COUDERSPORT 34, JOHNSONBURG 14

Nov. 18, 2006

District 9 Class A Playoffs - Semifinals at Clarion University

CLARION – Just how is a team suppose to stop the Coudersport Falcons?

Going into Saturday afternoon’s District 9 Class A semifinal game between Coudersport and Johnsonburg at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium, the notion was that if you stopped the Falcons on the ground you had a chance to win the game.

Scratch that theory.

Johnsonburg (8-3) limited Coudersport (12-0), which entered the game ranked fourth in District 9 in team rushing, to 104 yards on 50 carries (2.08 per game). But the Falcons went airborne throwing for a season-high 263 yards and five touchdowns in a 34-14 win. This from a Coudersport team that came into the game ranked 20^th out of 26 teams in District 9 in passing offense averaging 65.7 yards per game in the air.

"They had nine and 10 games on the line of scrimmage," Coudersport head coach Paul Simcoe said. "With that many people up, if we get rid of the ball, they can’t cover our receivers. They did a good job of controlling our running game, so we worked on (the passing game) with the idea that if they did stuff the (rushing game) that was our plan to try to throw the ball."

Johnsonburg stacked the line all right, but all that did was allow the Falcons’ two-headed quarterback platoon to have a field day with receivers running open in the secondary.

Justin Kinder was 8-for-11 passing for 144 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, while Boomer Wetzel was 6-for-10 passing for 98 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Logan Hathaway (99 yards, 2 TD’s) and Sam Decker (85 yards, 1 TD) each had five catches for Coudersport.

"They passed the ball very well today," Johnsonburg head coach Tom Launer said. "They got some guys open and hit them. They did a real good job.

"We expected them to pass the ball a lot. We worked on it all week in practice."

While Coudersport went airborne to get the win, Johnsonburg wasn’t completely able to contain the Falcons ground attack.

Chris Cavallari had another 100-yard game, his ninth of the season, picking up 104 yards on 29 carries. He also added two catches for 33 yards and a touchdown.

Meanwhile, the Falcons defense might have been even more impressive than the offense, which racked up 367 yards of total offense while controlling the ball for 34:50 compared to 13:10 for Johnsonburg.

The Rams were limited to 62 yards of total offense including negative six on the ground and only two first downs. In fact, only one of those first downs was earned by Johnsonburg, as Coudersport gave the Rams the other one on a penalty.

"The better teams with the good defenses have been able to pin their ears back and come after us," Launer said. "We have struggled running the football. We’ve tried different things. We tried running from the spread. We tried running from the full-house. We tried running from the Wing-T. We got good running backs, and there were times we had good success. But it hurt that we couldn’t run the ball as well as we wanted to. They could pretty much go after Calvin."

Johnsonburg, in fact, had just one play that went for more than four yards in the game. That was a 65-yard touchdown pass from Calvin Grumley to John Yonker midway through the third quarter that briefly gave the Rams a flicker of hope.

But the scoring pass was the only highlight for Grumley, who was 2-for-12 passing for 68 yards and three interceptions while being sacked six times. That was a big reason he had 10 rushes for negative 24 yards.

"Our kids get to the ball," Simcoe said. "We aren’t big, but our kids get to the ball. I think that is the thing that is the strongest on our defense."

Johnsonburg actually took a 7-0 lead 13 seconds into the second quarter thanks to a bad snap punt by Coudersport that gave the Rams the ball at the 3-yard line. Jesse Dennis scored on the first play after the punt snafu on a 3-yard run.

"We were pretty excited there," Launer said. "We figured if we could get another touchdown or two, we had a shot to win the game. We sure didn’t expect to come down here and give up 34 points."

For Coudersport, it was the second straight week that a poor punt snap gave its opponent the ball inside the 5-yard line for an easy touchdown.

"We aren’t getting beat by the other team," Simcoe said. "Everything other than the long pass play were due to miscues on our part. We have to eliminate those mistakes and do good things every play, which means making good decisions."

The Falcons, like they did last week against Clarion, responded immediately to Johnsonburg’s score driving 65 yards in seven play scoring on a 28-yard pass from Kinder to Cavallari with 9:58 left in the half.

The big play of the drive was a 34-yard run by Adam Foust on the first play of the drive.

The Falcons took the lead when Wetzel hit Blair Heimel with the 2-point conversion pass.

Coudersport quickly made it 16-7 on its next possession going 60 yards in seven plays and scoring on a 20-yard fourth down pass from Kinder to Brett Whitman. It was Whitman’s first catch of the season. Wetzel then hit John Hau for the 2-point pass.

The Falcons made it 22-7 with just over a minute left in the half when Wetzel hit Decker with a 28-yard scoring toss to complete a 3-play, 36-yard drive that was set up by Whitman’s second interception of the game.

Coudy had a chance to go ahead by another score before halftime when Derek Burdick picked off a Grumley pass and returned it to the Johnsonburg 38. A penalty at the end of the return gave the Falcons the ball at the Ram 28, but Wetzel was picked off by John Yonker on the first play after the interception.

The Falcons did go up three scores – 28-7 – midway through the third quarter on a 33-yard pass from Wetzel to Hathaway.

Johnsonburg answered right back on the 65-yard scoring pass to Yonker making it 28-14 with still a quarter-and-half left to be played.

The Rams then almost came up with a defensive play that could have changed the game.

With Coudersport facing a second-and-10 from its own 34, the Falcons got tricky throwing a halfback pass by Cavallari. Johnsonburg had two defenders covering Decker on the play, and the ball was nearly intercepted. But Decker caught the deflection for a 21-yard gain to the Johnsonburg 45.

While Judd Zilcosky did get an interception later in the drive for Johnsonburg, he picked the ball at the goal line and only returned it to the Rams 38.

The Rams then went backwards on three plays and were forced to punt giving Coudy the ball back at midfield.

From there, the Falcons put the game away on a 34-yard scoring pass from Kinder to Hathaway.

"One of the real key turning points was when we had the halfback pass intercepted and it went off the kids hands and they completed the pass," Launer said. "I thought that was a real key point in the game."

GAME NOTES – Johnsonburg last touched the ball with 7:46 to play when it turned it over on downs. Coudersport used 12 plays to go 36 yards while running off the final 7:46 … Isaac Cary had three sacks to lead Coudersport, while Kody Frederick and Cavallari each had two … Johnsonburg had four sacks of its own with Chad Whippo and Nathan Weber getting two each … It was the second win by Coudy over Johnsonburg this season … The Falcons knocked off the Rams 24-0 Oct. 13 … Coudersport will now meet Curwensville in the District 9 Class A title game at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 25, at Memorial Stadium in Clarion. It will mark the third meeting for the teams this year. Coudersport won the first two … Coudersport entered the playoff having thrown for just 593 yards all season, but the Falcons have thrown for 393 in two postseason games while unveiling the shotgun formation for the first time this season.

COUDERSPORT 34, JOHNSONBURG 14

Score by Quarters

Johnsonburg 0 7 7 0 – 14

Coudersport 0 22 6 6 – 34

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter

J – Jesse Dennis 3 run (Calvin Grumley kick), 11:47

C – Chris Cavallari 28 pass from Justin Kinder (Blair Heimel pass from Boomer Wetzel), 9:58

C – Brett Whitman 20 pass from Kinder (John Hau pass from Wetzel), 5:11

C – Sam Decker 28 pass from Wetzel (Wetzel pass failed), 1:06

Third Quarter

C – Logan Hathaway 33 pass from Wetzel (Kinder pass failed), 6:13

J – John Yonker 65 pass from Grumley (Grumley kick), 5:16

Fourth Quarter

C – Hathaway 34 pass from Kinder (Wetzel pass failed), 9:32

JB COUDY

FIRST DOWNS................... 2 20

RUSHES-YARDS............ 19-(-6) 50-104

PASSING YDS............. 68 263

Passes Comp-Att-Int........... 2-13-3 15-22-2

TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 32-62 72-367

Punts (Number-Avg)............ 5-27.4 2-32.0

Fumbles-Lost.................. 1-0 2-0

Penalties-Yards............... 3-20 6-56

Possession Time............... 13:10 34:50

Third-Down Conversions........ 0 of 8 7 of 15

Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 1 3 of 5

Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-1 2-4

Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 4-30 6-33

RUSHING: Johnsonburg-Jesse Dennis 7-20; John Yonker 2-minus 2; Calvin Grumley 10-minus 24. Coudersport-Chris Cavallari 29-104; Adam Foust 10-59; Carin Knight 1-10; Sam Decker 1-minus 1; Drew Levavasseur 1-minus 1; Justin Kinder 3-minus 11; Boomer Wetzel 2-minus 21; TEAM 3-minus 35.

PASSING: Johnsonburg-Calvin Grumley 2-12-3-68; Jesse Dennis 0-1-0-0. Coudersport-Justin Kinder 8-11-1-144; Boomer Wetzel 6-10-1-98; Chris Cavallari 1-1-0-21.

RECEIVING: Johnsonburg-John Yonker 1-65; Chris Perez 1-3. Coudersport-Logan Hathaway 5-99; Sam Decker 5-85; Chris Cavallari 2-33; John Hau 1-23; Brett Whitman 1-20; Carin Knight 1-3.

INTERCEPTIONS: Johnsonburg-Judd Zilcosky 1-38; John Yonker 1-21. Coudersport-Brett Whitman 2-23; Derek Burdick 1-7.

SACKS (UA-A): Johnsonburg-Nathan Weber 1-1; Chad Whippo 1-1; Judd Zilcosky 1-0. Coudersport-Isaac Cary 2-1; Kody Frederick 2-0; Chris Cavallari 1-1.