CLARION GIVES WISER 100TH COACHING VICTORY

RIMERSBURG – It was a night of celebration for the Clarion Area football team, as the Bobcats gave 16^th-year head coach Larry Wiser his 100^th career victory with a 56-0 win over Union in Rimersburg.

Wiser, who was drenched by a bucket of water late in the game, is now 100-50-4 in his Bobcat coaching career.

"I don’t know what to say," Wiser said. "I am kind of embarrassed about it. That (taking credit) isn’t me. I think everyone knows me. It is like I just said to the kids right here. It is a reflection on a lot of good guys I have had working with me and a lot of good kids I have had working with me. To say that anyone individually (had a lot more than others to do with it wouldn’t be fair.) Alex Arth (a long-time assistant coach who retired a couple of seasons ago, Kevin Fitzsimmons (another former long-time assistant coach), Tony Cherico and my present staff all are a big part of it. There are just a lot of people have contributed to it. I can’t thank them all enough."

Union head coach Scott Kindel, who was a player for Clarion when Wiser got his first coaching victory, took the blame for the Golden Knight performance.

"I have said all along that my kids attitude is great," Kindel said. "They are playing hard. It is my job to better prepare them. We have got to do that. I take full responsibility. The kids executed some plays nice. We just have to learn to spring some plays together."

Clarion had no problem stringing together some plays, and fittingly enough for the Bobcats on this historic night, they used a strong running game and a suffocating defense, two Wiser trade marks, to give the head coach his milestone win.

The Bobcats rushed 39 times for 315 yards gaining 90 percent of their 350 total yards of offense on the ground, while allowing just 127 yards including 40 on the ground to Union.

"I thought Union would run a goaline defense most of the time," Wiser said. "When they did that it gave us the outside a lot. Then they widened their ends, which allowed us to bring it back inside. The off-tackle play was there early, and then we were able to go back inside with the trap play that worked very well."

In another staple of the Wiser-era, Clarion used six runners to gain the 315 yards with four runners gaining at least 60 yards.

Elliot Fabri led the Bobcats with five carries for 95 yards and two touchdowns. Dave Larson added 14 carries for 88 yards and two scores, Brad Rapp had 11 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns and Chris McSwain had four carries for 71 yards and a touchdown.

Wiser was happy to see Fabri and Rapp step up big especially considering Clarion was without its leading rusher James Myers who was hurt late in last week’s win over Redbank Valley.

"We have to get Elliot on the football field," Wiser said. "He is a big kid who is just learning the system. Rapp is a freshman who we brought up and a player we like. I thought he was a little tentative running the ball out there at times, but then made he made some nice runs and got a couple of big gains."

While Clarion did most of its damage of the ground, the Bobcats did throw eight passes this week, which were the eight passes, which were just one fewer than Clarion had thrown all season.

"We had a chance to do some things tonight that we hadn’t been doing," Wiser said. "The dry weather allowed us to throw the ball a little bit. We also got to see some of our back-up running backs do a nice job."

On defense, where the Bobcats didn’t allow an offensive touchdown for the second straight week, Clarion caused four Union turnovers and sacked the Golden Knights three times.

"We are coming along (on defense)," Wiser said. "Early on we didn’t have the kind of experience we have had at linebacker in the past. Now we are getting there. Tonight we played a lot of different defense. We played a lot of nickel and dime packages."

Once again Lucas Schaeffer led the charge on defense for the ‘Cats with two sacks, two fumbles caused and a fumble recovery. McSwain added a sack, while Jason Brosius, Chad Dolby and Mason Billotte also recovered fumbles. Billotte and Larson were credited with fumbles caused.

The game was actually pretty close for a quarter and a half.

Clarion led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a 5-yard run by Larson at the end of the opening drive.

Three minutes into the second quarter, McSwain made it 15-0 on a 45-yard run. After that the scoring quitted until the end of the quarter when the Bobcats scored three times in a span of 3:50.

The first touchdown come on a 6-yard run by Larson with 4:43 left in the first half making it 22-0.

The score came just a couple of minutes after Larson had fumbled the ball just before diving across the Union goaline. Union, however, gave the ball right back to Clarion on a Damien Pezzuiti fumble setting the Bobcats up at the Union 13, and this time Larson didn’t fumble when crossing the white end line.

A little under three minutes latter, Rapp, a freshman, scored his first high school varsity touchdown on a 3-yard run making it 29-0.

Clarion then took advantage of a fumble by quarterback Adam Milanovich on a sack by Schaeffer late in the first half to put the game away.

Two plays after the turnover, which gave the Bobcats the ball at the Union 25, Zac Toven, a quarterback for Union last season who is now playing for Clarion, hit Cole Sessions with a 17-yard scoring strike to make it 36-0 with 53.7 seconds left in the first half. Sessions came back on the ball after it was slightly tipped by a Union defender before turning and scoring the touchdown.

With the score 36-0 at halftime, the Mercy Rule went into effect meaning a running clock in the second half.

Thanks to the running clock, the half moved along at a brisk pace with Clarion putting three more scores on the board.

Fabri scored his first touchdown on a 13-yard run with 8:50 left in the third quarter.

Then, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Fabri took a handoff from his fullback position, went straight up the middle, cut to his left and went 66 yards for his second touchdown of the night. The score put Clarion up 49-0.

The Bobcats closed out the scoring two minutes later when Rapp galloped in from nine yards out making it 56-0 with 9:48 left in the game.

Toven was 3-for-8 passing for Clarion for 35 yards and the touchdown. Sessions had two catches for 23 yards and the score.

Milanovich was 12-for-29 passing for 87 yards, while Jeremy Craig ran eight times for 28 yards and caught four passes for 45 yards. Ryan Freilino had five catches for 21 yards.

With the win Clarion advances to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the KSAC and is in a three-way tie for first place with Clarion-Limestone and Moniteau. The Bobcats travel to 3-1 Karns City next week.

Union's record falls to 0-4 overall and 0-4 in the KSAC. The Golden Knights are at A-C Valley next week.

CLARION 56, UNION 0

Score by Quarter

C – 7 29 6 14 – 56

U – 0 0 0 0 – 0

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Dave Larson 5 run (Larson kick), 8:12

Second Quarter

C – Chris McSwain 45 run (Lucas Schaeffer pass from Zac Toven), 9:11

C – Larson 6 run (Larson kick), 4:43

C – Brad Rapp 3 run (Larson kick), 1:50

C – Cole Sessions 17 pass from Toven (Larson kick), 53.7

Third Quarter

C – Elliot Fabri 13 run (Kick failed), 8:50

Fourth Quarter

C – Fabri 66 run (Larson kick), 11:48

C – Rapp 9 run (Larson kick), 9:48

Team Statistics

C U

First Downs 16 9

Rushes-Yards 39-315 22-40

Passing Yards 35 87

Passing: Comp-Att-Int 3-8-0 12-30-0

Total Yards 350 127

Penalties-Yards 5-40 5-75

Punts-Avg 2-32 6-22.5

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 8-4

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Clarion: Dave Larson 14-88, Zac Toven 2-(-2), Brad Rapp 11-62, Chris McSwain 4-71, Elliot Fabri 5-95, Sean Wolf 1-2, Team 1-0. Union: Ryan Freilino 2-(-4), Jeremy Craig 8-28, Adam Milanovich 5-13, Damien Pezzuiti 2-(-7), Josh Holden 4-16, Nate Boltz 1-(-6).

Passing – Clarion: Zac Toven 3-for-8, 35 yards, 1 touchdown. Union: Adam Milanovich 12-for-29, 87 yards, Nate Boltz 0-for-1.

Receiving – Clarion: Corey Corbett 1-12, Cole Sessions 2-23. Union: Jeremy Craig 4-45, Ryan Freilino 5-21, Damien Pezzuiti 3-21.

Punting – Clarion: Chris McSwain 2-64. Union: Ryan Freilino 6-135.

Sacks – Clarion: Lucas Schaeffer (2), Chris McSwain. Union: Rick Laskey (½), Josh Holden (½).

Fumbles Recovered – Clarion: Jason Brosius, Lucas Schaeffer, Chad Dolby, Mason Billotte. Union: Fred Lawrence.

Fumbles Caused – Clarion: Lucas Schaeffer (2), Dave Larson, Mason Billotte.