By Rich Rhoades

Three District 9 teams trying to win division titles are involved in two games vying for the WJAC-TV (Johnstown) Game of the Week Friday night.

Brookville and Punxsutawney, squaring off for the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference’s Large School Division title, and Clearfield and Bellefonte, facing off for the Mountain League’s Allegheny Division title, are two of the three games in this week’s on-line poll on wjactv.com.

Go to: www.wjactv.com/highschool/24311725/detail.html to vote for either game. You can vote as many times as you’d like. The poll shuts down Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Not to be outdone, WTAJ-TV (Altoona) will be the featured game on its Sportsbeat show and will be reporting live from the Punxsutawney-Brookville game at Jack LaMarca Stadium beginning with its evening news broadcast at 5 p.m.

Naturally, both games are the lead stories in District 9 this week.

The 7-1 Raiders visit the 8-0 Chucks, who have won 16 straight regular-season games and are looking for their first unbeaten regular season since 1977. Punxsutawney hasn’t given up a lot this year, its 33 points allowed ranking third in the state.

Head coach Alan Nichol’s defense has plenty of standouts. Ian Weaver is the leader of the defense with 73 tackles, while Devan Neal has 42. Ben Blazavich leads the team with 6 ½ sacks while adding 27 tackles. Zak Dickey and Duell Thompson each have a team-high three interceptions.

Offensively, the Chucks are led by quarterback Logan Weaver (846 yards passing, 14 TDs) and running backs Jason Fallara (564 yards, 9 TDs) and Blazavich (308 yards rushing; 13 catches, 197 yards receiving).

The triumvirate of quarterback Steven Kennedy, running back Ryan Kerr and receiver Jared Heschke leads the Raiders’ offense. Kennedy, in his first year as a starter, has passed for 758 yards and run for 557 yards and has had a hand in 21 of the team’s 33 touchdowns. Kerr went over 1,000 yards rushing and stands at 1,049 while Heschke has 25 catches for 460 yards. He broke team records for receptions and receiving yards in last week’s win at Clarion and needs one touchdown catch to break the team record in that category as well.

Heschke, at linebacker, also leads the Raiders in tackles (109) while Kerr, also a linebacker, ranks second with 61 stops.

The Raiders last won a conference title when they won the District 9 League title in 2006. The Chucks haven’t won a title since taking the District 9 League crown in 1991.

The 8-0 Bisons host 6-2 Bellefonte as both teams come in with 4-0 division records in their last Allegheny Division game of the year. Bisons quarterback Curtis Frye has passed for 1,142 yards and 10 touchdowns while running back Derek Morgan has run for 783 yards with 11 touchdowns.

It’s the first meeting between these two teams since 2007 in a game won 41-31 by Bellefonte. The Red Raiders are in a turnaround season, coming off a 1-9 campaign in 2009.

Clearfield is two wins away from its first 10-0 regular season since 2004.

Here’s a look at the rest of the weekend schedule, sorted by playoff classification:

CLASS A

As expected, it’s a traffic jam in the playoff standings, especially as teams jockey for playoff positioning and qualification. Remember that while eight spots are allotted for the playoffs, individual schools can decide whether to go to the postseason or not despite clinching a playoff berth.

For more information, go to our site’s playoff link.

Going into the weekend, the Allegheny Mountain League has seven Class A teams at 4-4 or better — Curwensville (7-1), Elk County Catholic (6-2), Cameron County (6-2), Coudersport (4-4), Johnsonburg (4-4), Kane (4-4) and Port Allegany (4-4) — while Smethport is lurking near the bottom edge of the contender list at 3-5.

Four AML teams are guaranteed playoff spots and right now, that would be Curwensville, Elk County Catholic, Cameron County and Coudersport.

But that could change a lot, considering this week’s matches. In the AML South this week, Curwensville travels to Johnsonburg as the district’s top rusher in the Tide’s Alex Holland (1,585 yards) is primed to go over 1,600 yards. Elk County Catholic travels to Ridgeway (0-8) as Crusaders running back Ricky Pearsall (1,298 yards) is set to go over 1,300 yards.

In the AML North, the key game as far as the playoff race goes is Coudersport visiting Port Allegany on Saturday with the loser dropping to 4-5. The Gators, coming off an overtime loss to Cameron County last week, are led by 1,400-yard passing in Matt Beamer. The Falcons have lost four of their last six games.

Cameron County visits Sheffield (1-7) in another Saturday game and Friday night, Smethport travels to Otto-Eldred (1-7).

If the Hubbers beat the Terrors, that’ll match their combined win total of the four previous seasons. They haven’t had a winning season since going 6-4 in 2004.

With a Smethport win, the AML could have three 4-5 teams going into Week 10, assuming Brockway beats Kane and Curwensville takes care of Johnsonburg. The Port-Coudersport loser will obviously go 4-5.

So with four guaranteed playoff spots, the AML would have Curwensville, Elk County Catholic and Cameron County for sure with the Port Allegany-Coudersport winner holding the fourth spot going into the final week.

In the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference, Clarion (4-4) and Redbank Valley (4-4) will be the KSAC’s two automatic berths into the playoffs. None of the other Class A schools are in the playoff hunt, putting the two at-large berths up from grabs among the AML contenders — most likely two from a group that could include Johnsonburg, Kane, the Port-Coudersport loser and Smethport, unless upsets wreck that scenario.

Clarion, the KSAC Small School Division champion, hosts backyard rival Clarion-Limestone (1-7) while Redbank Valley travels to Keystone (2-6).

In the other KSAC game, Union (2-6) hosts A-C Valley (1-6), which is coming of its first win since 2005.

CLASS AA

The Brockway Rovers (8-0) look to get quarterback Derek Buganza back in the lineup after sitting out last week’s 63-38 shootout win over Johnsonburg. They’ll travel to Kane (4-4).

While Buganza has made headlines — including an Air Force National Player of the Week Honor by MaxPreps.Com — fellow senior Mike Vervoort has put together a fantastic season. He’s rushed for 863 yards, averaging 10.8 yards per carry, while catching 26 passes for 500 yards. While Vervoort’s 24 touchdowns lead District 9, his rushing and receiving yardage ranks him sixth and fifth respectively in the district.

The Rovers are obviously headed to not only the Allegheny Mountain League Championship game against Cameron County, but the Class AA playoffs as well. Who joins them hasn’t been finalized beyond them and Brookville.

If both Brookville and Brockway win out, it appears unlikely that the Raiders would be able to catch the Rovers in the points standings for the top seed. That would mean a possible first-round bye for Brockway if the current No. 3 and 4 teams in the point standings —  Moniteau and Karns City — don’t go to the playoffs. It looks like Karns City (3-5) will not enter the postseason if it doesn’t finish the season with wins at St. Marys (5-3) this week and Clarion next week.

Moniteau (4-4) appears headed to a 5-5 regular season. The Warriors travel to 1-8 Kennedy Catholic Saturday before taking on unbeaten Grove City next week.

CLASS AAA

Punxsutawney and Clearfield have a leg up on other Class AAA playoff contenders Bradford (6-2) and St. Marys. The Owls host Strong Vincent (4-4) Friday night hoping to win their final two regular season games and hope Punxsutawney or Clearfield stumble. It’s just a two-team field in the district playoffs once again. A loss by the Owls and wins by both Punxsutawney and Clearfield would certainly clinch the title game slots and set up a rematch of last year’s championship game between the Chucks and Bisons.

Owls running back Pat Pascarella has rushed for 1,428 yards, second in the district.

CLASS AAAA

The DuBois Beavers (4-4) are guaranteed a spot in the four-team District 6-9-10 Sub-Regional playoffs. Strong Vincent, State College (3-5) and Central Mountain (3-5) are ranked 2-4 behind the Beavers going into this weekend.

The Beavers host 8-0 Grove City. Running back Shawn Newpher is closing into 1,000 yards rushing with 849.