By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Clarion turned an inadvertent whistle that took away a fourth-quarter fumble recovery from the Bobcats into a motivating tool that helped it score 28 unanswered points in the final 7:58 to beat Redbank Valley 28-7 Thursday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

Early in the quarter with Clarion (4-1 overall, 4-1 KSAC) trailing 7-0 the Bobcats appeared to recover a fumbled punt return by Redbank Valley (2-3, 2-3) at the Bulldog 30-yard line. But the officials blew the whistle before the play was dead, and by rule the punt had to be redone. Redbank Valley then handled the punt the second time and took over at its own 14-yard line.

The crowd was not happy booing for a long period of time, and the Bobcat sideline was unto pleased as well. But instead of letting the call get it down, Clarion’s defense responded forcing a three-and-out, and Cody Renninger then fired up the team even more my returning the ensuing punt 13 yards to the Redbank Valley 27-yard line.

“I thought our kids got fired up, but I still felt we were playing pretty solid (before that),” Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said.

At that point, backup sophomore quarterback Brandon Heeter, who on the previous series had taken over the reins of an offense that had gone six straight quarters without a touchdown,  took over throwing the first of three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to get Clarion within a point at 7-6. The scoring pass was a 23-yard toss over the middle to tight end Gavin Griffin.

Dan Walters then recovered a fumble at the Redbank Valley 22, and a couple of plays later Heeter connect with Renninger for a 16-yard scoring pass to give Clarion the lead at 14-7 following a two-point conversion pass to Renninger from Heeter.

After another Redbank Valley punt, Kevin Grejda capped a three-play, 61-yard drive with a 24-yard touchdown run making it 22-7 with 4:14 to play, and Heeter added a 6-yard touchdown pass to Renninger on a fourth-down play with seven seconds remaining.

“I’ve never been part of a game that’s gone that south that fast, that’s for sure,” Redbank Valley head coach Brandon Rapp said. “They didn’t do a thing for three quarters, and I thought we were playing well. It was just self-implosion. I guess that’s my fault. I’m the leader of the team. Maybe everyone should just point the fingers at me and blame me for everything. I’ll put that on my shoulders.”

Clarion’s defense was a big part of the comeback, as the Bobcats limited Redbank Valley to 92 yards in the game with 48 of those coming on the Bulldogs lone scoring drive which came early in the second quarter and ended with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Bain to Shiloh Buchleitner.

“I thought our kids played well all game,” Wiser said. “We had some people at some different spots (because of injuries). We just played solid defense, our secondary did a great job.”

Heeter’s presence on the field also seemed to jolt the Bobcats. Behind the sophomore, who took helped lead Clarion to the District 9 Class A title game last season, the Bobcats rolled up 177 yards of offense in the fourth quarter after being limited to 110 in the first three with Walters behind center.

“I don’t know (if there is a quarterback controversy),” Wiser said. “I guess. It’s something I’ve got to go with.

“Danny went down on his shoulder; he got kind of a stinger right there. Brandon had a nice week, and I felt we needed to get in and throw the ball. They were tacking us up a lot inside, and I just felt (Brandon) gave us a better opportunity.”

Clarion needed someone to step up, as the Bobcats were without starting running back and middle linebacker Bubba Rue, who suffered a concussion in last week’s game.

With Rue out, backup Kris Burkhart ended up rushing for a career-best 156 yards on 19 carries including nearly 100 yards in the fourth quarter alone. Burkhart had two touchdown runs called back because of penalties.

“We knew (Bubba) was going to be out on Monday,” Wiser said. “Our first thing was we weren’t going to make any excuses for not having him here. Football teams are teams that have to go through those things. Burkhart really ran well. Kris did a nice job on the outside there.”

CLARION 28, REDBANK VALLEY 7

Score by Quarters

Redbank 0 7 0 0 – 7

Clarion 0 0 0 28 – 28

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter

R – Shiloh Buchleitner 15 pass from Brandon Bain (Bain kick), 9:20

Fourth Quarter

C – Gavin Griffin 23 pass from Brandon Heeter (Kick failed), 7:58

C – Cody Renninger 16 pass from Heeter (Renninger pass from Heeter), 5:41

C – Kevin Grejda 24 run (Heeter pass from Dan Walters), 4:14

C – Renninger 6 pass from Heeter (kick failed), 0:07

R         C

First Downs            7          13

Rushes-Yards         30-58   38-197

Passing Yards         34        90

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       8-21-0  8-13-1

Total Yards            92        287

Fumbles-Lost         2-1       4-1

Penalties-Yards      5-44     7-66

Punts-Avg. 9-36.0  5-37.8

Individual Statics

Rushing – Redbank Valley: Pat Goheen 6-38, Brandon Bain 10-21, Shiloh Buchleitner 8-9, Curtis Lee 5-6, Team 1-negtaive 16. Clarion: Kris Burkhart 19-156, Kevin Grejda 10-49, Team 1-negaivte 1, Dan Walters 7-negative 3, Erik Hartle 1-negative 4.

Passing – Redbank Valley: Brandon Bain 8-for-20, 34 yards, 1 touchdown; Shiloh Buchleitner 0-for-1. Clarion: Brandon Heeter 4-for-7, 48 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception; Dan Walters 4-for-6, 42 yards.

Receiving – Redbank Valley: Shiloh Buchleitner 4-21, Keaton Truitt 1-0, Brady Shuster 1-3, Zach Dubia 1-2, Curtis Lee 1-negative 1. Clarion: Cody Renninger 4-51, Erik Hartle 2-10, Gavin Griffin 1-23, Kevin Grejda 1-6.

Interceptions – Redbank Valley: Keaton Truitt