By Rich Rhoades

There are still 11 District 9 teams standing in the high school football postseason going into the 11^th week of the season this weekend. That number will at least be cut by five teams as the Class A and AA semifinal rounds and the Class AAA Championship game will be played.

Friday, Clearfield and Bradford meet in the D-9 Class AAA final at Clarion University’s Memorial Field (See story). In Class AA, top-seeded Brockway hosts Brookville and in Class A, top-seeded Curwensville hosts Clarion.

Saturday, the DuBois Beavers play in a Class AAAA state playoff game against District 10 champion McDowell at Slippery Rock University at 1:30 p.m. Then at 7, Clarion-Limestone hosts Coudersport in a Class A semifinal and Redbank Valley hosts Karns City in a Class AA semifinal

For a closer look at the Bradford-Clearfield showdown click here.

Here is a closer look at the other games:

The Raiders are coming off their first playoff win since 1999 when they upset Moniteau on the road last week, 20-13. Brookville lost at Moniteau in the season opener, 52-20, so it was an abrupt turnaround. The Raiders allowed no offensive touchdowns and only 139 yards of offense.

Brookville head coach Chris Dworek will need the same defensive effort against the top-seeded Rovers this week as Brockway comes in with a seven-game winning streak. The Rovers’ only loss came in Week 2 in a tight 14-7 loss to unbeaten Curwensville.

Balance is the catch phrase for Brockway, which features three running backs over 500 yards rushing -- Bobby Liddle (736 yards, 10 TDs), Ben Donlin (560, 10) and Lenny Calhoun (511, 3) -- and one of the biggest breakout players in D-9 in quarterback Matt Foradora, who has rushed for 240 yards and passed for 854 yards and seven TDs.

The Raiders are led by quarterback Nick Heschke, who ran for 120 yards against Moniteau. He’s passed for 770 yards and run for a team-best 423 yards. Look out for running back Silas Wonderling (280 yards), who ran for 98 yards last week.

Brockway leads the all-time series, 30-27-3.

Then, Clarion came in with the big numbers and was the favorite to win. This time, the Tide have the big numbers and the Bobcats are the underdogs.

Big numbers? That’s for sure. Curwensville still leads the state in scoring (50 ppg) and point differential (42.9) even after a close 26-14 win over Coudersport in the AML Championship game two weeks ago. The Tide trailed early in the second half before pulling away. It was only the second time all year that head coach Andy Evanko’s team trailed.

It’s all about running with the Tide, who average a massive 401 yards rushing per game with 55 rushing TDs. Brothers Nate and Nick Sipes have combined for almost 3,000 yards. Nate leads the district with 1,686 yards and 25 TDs while younger brother Nick has 1,228 yards and 18 TDs. Both are averaging over 9 yards per carry.

Defensively, Curwensville yields just 146 yards per game and only 65 yards on the ground.

The Beavers have lost eight of 12 meetings against the Trojans, who are a strong team once again. DuBois hasn’t beaten McDowell since a 24-20 win in 1999.

McDowell’s only loss came to an out-of-state team (Centerville, Ohio) and the Trojans are coming off their second convincing win this year over arch-rival Cathedral Prep, 32-14. DuBois was off last week.

The Trojans are led by senior running backs Jayson White (916 yards, 20 TDs) and Justin Hammond (700 yards, 6 TDs) and senior quarterback Rob Mattis (829 yards, 5 TDs). McDowell averages 214 yards rushing and 79 yards passing per game and allows only 187 yards per game.

Leading the Beavers are running backs Mike Stewart (766, 9) and Vance Newell (509, 3), quarterback Joe Wanson (693 yards, 6 TDs) and tight end Derrick Bundy (334, 3).

The big-play Bulldogs whipped the Gremlins, 51-7, at Karns City Sept. 24. It’ll be interesting if the Gremlins can make up that much ground from their first encounter that saw Redbank Valley pile up 353 rushing yards in the rout.

The Bulldogs’ Skyler Smith and Brandon Johnston each ran for 125 yards in that game and both have put together solid seasons for head coach Ed Wasilowski. Johnston has rushed for 842 yards on only 58 carries for an incredible 14.5-yard per carry average. Smith has run for 761 yards and both have 12 rushing TDs. Bryce Miller is also dangerous, with 379 yards and eight TDs.

Karns City has an impressive offensive trio in quarterback Stephen Black, receiver David Black and fullback Josh Fiscus. Stephen Black has passed for 1,278 yards (13 TDs), most of it to David (712, 9), while Fiscus has rushed for 1,030 yards.

The Lions have split their two games without injured quarterback Hayden Johnston (injured spleen), their win coming last week in the quarterfinal round in a 27-6 win at home against Elk County Catholic.

Coudersport will be the two-time defending champion Lions’ biggest test to date without Johnston. The Falcons gave unbeaten Curwensville a tussle two weeks ago in a 26-14 loss in the Allegheny Mountain League Championship game. Coudersport is allowing just 11.6 points per game.

The Falcons, who advanced with a 34-6 win over Smethport last week, are led by running backs David Babcock (691 yards, 13 touchdowns) and Jeremiah Wagner (430 yards rushing, 1 touchdown; 12 catches, 117 yards, 1 touchdown), quarterback John Gerhart (76-of-142, 1,023 yards, 13 touchdowns, 7 interceptions) and receivers Rob Cavallari (36 catches, 514 yards, 5 touchdowns) and Mike Kehr (13 catches, 246 yards, 4 touchdowns despite missing the first seven weeks with an injury).

The Lions are led by quarterback Scott Davis (13-for-29 passing, 181 yards, 4 touchdowns, 4 interceptions) and receivers Erik White (709 yards receiving, 16 touchdowns) and David "Tuffy" Brooks (457 yards, 3 touchdowns).

Coudersport is tied with Brockway for fourth in District 9 in points allowed (11.4 ppg), and the Falcons have allowed 14 or fewer points in eight of their 10 contests including three games of 10 or less with two shutouts.

Since losing Johnston, its star middle linebacker, on defense in the second half of the Week Eight overtime win at Redbank Valley (he played the second half and overtime on offense and played the one overtime possesion on defense), C-L has allowed 56 points, 45.1 percent of the total allowed by the Lions all season. Going into the second half of the Redbank Valley game, C-L had yielded just 68 points. The Lions have allowed three straight teams to run for over 200 yards against them, although a lot of ECC’s yardage came against the second string defense.