By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Bubba Rue ran for 138 yards and three touchdowns, including one jaw-dropping run, to lead Clarion to a 48-0 win over cross-town rival Clarion-Limestone Friday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

“We loaded up in our old Power I offense that we ran in 2005 and tried to go right at them,” Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. “It was just an outstanding job on Bubba’s part, and (fullback) Kevin (Grejda) did a nice job blocking for him and the line also played well.”

Rue scored on a pair of 1-yard runs and on a 17-yard scamper. It was the 17 yarder, the game’s first touchdown that was truly amazing.

Similar to Rue’s touchdown run against Keystone when he went into the line and somehow came up the other side despite a host of Panthers around him, the Bobcat senior seemed dead in his tracks at the C-L 10-yard line. But while everyone in the stadium, including the public address announcer, though he was down, Rue had other plans squirming and powering his way out of C-L tackles to score the touchdown.

“How Bubba does it?” Wiser asked laughing. “That’s the second time this year it looks like the play is over and you don’t hear a whistle blow and all of a sudden he mysteriously breaks out of nowhere. “

Kevin Grejda (49 yards rushing; 31 yards receiving) added a pair of touchdowns for Clarion (6-2 overall, 6-2 KSAC), while Dan Walters (1 of 2 passing, 25 yards; 5 yards rushing) threw a touchdown pass to Grejda, ran for a score and also scored on a pair of two-point conversion runs.

Clarion’s defense also stood tall in limiting C-L (1-7, 1-7) to 56 yards of offense including negative 10 rushing. The Lions managed just five first downs, and C-L quarterback Dan Miller, who was trying to become the ninth known quarterback in District 9 history and the fourth in KSAC/Little 12/Southern 7 history to pass for 4,000 yards was thwarted in his effort to reach the milestone while being sacked six times.

Miller needed 131 yards to get to 4,000 career yards but managed just 59 against the Bobcats on 5 of 11 passing while running for his life most of the night. Gavin Griffin had four sacks and Walters two to lead the Clarion defensive charge.

 “We didn’t want him to sit back there and pick us apart,” Wiser said. “He has three or four really good receivers.”

With the victory, Clarion remains in control of its own destiny in the race for one of the top two seeds in the District 9 Class A playoffs. All the Bobcats need to do to secure one of the top two spots is finish as the top Class A team in the KSAC, which they will do with a win Friday night over Brookville or a Keystone loss to Punxsutawney. A Bobcat loss to the Raiders coupled with a Panther win over the Chucks would give that spot to Keystone and leave Clarion most likely making a road trip in the opening round of the playoffs instead of staying at home.

“We are still a work in progress,” Wiser said. “We are still making mistakes, and we are still trying to get some kids healthy and stay out of this flue and everything else that is going around. We just need to get go out next week and hopefully get ready for the playoffs.”

NOTES – Clarion is now 23-17 all-time vs. C-L and has won six straight, its second-longest streak in series history. The Bobcats won 10 straight from 1978-87 … The 48-point margin of victory was the third-highest in the series for Clarion over C-L surpassed by a pair of 51-point wins (63-8 in 1986 and 51-0 in 1999) … Clarion has won the last six meetings by a combined score of 250-24 including 195-12 in the last four … Wiser is now 10-14 all-time as a head coach vs. C-L, while C-L head coach Todd Smith falls to 2-6 vs. the Bobcats as the Lions head man … Miller now needs 72 yards for 4,000. He would be the second C-L quarterback to reach 4,000 career passing yards joining Hayden Johnston who had 4,401. Other KSAC quarterbacks over 4,000 career yards are Keystone’s Tom Pore (4,504) and Adam Black (5,338) and Moniteau’s Tyler Armagost (5,278).  

CLARION 48, CLARION-LIMESTONE 0

Score by Quarters

C-L 0 0 0 0 – 0

Clarion 6 22 14 6 – 48

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

Clar – Bubba Rue 17 run (Heeter pass failed), 3:24

Second Quarter

Clar – Kevin Grejda 28 run (Cameron Slike kick failed), 10:57

Clar – Rue 2 run (Dan Walters run), 9:22

Clar – Grejda 25 pass from Walters (Walters run), 1:12

Third Quarter

Clar – Rue 1 run (Slike kick), 8:05

Clar – Walters 5 run (Slike kick), 6:07

Fourth Quarter

Clar – Kris Burkhart 28 run (Slike kick failed), 9:47

       CL       CLAR

First Downs            5          20

Rushes-Yards         25-(-10)           48-319

Passing Yards         66        40

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       6-17-0  3-6-0

Total Yards            56        359

Fumbles-Lost         4-2       1-0

Penalties-Yards      2-10     4-26

Punts-Avg. 6-26.3  3-29.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Clarion-Limestone: Jace Rhoads 6-7, Joe Tomasi 3-5, Zac Roller 2-3, Jonathan Pezzuti 1-negative 7, Dan Miller 13-negative 18. Clarion: Bubba Rue 25-138, Kris Burkhart 8-80, Kevin Grejda 5-49, Lewis Armstrong 3-22, Corbin Ragley 1-15, Erik Hartle 1-8, Dan Walters 1-5, Brandon Heeter 1-4, Marcus Smerker 1-0, Team 2-negative 2.

Passing – Clarion-Limestone: Dan Miller 5-for-11, 59 yards. Jace Rhoads 1-for-5, 7 yards. Clarion: Brandon Heeter 2-for-4, 15 yards. Dan Walters 1-for-2, 25 yards, 1 touchdown.

Receiving – Clarion-Limestone: Zach Kemmer 3-42, Joe Tomasi 2-21, Jonathan Pezzuit 1-3. Clarion: Kevin Grejda 2-31, Cody Renninger 1-9.