By Rich Rhoades

The Week 6 schedule in District 9 football gets started one day earlier this week as Clarion (3-2) hosts Union (0-5) Thursday night at Clarion University.

The Thursday night game is an annual affair between at least one Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference team during the Autumn Leaf Festival. But even though it’s during the festival, it’s not the biggest game of the week this year.

That honor goes to the battle of unbeatens in Karns City where the 5-0 Gremlins host 5-0 Redbank Valley Friday night. It’s the first of three KSAC showdowns that will play a part in determining this year’s champion.

It’s the start of the meat of the KSAC schedule for Karns City, which comes into the game on a 25-game conference winning streak. The Gremlins play at Clarion next week and then host current unbeaten Moniteau in two weeks. Redbank Valley visits Moniteau in Week 9.

Karns City, winners of the last two straight KSAC titles, handed Redbank Valley its first loss of the season the last two years in Week 5 — 23-20 at Redbank Valley last year and 23-7 at Karns City in 2006. Each year, Redbank Valley has finished second in the conference. The Bulldogs last beat the Gremlins in a 29-25 win at home in 2005.

The Gremlins are led by quarterback Anthony Stimac (203 yards passing, 5 TDs, 4 Ints., going into last week’s game) and running back Markus LaVan (18 carries, 202 yards, 1 TD) offensively. Head coach Ed Conto’s squad has outscored opponents, 242-39, giving the Gremlins plenty of opportunities to unload the bench, which it has.

Josh Stimac led the team in tackles with 28 before the Keystone win while Levi Buck had six sacks.

Redbank Valley is led by running back Alex Bladel, who has rushed for 639 yards and 10 touchdowns. Quarterback Shiloh Buchleitner has passed for 505 yards and rushed for 278. He’s thrown 7 TD passes and rushed for four more.

On defense, Bladel leads the team with 44 tackles, Pat Goheen has four sacks and Jerrett Magagnotti has three interceptions, including a big pickoff in overtime last week to seal the win over the Bobcats.

In the other KSAC games this week on Friday, unbeaten Moniteau (5-0) hosts Keystone (2-3), Punxsutawney (1-4) hosts Clarion-Limestone (1-4) and Brookville (2-3) hosts A-C Valley.

Another Falcons loss would put their losing streak to 28, which would be one more than the recent longest of streak of 27 held by Otto-Eldred. That streak ended at the end of the 2002 season.

In the Allegheny Mountain League, five games are scheduled for Friday night and two on Saturday. In the AML-North, unbeaten Cameron County (5-0) travels to Otto-Eldred (1-4), Coudersport (3-2) hosts Smethport (0-5) on Friday while Sheffield (0-5) hosts Port Allegany (1-4) Saturday afternoon.

In the AML-South, the big matchup of the week is in Kane where the 3-2 Wolves hosts unbeaten and first place Johnsonburg (5-0). It’ll be the biggest test to date for the Rams, who won their AML-South game last week against Ridgway.

There is much to be determined in the AML-South race as Curwensville (4-1) hosts Ridgway (2-3) in the other Friday game. Saturday night, Brockway (2-3) travels to Elk County Catholic (4-1).

In the Mountain Athletic Conference-Nittany Division, both St. Marys (4-1) and Clearfield (4-1) are unbeaten in conference play. The Flying Dutchmen have a big test at home against 4-1 Tyrone. Clearfield is on the road at 2-3 Bald Eagle Area.

In the MAC-Seven Mountains Division, DuBois (3-2) travels to Bellefonte (3-2).

In District 10 Region 6 play, Bradford (4-1) hosts Erie East (0-5).

A STUDY IN OVERTIME

In last week’s triple overtime game at Redbank Valley between the Bulldogs and Clarion, the teams entered rarified air when it comes to extra time in District 9 football history.

Redbank Valley’s 28-21 win over the Bobcats tied two other games for the longest played in District 9 history. Since the PIAA instituted the current overtime rules prior to the 1995 season, only two other games went to 3 OT. Remarkably, the first two were played in 1995, including the first week of the season when DuBois beat Hollidaysburg, 16-10. Eight weeks later, Moniteau beat Karns City, 33-26, in Week 9.

Then thirteen years later, District 9’s third triple OT game was played.

The 2008 season has gotten off to a fast start with overtime games as seven games have gone into extra time. That’s only two less than the most OT games played in one season — nine in 2005. And this is after 2007 went overtime-less, the only season to avoid an OT game.   

Of the 53 games that have reached overtime in District 9 history, 39 (3 3OT and 11 2OT) have needed just one overtime period to declare a winner. This total includes the district’s first-ever OT game back in the 1990 playoffs when Clarion-Limestone beat Clarion, 21-14 in OT for the Class A Championship.

Redbank Valley was the first team to play in back-to-back overtime games since Bradford and Johnsonburg both did it in 2005. Bradford lost two straight double-overtime games to start the season while Johnsonburg played in two straight and three in four weeks later in the season. No team has played in more than two straight OT games.

Only Sheffield and Punxsutawney have failed to play in an overtime game among the district’s 26 football teams. Karns City has played in the most OT games, eight.

Here’s a look at how teams have fared lifetime in overtime, in order of winning percentage:

Clarion-Limestone                  5-0       1.000

DuBois                                    2-0       1.000

Moniteau                                 1-0       1.000

Port Allegany                          1-0       1.000

Coudersport                            1-0       1.000

Elk County Catholic               4-1       .800

Redbank Valley                      4-2       .667

Brockway                                2-1       .667

A-C Valley                              2-1       .667

Clearfield                                3-2       .600

Brookville                               3-2       .600

Ridgway                                 3-2       .600

Keystone                                 2-2       .667

Karns City                               4-4       .500

Cameron County                     2-2       .500

Smethport                               2-3       .400

Johnsonburg                            2-4       .333

Kane                                        2-4       .333

Curwensville                           1-3       .250

Bradford                                 1-3       .250

Otto-Eldred                            0-1       .000

Union                                      0-2       .000

St. Marys                                 0-3       .000

Clarion                                                0-3       .000

PLAYOFF GLANCE

Naturally, there is a lot to be sorted out as far as the playoff races go, especially in Class A. Here’s a quick look at what’s brewing:

Class A

You can pretty much book seven of the eight playoff spots in the Class A division. The final spot appears to be a battle between Keystone and Ridgway. Both teams are 2-3.

The seven “locks” are Cameron County, Redbank Valley, Johnsonburg, Curwensville, Elk County Catholic, Coudersport and Clarion.

It’s very likely that Cameron County and Coudersport will win out with the rest of their weak AML-North schedules, which would put Cameron at 9-0 and Coudersport at 7-2. It’s not so easy to figure in the AML-South with Johnsonburg, Curwensville and Elk County Catholic. Those teams are 5-0, 4-1 and 4-1 respectively and all have to play each other.

With road games at Karns City and Moniteau and another “be careful” game with Punxsutawney, the Bulldogs could finish as good as 9-0 or as low as 6-3. Clarion still has to play Karns City and Brookville, so the Bobcats will be anywhere from 7-2 to 5-4 going into a non-conference game with Sharpsville in Week 10.

In looking at Keystone and Ridgway, the Panthers will be underdogs in at least four of their final five games with the Clarion-Limestone game next week the toss-up. Ridgway may not be favored in any of its last four, but not necessarily overwhelming underdogs either. The Elkers have to play Curwensville, Kane, ECC and Brockway.

Class AA

It’s not an open tournament this year as only four teams of the district’s six teams — Karns City, Moniteau, Kane (up from Class A last year), Brookville, Brockway and A-C Valley — will get playoff berths.

Moniteau and Karns City are locks for the playoffs, putting Kane (3-2), Brockway (2-3) and Brookville (2-3) in a battle for the final two spots.

Class AAA

Some deserving team will probably be sitting home in Class AAA this year, as only two teams can qualify for the District 9 playoffs.

Bradford, Clearfield and St. Marys are all standing at 4-1 right now, and it is quite possible the Oct. 31 Clearfield-St. Marys game could determine which one of those teams is headed to the playoffs and which is headed home.