CLARION – Sam Swartzfager carried the ball 24 times for a career-high 304 yards to lead Keystone to a 35-0 win over Clarion in Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference action Friday.

Swartzfager also scored a career-high four touchdowns in helping Keystone (6-3 overall, 5-3 KSAC) get its first win over Clarion since 1997.

"Sam ran the ball very well," Keystone coach Dan Reed said. "The offensive line and the wide receivers helped get him get some yards, but he got a lot of those yards on his own."

"We had our guys there," Clarion coach Larry Wiser said. "We hit him at the line of scrimmage. We hit him the backfield. He broke a heck of a lot of tackles, and he really impressed me."

The Panthers also completed back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 1996-97 seasons and for only the second time since 1988-89.

Keystone finished 7-3 last season.

Even though his squad finished the 2002 campaign with six wins, Reed felt the season did not go as he had hoped.

"To be very honest, it has been a disappointing season for us record-wise," Reed said. "We had big plans this year, and I know the kids had big plans.

"We had a lot of adversity and injuries this season, and the kids fought the adversity and got through it and played well tonight. They could have quit, but they didn’t and played really hard."

Meanwhile, Clarion (4-5, 3-5) fell short of having its fourth straight winning season.

"That’s disappointing," Wiser said about a sub-.500 finish. "I said at the beginning of the season that if we could stay healthy, we could play with anyone."

The Bobcats lost two games this season by two points or less. Clarion fell to West Shamokin 8-6 and to Redbank Valley 15-14.

Because of the cold, muddy and rainy conditions, neither team was successful passing the football.

Keystone completed the only pass of the game, a 37-yard play from Buck Neely to Ben Cobler that appeared to be incomplete.

Even though the Panthers have been known to throw the ball often, it was their running game that excelled against Clarion.

"We’ve been running the ball more this year than we have in the past," Reed said. "We were very confident with our running game coming into this (contest)."

Defensively, the Panthers held Clarion to only 132 yards rushing. Corey Corbett led the way for Clarion with 50 yards, while Joel McNeil added 44.

"Our offensive and defensive lines both were very dominating," Reed said. "It’s easy to call plays when you can run the ball like we did and stop the run, especially in a game like this when the passing games are eliminated."

Keystone got on the scoreboard in the second quarter when Swartzfager broke free for a 62-yard touchdown run.

Buck Neely added the first of his three extra points to give the Panthers a 7-0 edge with 11:35 left in the first half.

Swartzfager put Keystone up by another touchdown before halftime with a 2-yard TD run at the 2:39 mark.

Neely tacked on another extra point to give Keystone a 14-point lead.

Swartzfager finished the first half with 145 yards rushing, as Clarion only had 96 yards of total offense in the first two quarters.

Despite their struggles on offense, the Bobcats were still in the game before Keystone’s Billy Colwell 42-yard fumble return for a touchdown with 8:12 left in the third quarter.

Neely’s point after attempt was blocked, but Keystone possessed a 20-0 lead.

According to Reed, Colwell’s play was the turning point of the game.

"Billy made a big play like Billy does for us," Reed said.

The Sam Swartzfager show kept rolling four minutes later, when the sophomore rumbled 38 yards for his third touchdown of the game.

Swartzfager also ran in the two-point conversion to give Keystone a 28-0 lead with 4:12 left in the third period.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Swartzfager tacked on his last score of the contest with a 2-yard touchdown run.

The Neely extra point attempt was successful to give Keystone a 35-0 lead with 7:02 remaining.