By Rich Rhoades

More than one compelling matchup makes up this week’s 15-game District 9 football schedule as the season already heads into the third week starting Friday night. Even in games featuring teams with losing records, the outcome is hardly predictable.         

Headlining the top games of the week are two Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference-Large School Division games. That new five-team setup, as expected, is shaping up to be an interesting race. This week’s division games have Brookville (2-0) traveling to Moniteau (1-1) and St. Marys (1-1) hosting Punxsutawney (2-0).          

In West Sunbury, the visiting Raiders will try to end a five-game losing streak to the Warriors and hand them a second division loss, which would likely prove fatal to a division title hope.           

Brookville has gotten plenty of production on the ground from running back Ryan Kerr (33 carries, 245 yards, 4 TDs) and quarterback Steven Kennedy (26-228, 1). The Raiders already have a division win in an opening-week 15-14 decision over St. Marys.           

Moniteau is paced by junior quarterback Kyle Armagost, who has rushed for 163 yards and passed for 130 yards. Freshman running back Dustin Geagan has run for 140 yards in his first two games, although he was held to minus-4 yards last week in a win over Clarion. The Warriors’ division loss was a last-minute 28-26 setback to Karns City in Week 1.           

The unbeaten Chucks will try to go 3-0 for the first time since 2002 when they head to Dutch Country Stadium to take on St. Marys in their first-ever KSAC encounter against each other. Both teams are coming off cakewalk wins, so they’ll be well-rested. The Dutch will probably have their 1,000-yard fullback Kevin Hoy back in the lineup after he sat out last week’s 55-12 rout of Clarion-Limestone.           

The Chucks’ stat leaders are well-balanced two weeks into the season thanks to last week’s rout of A-C Valley, but quarterback Logan Weaver is off to a good start, completing 12 of 17 passes for 165 yards and five touchdowns.           

Karns City (1-1), the other KSAC-Large School team, will try to shake off last week’s loss to Redbank Valley, but it won’t be easy. The Gremlins travel to 2-0 Wilmington, the District 10 power that’s ranked No. 6 in Class AA by the PA Football News. Last year, Wilmington beat Karns City 55-9, avenging a 2008 loss to the Gremlins. That year, the Greyhounds went 15-1 on their way to a PIAA state title with the only loss coming at home to Karns City.           

Wilmington’s top rusher from a year ago, Sutton Whitling, is back. He ran for 1,214 yards last season.           

In the KSAC-Small School Division, Redbank Valley is the only 2-0 team, although the Bulldogs, Clarion and Clarion-Limestone are 1-0 in division games. The Bulldogs will visit A-C Valley (0-2) while Clarion (1-1) travels to Union (0-2) and C-L (1-1) hosts Keystone (0-2).

            The Allegheny Mountain League has a couple of headliner games in another crossover division schedule week. In a battle of 2-0 teams, Coudersport hosts Elk County Catholic. The Falcons escaped Kane last week with a 9-6 win after trailing 6-0 at halftime. Not surprisingly, the Falcons are once again balanced statistically in a run-oriented offense. Kory Majot (157 yards), who scored the Falcons’ only TD last wee, and Mitch Freeman (195) are the leading rushers. For ECC, Ricky Pearsall is off to a fast start out of the backfield with 341 yards rushing and five TDs.           

Curwensville (2-0) hosts Port Allegany (1-1) in another interesting game. The Gators gave Brockway some trouble last week at home and still should contend in the AML North, but two losses before divisional play begins could be hard to overcome. Quarterback Matt Bodamer has completed nearly 65 percent of his passes for 464 yards and six touchdowns while leading the team in rushing with 183 yards. Seth Lowery has rushed for 178 yards and leads the team on defense in tackles.          

The Golden Tide are coming off a 72-point game at Sheffield. Running back Alex Holland leads the team with 284 yards rushing. Quarterback Hunter McCracken has passed for five touchdowns.           

Brockway (2-0) hosts Smethport (1-1), which is coming off its most lopsided win in eight years with last week’s 43-0 rout of Ridgway. The Rovers, meanwhile, continue to pile up huge numbers. Last week, the Rovers piled up 619 yards of offense in a 49-34 shootout win at Port Allegany. And surprisingly, most of the yards came on the ground as RRR Roadhouse D9Sports.Com Football Player of the Week Mike Vervoort rushed for 193 yards and three touchdowns.

So far in two games, the Rovers have barely outpassed their own running game, 563-515 as Mike and Tom Vervoort have rushed for 193 and 128 yards respectively.           

Of course, quarterback Derek Buganza can’t escape notice. He’s off to a huge start again, completing 33 of 49 passes for 557 yards with six touchdowns and one interception.        

Last week’s 247 yards against the Gators gave Buganza 7,304 passing yards in his career. The senior is just 1,241 yards behind Lancaster Catholic's Kyle Smith's state-record 8,545 yards. In Week One, Buganza became just the ninth passer in Pennsylvania history to go over 7,000 career passing yards, and against Port Allegany he passed current Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Chad Henne (Wilson-West Lawn - 7,071 yards) and current Pitt back-up quarterback Pat Bostick (Manheim Twp. - 7,260 yards) to move into sixth place all-time in Pennsylvania. Next on the list will be former Notre Dame star Ron Powlus (Berwick - 7,342 yards) and Lakeland graduate Evan Kraky (7,447 yards).        

In other AML crossover games, Johnsonburg (1-1) travels to Otto-Eldred (0-2), Cameron County (0-2) hosts Kane (1-1) and Sheffield visits Ridgway in a game of 0-2 teams. While Sheffield has yielded 121 points in two games, it has gotten a pretty good start from speedster Kalil Slaughter, who has rushed for 215 yards, scored five of the team’s six touchdowns and leads the defense in tackles.        

The Clearfield Bisons (2-0) visit Penns Valley (0-2) in a non-conference game. Quarterback Curtis Frye has completed almost 70 percent of his passes for 345 yards while Derek Morgan has rushed for 217 yards. Derek Danver has caught 10 passes for 140 yards. The Rams have scored just one touchdown in their first two games.        

The 0-2 DuBois Beavers will try to win their first game when they travel to 0-2 Slippery Rock for a District 10 Region 5 game.        

In the lone Saturday afternoon game, 2-0 Bradford visits winless Erie Central in a District 10 Region 6 contest. The Owls’ Pat Pascarella has already rushed for 432 yards.