By Rich Rhoades

HYDE – The Clearfield Bisons couldn't control what happened in Brookville, but they could on the muddy field at the Bison Sports Complex.

The Bisons pulled away with a 47-14 victory over the visiting St. Marys Flying Dutchmen, keeping their chances at a District 9 League title alive until learning that the Raiders beat the Chucks to win their first title.

Clearfield (6-2 overall, 3-1 D-9 League) led 28-14 at halftime and put the game away in the second half, scoring three touchdowns and limiting St. Marys (2-6, 1-4) to only 27 yards of offense.

On senior night, Bisons senior Dave Richards turned in another big game. Richards rushed for 264 yards on 26 carries and scored four touchdowns on runs 2, 33, 4 and 10 yards.

Richards now has 31 touchdowns this year and upped his season yardage total to 1,761 yards. With 3,902 career rushing yards, he's within striking range of the 4,000-yard milestone going into next week's game at DuBois.

Todd Shaw scored two touchdowns for the Bisons, catching an 11-yard TD pass from Michael Sayers to start the game's scoring and returning an interception 24 yards in the third quarter.

Craig Gardner also scored on an interception return, a 44-yarder in the second quarter, his third interception return for a touchdown this year.

Richards barely took game honors in rushing. St. Marys' Doug Surra rushed for 200 yards on 15 carries. He scored on an 83-yard run on the Dutch's first offensive play of the game. Surra also had runs of 39, 32 and 40 yards. The four big runs accounted for 194 yards.

While Surra had a big night, the rest of the Dutch runners lost 10 yards on 23 carries. Quarterback Brandon Bennett completed 3 of 15 passes for 51 yards, including a 26-yard TD pass to Lopaka Hoohuli.

St. Marys hosts Philipsburg-Osceola next Friday.