CLARION – Cameron County’s Andrew Fragale came up with perhaps the biggest play in his young football career Friday night when he stripped Clarion’s Danny Walters of the football and then recovered the loose ball at the Red Raider 27-yard line with just under a minute to play to preserve a 19-13 Cameron County win at Clarion in the opening round of the District 9 Class A playoffs at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

Clarion (5-6), the fourth seed, trailed 19-6 with less than five minutes to play when Walters hit Camron Kirkland with a 68-yard touchdown pass to get the Bobcats back within six at 19-13.

The Bobcats defense then held forcing a Cameron County punt that gave Clarion the ball back at its own 40 with 3:02 left to play.

Behind Walters, Clarion marked to the Cameron County 19-yard line with a 13-yard pass from Walters to Bryce Straffin with 1:25 to play on a fourth-and-2 play getting the ball to the 19.

But from the 19, Walters threw an incomplete pass on first down and was stopped for no gain on second down by Aaron Burnside. That set up Fragale’s heroics that knocked the defending champions out in the first round.

Fragale’s fumble forced and recovery helped preserve a win that looked in the bag for Cameron when Fragale scored on a 5-yard run that ended an 11-play, 83-yard drive with 5:58 left in the game that put Cameron County ahead 19-6.

Fifty-three of the 83 yards on that drive were on the ground, as Cameron County ran all over the Clarion defense on the night rushing for 296 yards while racking up 340 total yards.

Jason Blose led the way with 22 carries for 188 yards and a touchdown with Fragale adding 114 yards rushing and the score.

Clarion, meanwhile, could do very little on the ground being held to 58 yards on 30 carries, its second-lowest total of the season. Walters, who was coming off a 136-yard performance in a loss to Karns City in Week 10, was limited to seven yards on 19 carries and a touchdown. He did go 8 of 14 passing for 143 yards, one score and one interception.

The Bobcats actually struck first when Walters scored from a yard out with 3:10 left in the first quarter giving Clarion a 6-0 lead.

The touchdown was set up by a Blose fumble that was forced by Kris Burkhart and recovered by Benton Reichard at the Red Raider 20-yard line.  

That was the third turnover in less than two minutes, as Clarion’s Kirkland had picked off a Zach Austin pass and returned it to the Red Raider 35-yard line with 6:38 showing on the clock only to watch Clarion fumble a snap on the very next play that was recovered by Cameron’s Damian Barton.

The Red Raiders also hurt themselves on the play before the Blose fumble when a 64-yard pass to the Clarion 1-yard line was called back because of offensive pass interference.

Turnovers continued to be the story of the game into the second quarter.

On Cameron’s first drive of the quarter, a bad punt snap was recovered by Clarion at the Cameron 36-yard line.

But the Bobcats squandered that opportunity on the next play when Walters was picked off by Austin at the 1-yard line.

With its back to the wall, the Red Raiders quickly dug out of the whole as Fragale took two carries out to the Cameron 32, and then Blose broke free on a 68-yard scoring run that gave the Red Raiders a 7-6 lead with 9:08 to play in the half.

Cameron County then added to its lead with a 13-play, 56-yard drive that ended on a 5-yard Austin for Ryan Grimm pass with 57 seconds left in the half putting Cameron County ahead 13-6 at the break,

The Red Raiders will now face top-seeded Curwensville in the semifinals at a time and date to be determined. It’s Cameron County’s fourth straight trip to the semifinals. The Red Raiders lost to Clarion in last year’s semifinals, beat the Bobcats for the 2008 champion and lost to Kane in the 2007 title game.

CAMERON COUNTY 19, CLARION 13

Score by Quarter

Cameron Co.   0 13 0 6 – 19

Clarion 6 0 0 7 – 13

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
CL – Danny Walters 1 run (kick failed), 3:10

Second Quarter

CC – Jason Blose 68 run (Val Thompson kick), 9:08

CC – Ryan Grimm 5 pass from Zach Austin (kick failed), 0:57

Fourth Quarter

CC – Andrew Fragale 5 run (pass failed), 5:58

CL – Camron Kirkland 68 pass from Walters (Cameron Slike kick), 4:19

                                                CC                   CL

First Downs                            21                    10

Rushes-Yards                          55-296             30-58

Passing Yards                         44                    143

Passing: Comp-Att-Int            5-11-1              8-15-1

Total Yards                             340                  201

Fumbles-Lost                          3-2                   2-2

Penalties-Yards                       5-47                 3-30

Punts-Avg.                              2-30.5              3-28.7             

Time of Possession                  30:32               17:28

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Cameron County: Jason Blose 22-188, Andrew Fragale 20-114, Zach Austin 9-25, Team 4-minus 31. Clarion: Kris Burkhart 5-40, Marcus Smerker 2-12, Danny Walters 19-7, Team 1-0, Camron Kirkland 3-minus 1.

Passing – Cameron County: Austin 5-for-11, 44 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception. Clarion: Walters 8-for-14, 143 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception. Smerker 0-for-1.

Receiving – Cameron County: Ryan Grimm 4-37, Blose 1-7. Clarion: Burkhardt 3-18, Kirkland 2-86, Smerker 1-14, Bryce Straffin 1-13, Mitch Rhoades 1-12.

Interceptions – Cameron County: Austin. Clarion: Kirkland.