CLARION – How rare is it for two football teams to play each other three times in one season?

So rare that the guru of Pennsylvania high school football history Don Black says it hasn’t happened in 60 years when Susquehannock met the West York JV’s three time during the 1946 season and it hasn't happened in District 9 in 93 seasons when Coudersport beat Port Allegany three times (6-2, 1-0 and 24-6). 

But it will happen at 5 p.m. Saturday evening at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium when Curwensville (10-2) takes on defending champion Coudersport (12-0) in the District 9 Class A championship game.

The third seeded Golden Tide are hoping the third time is a charm, because top seeded Coudersport had won the first two meetings including 20-12 in Week One and 14-6 three weeks ago in the AML Title game.

Overall, this will be the teams fifth meeting since Oct. 29, 2005, with Coudersport winning the first four. The Falcons knocked Curwensville out of the District 9 playoffs 28-26 in the semifinals last year and also beat the Golden Tide 41-13 in the 2005 AML Title game.

Curwensville’s last win over Coudersport came Oct. 30, 2004, when the Tide knocked off the Falcons 26-14 in the AML Title game. That was the last time Coudersport lost to a District 9 opponent. Since that defeat, the Falcons are 24-0 against District 9 foes and 25-1 overall.

The Golden Tide have put together a pretty good streak of their own over the last three-plus seasons.

Since Week Eight of the 2003 season, Curwensville is 32-6 overall with just five loses to District 9 opponents. Four of those loses have come to Coudersport.

Coudersport is looking to become just the fourth repeat champions in the 20 years of the District 9 Class A football tournament and the first since Clarion-Limestone turned the trick in 2002 and 2003. Smethport did it twice in the 1990’s (1991-92 and 1995-96 – The Hubbers also won the 1990 Class AA title).

A win would give the Falcons their fourth District 9 Class A title (1994, 2001, 2005). Coudersport is 3-0 in Class A title games and 3-2 in District 9 title games overall losing in the 1988 and 1990 Class AA championship games.

For the second straight year, the Falcons have become and airborne team in the playoffs.

Last year, Coudersport averaged 48.8 yards per game passing in the regular season before improving that to 156.2 per game in five playoff games.

This season it is the same thing for Coudersport. The Falcons averaged 59.3 yards per game passing during the regular campaign but have passed for 393 (196.5) in two playoff games. That includes 263 yards passing and five touchdowns in a 34-14 win over Johnsonburg in the semifinals Saturday afternoon at Clarion University.

The passing attack is a two-headed one for Coudersport.

Junior Boomer Wetzel, who was the starting quarterback on last season’s championship team, is completing 46.1 percent of his passes (35-for-76) for 566 yards, eight touchdowns and six interceptions.

This season, Wetzel is splitting time with junior Justen Kinder, who transferred to Coudersport before the season. Kinder is connecting on 40.3 percent of his aerials (27 of 67) for 373 yards, five touchdowns and two picks.

Logan Hathaway (20 catches, 364 yards, 7 TDs) leads a talented receiving corps that received a boast when Sam Decker (7 catches, 148 yards, 1 TD) returned from an injury in an opening round 32-14 playoff win over Clarion.

That receiving corps includes a couple of very talented, big junior tight ends in Blair Heimel (5 catches, 82 yards) and John Hau (4 catches, 72 yards), who create mismatch problems especially near the goal line and on 2-point conversion attempts.

While the postseason has been about going to the air for Coudersport, the Falcons can also run the football as evidence by their 222.5 yards per game average on the season.

A bulk of that yardage has come from senior Chris Cavallari, who was slated to be a wide out and part-time back at the start of the year. But an injury to Decker in the Week One win over Curwensville made Cavallari the feature back.

He has responded in a magnificent way and is the second leading rusher in District 9 with 1,626 yards and 18 touchdowns on 255 carries. He is also a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield with 15 grabs for 180 yards and three scores.

While the offense has been very good, the Coudersport defense has been great all season.

The Falcons are allowing 5.9 points per game which ranks No. 1 in District 9, seventh in Pennsylvania and third among Pennsylvania Class A teams.

Coudersport has five shutouts on the season and has allowed seven or fewer points in eight of its 12 games while never allowing more than 14 points in any one game.

A talented front seven leads that defense.

Linebacker Drew Levavasseur leads the team with 7.9 tackles per game, two sacks and two interceptions. Fellow linebacker Kirk Duffee is adding 6.5 tackles per game and four sacks, while defensive end Isaac Cary has 5.7 tackles per game and nine sacks. Linebacker Kody Frederick leads the team with 12 sacks while adding 5.1 tackles per game. Cavallari, a linebacker, also has 12 sacks while adding 3.8 tackles per contest.

Safety Colton Corey and cornerbacks Hathaway and Derek Burdick led the team with four interceptions each.

Curwensville, which beat an injury depleted Redbank Valley squad 32-7 in the semifinals Saturday at Clarion University, is looking for its third District 9 Class A title, all since 2000.

The Golden Tide last won the title two years ago beating Clarion-Limestone. Curwensville also won the title in 2000.

Curwensville is 2-1 all-time in District 9 title games losing to Coudersport 18-13 in the 2001 title game at Brockway.

Senior running back Nick Sipes, the all-time leading rusher and touchdown scorer in District 9 history, leads Curwensville’s offense.

Sipes is the leading rusher in District 9 this season with 1,905 yards and 30 touchdowns on 312 carries. He needs 95 yards to become the fourth District 9 runner since 2000 to break the 2,000-yard mark. His brother, Nate, was the last to do it running for 2,511 yards in 2004. He has run for at least 100 yards in 35 consecutive games.

In his career, Sipes has 5,881 yards rushing and 83 touchdowns. He is the first District 9 running back to eclipse the 5,000-yard mark and only the second to get 80 total touchdowns (Dave Richards of Clearfield).

Going into this season, only 16 players in Pennsylvania football history had reached 6,000 career rushing yards.

While most of the attention on Curwensville’s offense focuses on Sipes, senior quarterback Shawn Sopic plays a key role as well.

Sopic is 33-8 as a starting quarterback while leading the Golden Tide to three AML South titles, one AML Title and one District 9 Class A title.

On the year, Sopic is 37-for-94 passing (39.4 percent) for 781 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions. He is also the top running quarterback in District 9 this year with 115 carries for 877 yards and seven scores. With 123 more yards he would become the first District 9 quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since the start of D9Sports.com in 2000.

In his career, Sopic is 130-for-311 passing for 2,310 yards, 27 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. He also has run the ball 250 times for 1,527 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Sopic’s top target is Jesse Hoover, who has 16 catches for 350 yards and three touchdowns. Brandon Hess is adding six grabs for 123 yards and a touchdown while running 86 times for 413 yards and four touchdowns.

While not quite at the same level as Coudersport, Curwensville’s defense is pretty good as well.

The Golden Tide are allowing 10.8 points per game and have two shutouts while holding six opponents to seven points or less.

Sipes leads that defense with 7.4 tackles per game, while Nathan Russell has 5.7 tackles per game and had a team-high seven sacks going into the Redbank Valley game.

Dave Kalgren is chipping in with 4.9 tackles per game and four interceptions, while Sopic has 3.8 tacklers per game and seven picks. Philip Michaels is adding six interceptions.