corle (Taylor Smith pass from Corle), 2:16

Fourth Quarter

C – Smerker 19 run (Tanner Klein kick failed), 3:10

Team Statistics

            C         U

First Downs    17        10

Rushes-Yards  43-287 36-96

Passing Yards 89        84

Passes: Comp-Att-Int 6-8-0    6-16-0

Total Yards     376      180

Fumbles-Lost  2-1       3-1

Penalties-Yards           4-30     4-28

Punts-Avg.      1-36.0  4-35.8

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Clarion: Kris Burkhart 14-101, Marcus Smerker 16-98, Danny Walters 11-84, Damien Slike 2-4. Union: Austin Davis 9-29, Mikey Harris 11-25, Taylor Smith 2-22, Trent Corle 14-20.

Passing – Clarion: Dan Walters 4-for-5, 56 yards. Brandon Heeter 2-for-2, 33 yards. Team 0-for-1. Union: Trent Corle 6-for-16, 84 yards, 1 touchdowns.

Receiving – Clarion: Camron Kirkland 3-32, Bryce Straffin 2-47, Marcus Smerker 1-10. Union – Brody Pollock 5-83, Aaron Graham 1-1.