CURWENSVILLE-BROCKWAY GAME HIGHLIGHTS WEEK TWO

WEEK 2 PREVIEW - Sept. 9-10, 2005

With the opening week of the season out of the way, will the close games continue?

Last week, 7 of the 15 games involving District 9 teams were decided by eight points or less, compared to only one game in last year’s opening week.

Highlighting last week’s top games was Clearfield’s 28-21 double overtime victory at Bradford. Karns City rallied from a 14-0 deficit to win 19-14 after scoring the winning touchdown with 25 seconds left in the game.

Headlining this week’s schedule of 14 Friday games is Brockway hosting Curwensville in an early Allegheny Mountain League South Division showdown. Both teams are coming off opening-week wins; the Rovers a close 12-6 win at Sheffield and the Tide in an easy 43-0 rout at Smethport.

Curwensville and Brockway have combined for four of the six AML South titles since joining the league in 1998 and three times, the winner of this game went on to win the AML South, including last year, 2001 and 200.

All three of those wins went to Curwensville, which has won 5 of 6 meetings against Brockway in the AML. Most of those games, however, have been very close as a touchdown or less decided four. Last year’s 14-7 win at Curwensville was easily the Tide’s lowest scoring output until a 20-12 loss to Rochester in the PIAA Class A Western Final.

In other games in the AML, Cameron County (0-1) visits Coudersport (1-0), Otto-Eldred (0-1) hosts Sheffield (0-1), Port Allegany (1-0) travels to Smethport (1-0), Elk County Catholic (1-0) visits Kane (1-0) and Johnsonburg (0-1) hosts Ridgway (0-1) in the 101^st meeting between the Elk County rivals.

In the District 9 League, DuBois (1-0) hosts Punxsutawney (0-1) in the 90th meeting between the teams that feature two first-year coaches in Jason Shilala of DuBois and Blake Moilan of Punxsutawney. Brookville (1-0) travels to Clearfield (1-0) in the other D-9 League contest.

In the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference, Clarion-Limestone (1-0) visits A-C Valley (0-1), Clarion (1-0) travels to Keystone (0-1) and Redbank Valley (1-0) hosts Union (0-1), which has a losing streak totaling 22 games back to the end of the 2002 season.

In non-conference games, Bradford (0-1) takes on rival Olean, N.Y. (1-0) for the 108^th time in their history. The Owls own a 59-41-7 advantage. Moniteau (0-1) visits St. Marys (0-1) and Karns City (1-0) heads to defending District 10 Class A champion Sharpsville (1-0).

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING -- Six running backs topped 100 yards last week, led by Player of the Week David Babock of Coudersport. Babcock rushed for 182 yards in Coudersport’s 26-18 win over Johnsonburg. Babcock totaled 323 all-purpose yards, including four touchdowns, one of them coming on a 97-yard kickoff return.

Kane’s Kyle Oakes (163 yards), Curwensville’s Nick Sipes (159), Redbank Valley’s Skylar Smith (153), Clearfield’s Lucas Aughenbaugh (153) and Clarion’s Chris McSwain (152) rounded out the century mark backs.

STUDYING OVERTIME -- Clearfield’s 28-21 double-overtime win at Bradford last week was the longest game since 2002 when Ridgway defeated Curwensville in two overtimes, 26-20. In 1999, two double-overtime games were played, including Cameron County’s 35-34 loss to Bishop Carroll in the second round of the state playoffs.

Since 1998, D-9 teams, including a high of four games last year, have played 20 overtime games. Only four games have gone past the first OT and none past the second extra frame. Ridgway and Curwensville played in back-to-back overtimes in 2001 and 2002 with Ridgway winning both.