By Chris Rossetti

BROCKWAY – In May the last thing Clarion head coach Larry Wiser thought he would be doing in late November was hoisting a District 9 championship trophy as the winning head coach of the D9 Class A title.

But that’s exactly what Wiser, who announced his retirement after 21 years as head coach of the Bobcats in late May only to unretire in mid-summer, did Saturday afternoon after Clarion posted a 7-0 slugfest win over Coudersport in the championship game at Brockway’s Frank Varischetti Field.

“I was hoping to win a title as an assistant coach,” Wiser said. “To come back to where we are right now makes it so much more special. Today was obviously big on a personal level, and this whole team and community has been so good at backing us all year.”

The championship-game win was redemption for Wiser, who had acquired a reputation, fair or not, of not being able to win the “big one.” Wiser was 1-5 in District 9 title games going into Saturday and had lost four in a row including an 18-8 loss to Cameron County last season.  As a school, Clarion was 1-6 in District 9 title games heading into Saturday with the lone win coming in 1997, Wiser’s 10^th season.

“From a personal standpoint, I feel like I’ve been the best man at a lot of weddings,” Wiser said. “Today I finally got married. It seems like so long ago, 1997. I am so excited for these kids. They get to get their name up on a wall in there. They deserve everything they are getting. They worked hard at it. Seventeen weeks they have been out here practicing.”

Clarion (10-3), the second seed, won the title with defense, something they excelled out in the District 9 postseason. The Bobcats allowed just two points, on a blocked punt safety, in their three-game run to the championship becoming the first team to not allow a touchdown in the D9 Class A playoffs since the playoff field was expanded to at least four teams – it now has eight – in 1994.

Against Coudersport, the defense stood tall again allowing 213 yards and forcing three turnovers against a team that averaged nearly 25 points per game.

“They say defense wins championships,” Wiser said. “The last three weeks we have been playing great defense.”

Clarion’s two biggest defensive stops came in the fourth quarter with Coudersport in Bobcat territory.

The first one came early in the fourth quarter with the game scoreless.

Coudersport had moved from its own 11-yard line following a big defensive stand of its own – the Falcons had shut down Clarion after the Bobcats had recovered a fumble at the Coudy 9-yard line – out to the Clarion 45.

But after an incomplete pass on third-and-7 the Falcons punted the ball. A running-into-the-kicker penalty on Clarion, however, moved the ball five yards to the Bobcat 40, and Coudersport decided to go for it instead of re-punting. Garret Henry made them pay for it by blowing up an option run by sophomore quarterback Tim McCusker dropping the Falcon signal caller for a 4-yard loss.

Clarion’s offense then built of that momentum driving 56 yards in 11 plays to score the game’s only points.

The Bobcat touchdown came on a 1-yard run by Rue, who rushed for a game-high 90 yards including 73 in the second half, after an offside penalty by the Falcons on a fourth-down field goal try from the 4-yard line gave Clarion a first down.

Coudersport, though, wasn’t quite down.

Dirk Cowburn, who led Coudersport with 68 yards rushing, returned the ensuing kickoff to the Falcons 42-yard line, and runs by Creighton Hayes and Cowburn moved the ball to the Clarion 48.

After three plays netted one yard, Coudersport faced a fourth-and-9 from the Clarion 47 with 3:13 left and all three timeouts left.

The Falcons decided to go for it, but a draw handoff to Mitch Freeman was stuffed out for a 4-yard loss by Bryan Biertempfel, T.J. Armstrong and Kevin Grejda.

“We thought about throwing the ball, Coudersport head coach Brendan Hathaway said. “But they were brining a ton of pressure. They were brining the house, and we were hoping we could get in on a draw.”

The draw never materialized, though, as Biertempfel came in untouched and then got help from Armstrong and Grejda to blow up the play.

“I just went to the ball,” Grejda said. “I got a quick read and went to the ball. We were ready for them to run the ball no matter the situation.”

That was the last play Coudersport ran, as Rue ran out the clock thanks to five straight runs that gained 23 yards and picked up two first downs forcing the Falcons to use all their timeouts.

“It means a heck of a lot,” Grejda said of winning the championship. “I watched my cousin, Ryan Lewis, win it in 1997 and have been dreaming about it every since. It caps off a great career for Coach Wiser. He has done a heck of a job this season.”

NOTES – Both teams had opportunities to score inside the other teams 30-yard line but failed to do so. Coudersport’s initial drive of the game was stopped on a downs at the Bobcats 20-yard line, the Falcons Cooper Bonczar missed a 31-yard field goal midway through the second quarter after Coudy had driven to the Clarion 14 and Coudersport’s first drive of the second half ended at the Clarion 17 after Hayes fumbled the ball on a first-down run from the 16. Clarion, meanwhile, lost a fumble at the Coudersport 26 after a bad punt snap had given the Bobcats the ball at the Coudy 31 and also turned the ball over on downs at the Coudersport 25 late in the first half and again at the Falcon 11 in the third quarter after Dan Walters recovered a fumble at the Coudy 9-yard line … Clarion is now 2-6 all-time in District 9 title games while Coudersport falls to 4-3 in D9 title games including 4-1 in Class A championship games … The win avenges a 31-7 Coudersport win over Clarion in the 2005 D9 Class A title game … Clarion is the first KSAC team to win a Class A title since Clarion-Limestone in 2003 … The KSAC swept all three District 9 championship games this season, as Punxsutawney won the Class AAA title and Karns City the Class AA title. It’s the first time a league has won titles in three different classifications in D9 history … The 7-0 score ties for the second lowest-scoring title game in District 9 history with Redbank Valley’s 7-0 win over Port Allegany in the 1996 Class AA title game. The lowest scoring contest was Ridgway’s 3-0 win over Johnsonburg in the 1989 Class A title contest … Wiser is now 146-76-1 in his career … This is Clarion’s third 10-win season in its history, all under Wiser. The Bobcats finished 10-1 in both 1999 and 2000 but lost in the D9 Class A title game … Clarion will face District 10 champion Farrell in the PIAA playoffs at 7 p.m. Friday at Slippery Rock.  

CLARION 7, COUDERSPORT 0

Score by Quarters

Coudersport 0 0 0 0 – 0

Clarion 0 0 0 7 – 7

Scoring Summary

Fourth Quarter

Clarion – Bubba Rue 1 run (Cameron Slike kick), 5:42

                                           CO                              CL

First Downs                        15                                13

Rushes-Yards                     45-170                         44-108

Passing Yards                     43                                76

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       3-7-1                            4-11-0

Total Yardage                    213                              184

Fumbles-Lost                     5-2                               1-1

Penalties-Yards                  6-47                             7-50

Punts-Avg.                         0-0                               3-36.3

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Coudersport: Dirk Cowburn 16-68, Tim McCusker 4-23, Mitch Freeman 7-11, Creighton Hayes 5-26, Jordan Barnett 2-7, Kevin Wolfinger 7-31, Skyler Blumer 3-7, Team 1-negative 3. Clarion: Bubba Rue 25-90, Cody Renninger 1-negative10, Brandon Heeter 1-1, Kevin Grejda 8-12, Kris Burkhart 2-6, Dan Walters 2-0, Erik Hartle 2-14, Team 3-negtaive 5.

Passing – Coudersport: Tim McCusker 2-for-6, 19 yards, 1 interception. Dirk Cowburn 1-for-1, 24 yards. Clarion: Dan Walters 1-for-3, 32 yards. Brandon Heeter 3-for-8, 44 yards.

Receiving – Coudersport: Jordan Barnett 2-35, Dirk Cowburn 1-8. Clarion: Cody Renninger 1-28, Erik Hartle 3-48.

Interceptions – Clarion: Cameron Kirkland.