NEW BETHLEHEM – Entering the game as the third ranked team in the state in Class A by the Pennsylvania Football News, Clarion Area showed why scoring 55 unanswered points to defeat Redbank Valley 55-7 Friday night in the season and KSAC opener for both teams.

Redbank Valley scored the games first touchdown on a 75-yard run by Ron Geist 1:55 into the game, but could only muster 43 yards the rest of game.

"After the first touchdown, we played really solid defense," Clarion Area head coach Larry Wiser, who saw his team win its 11^th consecutive regular season game, said.

Clarion Area’s offense also played solidly scoring 20 points in the first quarter and 48 in the first half on its way to the win.

The Bobcats first touchdown came on a 46-yard scoring strike from Mario Bernardi to Zac Mechling with 8:35 left in the opening quarter.

Clarion Area then took the lead for good on a 16-yard touchdown run by Kyle Cathcart with 6:17 left in the quarter.

The Bobcats quickly made the score 20-7 when JD Hughes scored on a 31-yard jaunt with 2:18 remaining in the opening frame.

Clarion Area then added four touchdowns in the second quarter.

The first scored came with 8:24 left in the half when Dan Patton ran 22 yards making the score 27-7. A 36-yard pass from Bernardi to Patton 37 seconds latter made the score 34-7, and a five-yard run by Patton with 2:42 left in the half gave the Bobcats a 41-7 lead. Taylor Sessions then closed out the first half scoring for Clarion Area catching a 20-yard pass from Bernardi with 10 seconds left making the score 48-7.

Cathcart scored the game’s last touchdown from one-yard out with 7:22 left in the third quarter.

Cathcart led Clarion Area with 88 yards rushing, while Patton had 79 yards rushing. As a team Clarion Area rushed for 317 yards on 34 carries (9.3 yards per carry average).

Bernardi was 3-5 for 102 yards and three touchdowns, as the Bobcats rolled up 419 yards of total offense on just 39 plays (10.7 yards per play).

Geist ended up with 88 yards rushing for Redbank Valley.

Sessions led the Clarion Area defense with eight total tackles and two sacks. Kyle Cathcart and Brock Luke each added seven tackles.

OIL CITY -- Matt Siembida rushed for 106 yards to lead Oil City to a 27-0 win over Punxsutawney in the season opener for both teams Friday night at Oil City.

Siembida’s effort helped the Oilers out gains Punxsy 285-51 on the ground and 344-71 overall.

Oil City scored twice in the second quarter and then once each in the third and fourth quarters to get its 27 points.

Siembida scored the games first touchdown on a 19-yard run with 10:15 left in the second quarter.

The Oilers then added another touchdown when Brandon Hall sneaked in from one yard out with 3:55 left in the half that added with a two-point conversion gave the Oilers a 14-0 halftime lead.

Oil City then added its third touchdown in the third quarter when Ryan Hess plunged in from three yards out with 6 minutes left in the quarter giving the Oilers a 20-0 lead.

The final Oil City touchdown came when Hall scored on a quarterback sneak with 9:21 left in the game.

Paul Johnston led Punxsy with 21 yards rushing.

RIMERSBURG – Brian Lipps didn’t waste anytime showing he is an ample replacement for Brandon Simpson as Union’s quarter throwing four touchdown passes and going 9-25 for 139 yards to lead Union to a 30-21 win over Moniteau in the KSAC opener and season opener for both squads Friday night at Union.

"I thought Brian did a good job," Union coach Alan Pryor said. "He stayed in the pocket well. It is always nice to get that first win."

Three of Lipps’ touchdown passes found their way into the hands of Josh Carmichael, while Matt Bliss caught the other one.

Union didn’t waste much time getting ahead of Moniteau scoring the games first 14 points on a 25-yard pass from Lipps to Matt Bliss and a 10-yard toss to Carmichael.

After Moniteau cut the led to 14-7, Lipps hits Carmichael with a nine-yard pass bringing the score to 20-7 with 5:27 left in the opening half.

Union added two points on a safety after Adam Traister blocked a punt, and Lipps found Carmichael with a 33-yard pass to give Union its 30 points.

Carmichael ended the game with six catches for 107 yards and the three touchdowns.

Anthony Conner was the Golden Knights leading rusher carrying the ball 12 times for 66 yards. He also had 16 tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery on defense.

FOXBURG – The Ray Gilman era at A-C Valley started with a bang, as the Falcons topped West Shamokin (a combination of the Dayton and Shannock Valley school districts) 55-6 in the opener for both team Friday night at A-C Valley.

Gilman’s son Chris led the way for the Falcons rushing for 91 yards and scoring three touchdowns in three different ways.

Chris Gilman’s first score come on a 1-yard run, his second on a 21-yard screen pass from Mike Stewart and his third on an 84-yard kickoff return.

Cory Jackson added three touchdowns for A-C Valley, as he caught three passes for 108 yards. The three catches all went for touchdowns with Jackson catching strikes of 41, 46 and 21 yards from Stewart.

In addition to his four touchdown passes, Stewart ran for 48 yards on six carries and one touchdown. Dan Leach also scored a touchdown for the Falcons on a 36-yard run in the fourth quarter .

KNOX – Karns City gave new head coach Ed Conto his first win topping Keystone 41-6 in the KSAC and season-opener for both teams Friday night at Keystone.

The Gremlins wasted little time getting on the scoreboard, as Beau Rattigan went 67 yards for a touchdown on the first offensive play of the season for Karns City.

Keystone’s lone score came in the fourth quarter when Adam Black hit Kurt Carnahan for a 37-yard touchdown

Black ended the day 14-40 for 149 yards and the TD. Carnahan had seven catches for 122 yards.

Karns City, meanwhile, had no trouble running the ball racking up 354 yards rushing on 44 carries (8.04 yards per carry).

TITUSVILLE – Brookville was never able to get anything going on offense, as Titusville knocked off the Blue Raiders 25-0 in the season opener for both teams Friday night at Titusville.

Titusville scored 13 points in the first quarter on a 16-yard pass from Mike Wright to Luke Alex and a 10-yard pass from Wright to Kyle Minium.

The Rockets made the score 19-0 when Justin Krasa scored from 14 yards out in the third quarter, and then James Sye scored from four yards out in the fourth quarter to end the scoring.

Sye led all rushers with 148 yards.

SMETHPORT – Royce Novosel-Johnson’s 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 28 seconds to play combined with Tyler Smith’s two-point conversion pass to Mike Jammerson led Kane to a stunning 28-27 win over traditional District 9 powerhouse Smethport in the season opener for both teams at Smethport.

The final seconds heroics by the Wolves kept John Petruzzi from winning his coaching debut at Smethport, and handed the Hubbers their first opening day loss since 1983.

Novosel-Johnson’s heroic run came just seconds after Smethport’s Dan Mitchell had scored from 15 yards out giving the Hubbers a 27-20 lead and capping what looked like a great Smethport comeback.

Smethport had trailed 20-7 at halftime before coming back to take the lead on Mitchell’s scoring run with 41 seconds left in the game.

Smith, a sophomore, who didn’t enter the game until the second quarter because of an injury to starter Troy Wile complete 7-10 passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns to go along with two two-point conversion passes. His second touchdown pass to Alan Stewart, a 17-yarder, came as time expired in the first half giving the Wolves the 13-point advantage.

Marc Shelgren led Smethport with 97 yards rushing on seven carries.

DUKE CENTER – Elk County Christian recovered an Otto-Eldred fumble in the end zone with 11 seconds to play clinching a 7-0 win in the season opener for both teams at Otto-Eldred Friday night.

Trailing by seven points, the Terrors moved inside the ECC 10-yard line in the closing seconds before coughing up the fumble, the 13^th fumble of the game between the two teams.

The game lone touchdown came in the first quarter when ECC’s Craig Timm scampered in from five yards out.

The Otto-Eldred defense did not allow the Crusaders another score the remainder of the way and played well enough for the Terrors to win forcing six turnovers including five recovered fumbles. The Otto-Eldred offense, though, couldn’t capitalize on the defenses play giving ECC the win.

Timm led the ECC with 129 yards on 20 carries, as the Crusaders gained 307 yards of total offense.

Terry Fowler led Otto-Eldred with 60 yards rushing on 15 carries.

COUDERSPORT – Curwensville turned four Coudersport miscues into four touchdowns on its way to a 32-0 win over the Falcons at Coudersport Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

Curwensville’s first four scores came on a punt return, a 21-yard drive following an interception, a blocked punt and a 3-yard drive after a fumble.

The miscues by the Falcons were enough to allow the Golden Tide to overcome an offense that managed only 140 yards rushing on 30 carries.

CLEARFIELD – Clearfield won its 13^th consecutive opening game against Bradford 35-14 Friday night at Clearfield in the season and District 9 League opener for both teams.

Clearfield scored the game first touchdown on a 75-yard run by Matt Meckey just over a  minute in to the game, but Bradford quickly responded with a 13-yard run by Jason Casey that tied the game with nine minutes left in the opening quarter.

The Bisons, though, needed only one play to regain the lead, as Corey Picard hit Brian Kaspick on a 70-yard touchdown pass to give Clearfield a 14-7 lead.

Clearfield’s next touchdown was set up after a bad snap on a punt attempt by Bradford gave the Bisons the ball at the Bradford 13. The score came on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Picard to Kaspick that gave Clearfield a 21-7 lead.

A six-yard touchdown run by David Richards in the third quarter gave Clearfield a 28-7 lead.

Bradford got back into the game late in the third quarter when the Owls blocked a punt and Ryan Farrell picked it up took it 36 yards into the end zone cutting the Bisons lead to 28-14.

Clearfield, though, got the game’s last touchdown on a two-yard run by Picard in the fourth quarter to seal the victor.

Clearfield gained 295 yards on offense, while Bradford has 225 including 208 on the ground on 40 carries. Jim Nuzzo led the Owls with 143 yards on 12 carries.

CLARION TWP. – Thanks to a blitzkrieg offense that scored 41-first half points, Clarion-Limestone started the 2000 season off with a bang beating St, Marys 44-20 at Clarion-Limestone.

"We were lucky," C-L coach Clyde Conti said. "We scored early, which was a good thing. But we need to get a lot better in a hurry if we are going to compete with some of the team on our schedule."

C-L quickly found itself ahead 14-0 despite running only two offensive plays.

On the Lions’ first offensive play of the season Dan Alderton took a middle screen from J.J. Ferguson 46 yards for a touchdown with 10:21 left in the first quarter. Rocky Davis' extra point made the score 7-0 C-L.

After forcing St. Marys to punt, C-L wasted little time scoring again as Alderton took the second offensive play of the season 60 yards for a touchdown. Davis' extra point made the score 14-0 with 9:14 left in the opening quarter.

St. Marys was able to come back and cut the C-L lead to eight when Dustin Ruberto scored on a two-yard run with 5:27 left in the first quarter making the score 14-6.

C-L, however, quickly got the touchdown back when Alderton caught a 30-yard td pass from Ferguson with 2:08 left in the quarter to make the score 21-6.

The Lions added to their lead in the second quarter when Ben Brooks broke a 35-yard run for a touchdown with 7:46 remaining in the opening half to give the Lions a 27-6 lead.

C-L then made the score 33-6 less than three minutes latter when Brooks scored again on a 35-yard run.

Then with 24 seconds left in the opening half, C-L put the mercy rule into effect when Brooks scored from nine yards out making the score 41-6 at the half.

In the third quarter the Lions added to their lead when Davis kicked a personal best and school-record 40-yard field goal with 7 second remaining in the quarter giving C-L a 44-6 lead.

St. Marys' second team scored two fourth quarter touchdowns.

The first score came on an 18-yard run by Dan Fox that added with a two-point conversion run by Dustin Ruberto made the score 44-14 in favor of C-L.

The final score of the game then came when Doug Surra caught an 11-yard pass from Brandon Bennett with 3:26 to play.

Alderton led C-L with 60 yards rushing and a touchdown and 102 yards receiving and two touchdowns giving him 162 yards and three TDs for the game. Brooks added 129 yards rushing on just 11 carries and three touchdowns. Ferguson was 4-8 for 18 yards and two touchdowns.

Bryan Babb led St. Marys with 64 rushing yards, while Bennett was 4-4 for 50 yards in a touchdown in relief of Tony Kopp.

RUSSELL –  For the second straight years, Brockway blanked Eisenhower.

Last season, the Rovers earned a 44-0 victory at home. This time Brockway won 40-0, dominating Eisenhower on both sides of the ball.

Evidence, at least statistically, of the domination was the Rovers outgaining Eisenhower 371-10 including 268-0 at halftime. In addition, Brockway played its first team for only the first half.

The Rovers gained 353 of their yards with the rushing game.

Jesse Vivian led the way on the ground for the Rovers by gaining 118 yards on 15 carries. Vivian also rushed for a touchdown.

Wingback Aaron Cantafio, who twice has had 1,000-yard seasons, 82 yards on nine carries and led the Rovers on the score sheet with three touchdowns.

Brockway built a 34-0 lead by halftime.

YOUNGSVILLE– Trailing to Youngsville 7-3, Ridgway's Dusty Dickant 1-yard touchdown run with 1:14 left in the first half turned out to be the game-winning score as Ridgway pulled out an 9-7 victory.

The Elkers got on the board first when Jon Fleming kicked a 22-yard field goal at the 2:48 mark in the first quarter.

Youngsville responded by taking the lead when Caleb Dininy returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown. The extra point attempt was good as Youngsville possessed a 7-3 lead with 10:56 left in the second quarter.

Ridgway outgained Youngsville 208-115 in total yards and also held a 96-24 edge in the air.

The Elkers running game was led by Dickant, who gained 68 yards on 16 carries. 

DuBois Area, who lost many players to graduation, was outgained 218-151 and didn't mount its first scoring drive until late in the fourth quarter.