COUDERSPORT 32, CLARION 14

Nov. 10, 2006

District 9 Class A Playoffs - First Round

By Chris Rossetti

COUDERSPORT – Going into Friday night’s District 9 Class A first round playoff game between Clarion and Coudersport, Coudersport’s head coach was wondering how his team would respond to adversity.

Mission accomplished, coach. The Falcons responded like the defending District 9 champions they are twice answering Clarion go-ahead scoring drives with long drives of their own on their way to a closer-than-it-looks 32-14 win over the Bobcats at the Coudersport Area Recreational Park.

“It was a great test for our guys tonight,” Coudersport had coach Paul Simcoe said. “It really was. One of the things we talked about all week was that we wanted to see what would happen if we got down. When we got down, we showed some character. We needed to see that.

“Hopefully, this will help us down the road. We expected a tough game, and we held in there long enough to get to them.”

If anyone – and the Coudersport coaches sure didn’t – thought Clarion was going to be an easy opponent because the Bobcats were the No. 8 seed and Coudy was the No. 1 seed, they were in for a shock.

The Bobcats (5-6) went toe-to-toe with the Falcons (11-0) for three-and-half quarters before Coudersport scored two touchdowns in the final 7:08 to put the game away.

“They are a dangerous team,” Simcoe said. “They’ve been playing well down the stretch. They’ve had a real tough schedule. We were looking for a tough game. Our kids really stepped it up in the second half.”

Coudersport led by just two points – 16-14 – nearly halfway through the fourth quarter and hadn’t been able to get Chris Cavallari, the second leading rusher in District 9 on track.

The senior was limited to five yards on six carries and missed a quarter of action because of an injury before Coudersport got the ball back at it own 17 following a Clarion punt with 10:22 left in the game.

Cavallari got the call on the first three plays of the drive and nearly tripled his yardage total picking up 14 yards.

Then, following a 9-yard run by Kyle Gee and a no gain by Drew Levavasseur, he broke a 61-yard run straight up the middle for his second touchdown of the game. The score, coupled with a 2-point conversion pass from Boomer Wetzel to Blair Heimel made it a two possession game (24-14) with 7:08 to play.

“You can play (Cavallari) tough 40 times in a row, but (carry) No. 41 he can take it to the house,” Simcoe said. “He did it twice.”

Indeed Cavallari did take it to the house twice scoring a 48-yard touchdown with 1:56 to seal the victory finishing the game with 11 carries for 124 yards and three scores.

“Cavallari made some great runs,” Wiser said. “He was stopped on the first touchdown and broke two or three tackles to get the touchdown out of it.”

If Clarion got worn down, it was because the Bobcats left everything they had on the field of play.

Clarion twice took leads on a Coudersport team that hadn’t allowed any team more than 12 points in a single game during any game this season.

The Bobcats took a 7-0 lead with 9:56 left in the first half thanks to a special teams mistake by Coudersport.

The Falcons were trying to punt from their own 16, but the snap skipped back to punter John Hau who had trouble picking the ball up. By the time Hau tried to punt it he was swarmed under by Clarion players and had the punt blocked giving the Bobcats the ball at the Coudy 4-yard line.

Three plays later, Adam Bevevino scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak making it 7-0.

Coudersport answered right back needing seven plays to go 70 yards for its first touchdown of the game.

Justen Kinder hit Sam Decker – who returned on the offensive side of the football for the first time since the Port Allegany game midway through the season – with a 42-yard pass to the Clarion 25 two plays after the touchdown.

Boomer Wetzel, the second part of the two-headed Coudy quarterback, then found Logan Hathaway in the end zone from 15 yards out to cut the score to 7-6. The Falcons went for two and got it when Kinder found Hathaway, who made a great catch in the end zone to make it 8-7 Falcons with 6:44 left in the half.

Clarion was in prime position to retake the lead when Jon Kemmer recovered a fumbled center-quarterback exchange at the Coudersport 18 with 3:15 left before the break.

But Coudersport’s defense stiffened and then held when Isaac Cary and Kirk Duffee sacked Bevevino on fourth down way back at the Coudy 33.

The Falcons weren’t so lucky after their next fumble at the start of the third quarter.

On the first play of the quarter, Carin Knight fumbled at his own 29 with Jon Deitz recovering for Clarion.

The Bobcats were flagged for a holding penalty on their first play pushing the ball back to the Coudersport 41, but Larry Stout ran off Clarion’s biggest play of the game on the next play going 38 yards down the Bobcat sideline to the 3-yard line.

Two plays later, Bevevino snuck in from the 2-yard line making it 14-8 with 1:20 into the second half.

Coudersport responded again driving from its own 25 to the Clarion 6 in eight plays thanks in part to a 25-yard Kinder run and a 21-yard pass from Wetzel to Decker.

But Clarion’s defense held on four straight plays from the 6 and took over on downs.

The Bobcats, however, gave the ball right back to Coudersport when Tony McMillen fumbled at the 5-yard line with 5:27 left in the third quarter.

The Falcons needed just two plays to get into the end zone with Cavallari scoring from a yard out with 4:44 left. Cavallari then scored on the 2-point conversion run despite bumping into his quarterback on what looked like a miscommunication between the two to make it 16-14.

“It would have been very big if we had stopped that,” Wiser said. “That was the turning point right there. It really effects the types of things you can do offensively and defensively.”

Coudersport will now host the winner of Saturday night’s Cameron County at Johnsonburg game in the semifinals next weekend.

Sacks – Clarion: Jeff Wiant, Garrett Whisner. Coudersport: Kirk Duffee 2, Chris Cavallari, Isaac Cary.