FOXBURG – Clarion picked off seven A-C Valley passes and handed the Falcons their 46^th straight defeat 52-7 Friday night in Foxburg.

The victory clinched at least a share of the first-ever KSAC Small School Division title for the Bobcats (4-3 overall, 4-0 KSAC Small) and could very possibly have clinched the outright title if Clarion athletic director Larry Wiser’s thought that head-to-head competition is the first tiebreaker is true. The Bobcats lead Redbank Valley (3-1) by one game with one to play and beat the Bulldogs two weeks ago.

“It (winning the KSAC Small School title) is definitely a goal we have,” Clarion head coach Judd Allan said. “But our biggest goal is trying to get better from last week. We spent a lot of time every day working with the line. I think they did a better job tonight.”

Clarion’s line did get better helping the Bobcats rack up 366 yards on the ground and 430 for the game including three 100-yard rushers.

Danny Walters (4 carries) and Damien Slike (7 carries) each had 104 yards with Kris Burkhart adding 14 carries for 101 yards. Burkhart scored three touchdowns on the ground, Slike two and Walters one.

“That’s pretty neat having three guys that close to each other in yardage all over 100 yards,” Allan said.

But while three 100-yard rushers is always a good thing, the story of the night was the Bobcat pass defense that came into the game with five interceptions on the season but picked off A-C Valley starting quarterback Kasey McNany six times and backup Eric Staab once.

“It gave us some short fields, and we had a score off one,” Allan said. “It was huge.”

Camron Kirkland had three of the interceptions and Mitch Rhoades two. Rhoades returned his first pick 32 yards for a touchdown, his first career touchdown, giving Clarion a 14-0 lead 4;30 into the game.

“Mitch and Camron Kirkland both had great games,” Allan said. “Those two were ball hawks back there.”

The interceptions gave Clarion fantastic field position, especially in the first half when the Bobcat’s average starting position was the A-C Valley 46 with three drives starting inside A-C Valley territory and a fourth at midfield.

“It allows our offense be more confident,” Allan said. “It really helped us in that way.”

Clarion intercepted McNany on the first three A-C Valley possessions and turned those picks into 21 points and an early 21-0 lead. In addition to Rhoades interception return, Walters scored on a 19-yard run and Burkhart on a 1-yard run.  

A-C Valley answered with a nice 77-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown run by Alex Ford, the Falcons first touchdown since Week One (a 19-quarter drought), that cut Clarion’s lead to 21-7 at a point in the game where A-C Valley was actually outgaining Clarion 98 yards to 58.

The Falcons then had a chance to cut the lead even farther when McNany picked off Brandon Heeter setting A-C Valley up at its own 48. But Clarion answered that pick with Rhoades’ second pick of the game giving the Bobcats the ball back at midfield.

Clarion then scored twice before halftime on runs of 42 yards by Marcus Smerker and 44 yards by Burkhart to go ahead 33-7 at halftime,

The Bobcats got a pair of 2-yard touchdown runs from Burkhart and Damien Slike in the third quarter to get the Mercy Rule rolling at 46-7 before Slike finished off the scoring with a 73-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Brandon Heeter played the majority of the game at quarterback for Clarion with Walters moving to a slot back/running back position. Walters added one catch for 17 yards.

“It was more of we want to get Danny involved in other places,” Allan said about the change at quarterback. “We think Danny is a great athlete. We think Brandon is a great athlete. We felt that was the best way to get both athletes on the field. I didn’t necessarily go in and think Brandon was going to get that many snaps, but the way Danny was running the ball I wanted to keep giving it to him.”

CLARION 52, A-C VALLEY 7

Score by Quarters

Clarion 21 12 13 6 – 52

A-C Valley 0 7 0 0 – 7

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Danny Walters 19 run (Cameron Slike kick), 9:05

C – Mitch Rhoades 32 interception return (Slike kick, 7:30)

C – Kris Burkhart 1 run (Slike kick), 5:08

Second Quarter

A – Alex Ford 6 run (Kasey McNany kick), 8:41

C – Marcus Smerker 42 run (Bad snap led to failed run), 5:16

C – Burkhart 44 run (Brandon Heeter pass failed), 3:48

Third Quarter

C – Burkhart 2 run (Slike kick), 5:47

C – Damien Slike 2 run (Slike kick), 0:36

Fourth Quarter

C – Slike 73 run (Tanner Klein kick failed), 4:50

            C         A

First Downs    12        14       

Rushes-Yards  35-366 42-120

Passing Yards 64        47

Passing: Comp-Att-Int            3-10-1  7-18-7

Total Yardage 430      167

Fumbles-Lost  0-0       3-0

Punts-Avg.      0-0       2-20.5

Penalties-Yards           7-80     3-17

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Clarion: Damien Slike 7-104, Danny Walters 4-104, Kris Burkhart 14-101, Marcus Smerker 5-43, Camron Kirkland 1-7, Zach Sis 2-5, Anthony Beveridge 2-2. A-C Valley: Cole Hardick 4-46, Brandan Golden 13-40, Alex Ford 11-28, Lee Russell 6-18, Kevin Kaufman 1-minus 2, Kasey McNany 7-minus 10.

Passing – Clarion: Brandon Heeter 3-for-9, 64 yards, 1 interception. John Katis 0-for-1, 0 yards. A-C Valley: Kasey McNany 7-for-17, 47 yards, 6 interceptions. Eric Staab 0-for-1, 0 yards, 1 interception.

Receiving – Clarion: Camron Kirkland 1-42, Danny Walters 1-17, Mitch Rhoades 1-5. A-C Valley: Dakota Page 4-20, Alex Ford 2-20, Brendan Golden 1-7.

Interceptions – Clarion: Camron Kirkland 3, Mitch Rhoades 2, Mike Smith, Devon Everett. A-C Valley: Kasey McNany.