WEEK FIVE STARTS A DAY EARLY

WEEK 5 PREVIEW - Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2004
By Rich Rhoades

Week five gets under way quickly this week as two Thursday night games are on the District 9 football schedule.

The annual Thursday night schedule comes during Autumn Leaf Festival Week in Clarion County. This year, Brookville (1-3) visits Redbank Valley (2-2) while Union (0-4) hosts A-C Valley (2-2).

Six teams -- Curwensville, Clearfield, Clarion-Limestone, Moniteau, Clarion and Coudersport -- remain unbeaten and none of them play each other, although Moniteau plays a non-conference game against undefeated Linsley School from Wheeling, W.V.

Curwensville (4-0) hosts Kane (0-4), Clearfield hosts Lewistown (0-4), Clarion-Limestone (4-0) travels to Keystone (1-3), Clarion (4-0) hosts Karns City (2-2) and Coudersport (4-0) hosts Sheffield (1-3).

In other games, Port Allegany (2-2) travels to Cameron County (0-4), Smethport visits Otto-Eldred (3-1), Bradford (2-2) travels to St. Marys (0-3), Punxsutawney (1-3) hosts Huntingdon (2-2) and Brockway (3-1) hosts Johnsonburg (2-2). Saturday, Elk County Catholic (2-2) hosts Ridgway (1-3).

KEY MATCHUPS

Smethport (2-2) at Otto-Eldred (3-1)

On paper, there are no compelling matchups on the schedule. The Hubbers’ trip to Duke Center is interesting because of the important swing week. Smethport, bouncing back after two losses to start the season, has won two straight against Sheffield and Elk County Catholic.

The Hubbers’ convincing 41-7 win came against an ECC squad that had given Brockway a tight game a week earlier. The Hubbers rushed for 224 yards and led 27-0 by intermission. Mike Mitchell, who rushed for over 200 yards against Sheffield, led the way with 70 yards on 19 carries. He’s sixth in the district in rushing with 491 yards.

Otto-Eldred, just missing out on a playoff berth in Class AA last year, would help solidify its mission to make the Class A playoffs this year with a win over the Hubbers.

The Terrors are coming off a 33-16 win at Ridgway last week. Virgil Graham, the third-ranked rusher in D-9 with 557 yards, ran for 183 yards and two touchdowns.

MILESTONES — Clearfield’s Josh Harbold went over the 2,500-yard rushing milestone in last week’s rout of Bellefonte. Harbold now has 2,506 career yards following his 211-yard, 4 TD effort in the Bisons’ 49-14 win Saturday night. He was named D9Sports.Com Player of the Week.

Clarion-Limestone senior quarterback Hayden Johnston is 95 yards shy of 2,000 career rushing yards. Johnston also has 3,626 career yards passing with 57 touchdowns.

WHERE ARE THEY FROM? Two unfamiliar foes are on the District 9 schedule this week: Coatesville, a suburban Philadelphia school out of District 1 and Linsley School from Wheeling, W.V.

The Coatesville Red Raiders (4-0), who visit DuBois Friday night, are ranked seventh in the state in Class AAAA by the Harrisburg Patriot-News and Honorable Mention by Pennsylvania Football News. They return 16 starters on both sides of the ball from a team that went 4-6 a year ago.

Junior running back C.J. Gray, at 5-foot-7, 175 pounds, has rushed for 1,019 yards on only 85 carries for a whopping average of 12 yards per carry.

Linsley School, a PIAA Class A equivalent, is also unbeaten. The private school is not part of the state’s scholastic sports alignment, instead being a member of the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference that includes teams from West Virginia and Ohio. Running back Tony Walls is one of the Cadets’ top players. He rushed for 168 yards and four touchdowns in a 40-27 win last week over Harrison City.

NEWS AND NOTES — Clarion Limestone is ranked ninth in Class A by PFN, moving up one notch from last week. Coudersport and Curwensville are Honorable Mention. Clearfield is Honorable Mention in Class AAA. The same teams have the same recognition in the Harrisburg Patriot-News rankings. … Big names on the injury list. At least three notable names in the district will miss most if not all of the rest of the season with injuries: Punxsutawney’s Devin Mesoraco, Johnsonburg’s Calvin Grumley and St. Marys’ Lucas Wendel. … Brookville is visiting Redbank Valley for the first time since 1991. … Redbank Valley hadn’t beaten anybody as bad as it beat Karns City last week (51-7) since the 1999 season, which is also the last time the Bulldogs beat the Gremlins. … 1999 is also the last time Bradford had lost a game at home before Clarion-Limestone beat the Owls last week, 8-3. … Things got touchy at the end of last week’s Otto-Eldred-Ridgway game. Instead of kneeling on the final play with an 11-point lead, Otto-Eldred quarterback Dan Terrette threw a 41-yard TD pass to Nathan Booth with four seconds on the clock against a stunned Ridgway defense. The play, as it turned out, was not called by the Otto-Eldred sideline and head coach Kerry Snow made the 11 players on the field apologize to the Ridgway coaching staff and players … Union is now among three teams in the state searching for their first points of the season. Carson Long Institute and Pequea Valley are also scoreless.