District 9 Class A Playoff Home

STRATTANVILLE – The 2002 District 9 Class A playoffs get underway at 7 p.m. Friday night when No. 4 Ridgway (7-2) travels to top-seed Clarion-Limestone (9-0) in a semifinal contest.

Both teams enter the contest on a roll. C-L has yet to lose a game this season going 9-0 and outscoring its opponent by an average of 42-5.6 a game. The closest game the Lions have been in all season was Week Two when they beat St. Marys 21-14.

Meanwhile, Ridgway has rebounded nicely from a 1-2 start winning six straight to claim an at-large berth in the playoffs. The Elkers have been a solid team on both sides of the ball as well outscoring their opponents 25.9-11.8 per game.

"This is what you work for all year," Ridgway head coach Mark Morelli said. "Our kids earned the right to be here. They are excited and proud to be representing the AML conference.

"We will be the underdog going in and definitely will have our work cut out for us against a very talented, state-ranked Clarion-Limestone team. They are No. 1 in both offense and defense in District 9. They are a challenge for our football squad."

While Morelli believes his team is the underdog, and being the No. 4 seed traveling to the No. 1 seed may also lean things that way, recent history tells us this won’t be an easy game for the KSAC team, C-L.

The KSAC is just 3-5 in its past eight postseason meeting against AML teams including 2-3 against members of the AML South dating back to 1999.

"Those seeds mean absolutely zero," C-L first-year head coach John Kundick said. "They look nice on paper, but when you go on the field it means nothing. Someone has to be the No. 1 seed. But they are still going to play the game. It isn’t even something any of our players or coaches have mentioned. We aren’t taking anything for granted. Talk is talk and talk is cheap."

While the AML has had some recent success in the playoffs against the KSAC, it is the KSAC team in this match-up that has the playoff experience.

The C-L Lions are making their third straight trip to the District 9 Class A playoffs and their fourth trip in the past five years.

Ridgway, meanwhile, is going to the playoffs for just the second time since 1994. The Elkers last District 9 playoff appearance was a 40-14 loss to Cameron County in 1999 when Ridgway had to play a Saturday game following a Tuesday play-in win over Coudersport. The Elkers previous trip before that was the 1993 District 9 Class A championship game which they lost 33-6 to C-L.

"I don’t think C-L really has an advantage," Morelli said. "We have played ‘playoff games’ for the past six weeks since we started out 1-2. We knew each game was a ‘must’ win in order to get here. The other intangible that I think has helped us is our veteran coaching staff, We have over 65 combined years of varsity coaching experience on our staff. All of our coaches have either played or coached in playoff games before. Some of our staff members have coached athletes beyond District 9 in regional and statewide competition. We know what to expect and how to prepare."

Morelli makes a good point, and while the Lions have been to the playoffs a lot in the last half decade, C-L has not had much success in postseason play going only 1-3 in their past three appearances with that win coming over then Elk County Christian in 1998. The Lions have since lost three straight postseason games including 30-14 to Coudersport at home in the opening round of the Class A playoffs last year.

"I really don’t know if the past has a lot to do with things," Kundick said. "Any kind of experience can benefit a team, but at the same time it is just another game. You have to play it like any other game."

While C-L’s recent playoff experience hasn’t necessarily been a good one, the Lions have been very successful the past three years winning 17 consecutive regular season games, 17 of their past 18 contests and 24 of their last 28 games going back to the start of the 2000 season.

"There is some truth to winning breading winning," Kundick said. "But it really doesn’t mean anything except on paper. Mentally it is great for the kids. But each game has to be played like any other game. And it has to be played like it is the last one."

Ridgway’s seven-game streak comes as no real surprise either. The Elkers started last season 1-3 before closing the year with five straight wins.

"Our senior leadership has just been outstanding," Morelli said. "Our kids do not know the meaning of the word quit. The two teams we lost to, Brockway and Kane, are both in the playoffs and both of those games were not decided until either overtime or late in the fourth quarter. We knew at that point in the season we could play with anyone in our league. It was just a matter of taking it one game at a time and playing out the schedule. We, the team and coaches, have done that."

While both teams come into this game on a roll, they have done it with different styles.

C-L is a high-scoring bunch that also plays great defense. The Lions come into the game as one of the top ranked teams in the state in scoring averaging a District 9-leading 42 ppg. The Lions defense is also one of the top ranked units in the state allowing just 5.6 ppg. That figure goes down significantly to 3.78 ppg when the points allowed by the second-team defense late in a couple of games are taken out.

"The No. 1 thing is that it is a total team effort both offensively and defensively," Kundick said. "On offense our success can be attributed to a couple of things including that we have numerous kids who can handle the ball and we have the kids up front who are doing their job. On defense, it is the same thing. The front line has done its job, which helps the linebackers do theirs. And the secondary has come a long way from the start of the season when it was a pretty much all new kids back there. The most important thing is that it is a total team effort, and the kids know it. And they play it that way."

Ridgway, meanwhile, has been more of a ball-control team that has shown the ability to score at times averaging 25.9 ppg. But the Elkers have had some games where the offense has been very successful, scoring 25 or more points in four games, yet others where it hasn’t been as sharp, scoring 20 or fewer points in three games.

But no matter the number of points put up on the scoreboard, Ridgway has consistently shown an ability to control the line of scrimmage.

"Offensively we are continuing to drive people off the ball," Morelli said. "Time of possession and ball control have been major keys for our offense."

While the offense has seen its up and downs, the Ridgway defense has been very consistent.

The Elker "D" is allowing only 11.8 ppg and has allowed only two teams to score 20 or more points on it allowing a season-high 21 points in a 21-20 overtime loss to Brockway. Ridgway is coming off back-to-back shutouts and has allowed only 48 points (8 ppg) during the winning streak.

"Our kids are making the right adjustments and the right calls on the field as well as executing their position responsibilities," Morelli said. "We have really come on the past four weeks of the season with our defensive efforts. Our defense may be the most overlooked past of our team."

Both teams have some players on offense who can make big plays.

For C-L they include quarterback Hayden Johnston, running backs Ben Brooks and Brendan Huwar, wingback David "Tuffy" Brooks and wide receiver Brad Beggs.

Johnston, only a sophomore, has completed 42.4 percent of his passes (36-for-85) for 607 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has thrown only five interceptions. But as good as Johnston’s arm can be, his feet are maybe even more dangerous. Directing the Lions option attack, Johnston has rushed 113 times for 591 yards and eight touchdowns.

When Johnston isn’t holding onto the ball, he is usually giving it to either Huwar or Ben Brooks.

Ben Brooks has rushed 85 times for a team-leading 852 yards (10.0 avg.) and five touchdowns. Huwar, meanwhile, has toted the ball 142 times for 815 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Wingback David Brooks, a freshman and the younger brother of senior Ben, has carried the ball 33 times for 188 yards and two touchdowns.

When Johnston decided the throw the ball, his two main targets are Beggs, a junior, and senior tight end Harley Doane.

Beggs has a team-high 22 catches for 345 yards and seven touchdowns, while Doane has seven grabs for 103 yards and a score.

"C-L’s offense poses a lot of problems," Morelli said. "No. 1, I am not sure if four days are enough to prepare for everything they throw at you. They are a very diverse team and can attack you from a variety of ways. Their skill people are an impressive group to watch. Hayden Johnston may be the best quarterback we have faced since Kane’s Tyler Smith. Secondly, they play a fast-paced type of game and try to control the tempo as well as the flow of the game. Defensively, we need to stay on our toes and contain their big play threats as well as we can and hope we can outscore them."

When Ridgway has the football look for the Elkers to keep the action on the ground. Ridgway has run for over three times as many yards as it has passed for and 81.7 percent of all the offensive plays run by Ridgway this season have been runs.

Leading the rushing attack is running back Ryan Mitchell who has toted the ball 150 times for 727 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Quarterback Andy Kelly has rushed 60 times for 225 yards and five touchdowns and also completes 56.1 percent of his passes. He is 55-for-98 passing for 674 yards and five touchdowns to go along with six interceptions.

Two other running backs, Josh Mercer and Dave Bundy, also see a lot of carries.

Mercer has touched the ball 74 times and ran for 323 yards and six touchdowns, while Bundy has 76 carries for 452 yards and three scores.

When the Elkers pass the ball, Justin Buchler, Josh Shirey, Mitchell and Bundy all are favorite targets of Kelly’s.

Buchler has a team-high 14 catches for 144 yards and one touchdown, while Bundy is the leading receiver yardage wise with nine grabs for 181 yards and two scores. Shirey has added 13 catches for 156 yards, and Mitchell has 12 grabs for 81 yards and a score.

Kundick believes the game will be determined at the line of scrimmage.

"We have stressed to our kids how important it is to get off the ball," Kundick said. "We have to be quick off the ball, and we can’t make any mental mistakes. Our backs have to hit the holes.

"We need to play as a team like we have done all season. We aren’t going to do anything different for this game. We are just going to prepare for each team and figure out what is going to work, and the kids know they have to work together. "

The winner of this game takes on the winner of the other District 9 Class A semifinal match-up between Coudersport and Kane in the Class A title game next week at a time and location to be determined.