By Rich Rhoades

With 15 more games on the schedule, including two on Saturday, District 9’s football season enters another sorting out weekend.

Two games have serious conference title issues on the line in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference and Allegheny Mountain League’s North Division as undefeated Karns City (6-0) hosts Clarion (5-1) Friday night and Cameron County (6-0) travels to Port Allegany (5-1) Saturday afternoon.

The Gremlins hope to continue their dominance of the Bobcats as they’ve won four straight and seven of their last eight against their KSAC rivals and haven’t lost at home to Clarion since 1999. A win would put the Gremlins in command of an outright title going into next week’s trip to Moniteau while a Clarion win creates a possible unbreakable three-way tie that would include Punxsutawney, which beat Clarion earlier this year.

Head coach Ed Conto’s balanced Gremlins are led by running back Aaron Markle’s 587 yards rushing while Jake Wagner, Craig Slomers and J.R. Yough have all rushed for over 200 yards. Quarterback Dylan Hipple has passed for 611 yards and six touchdowns with his top receiving target being Brandon Collier, who has 13 catches for 255 yards.

Defensively, linebacker Carrick Harp leads the team with 44 tackles. Markle and Wagner are second and third with 37 and 31 tackles respectively.

Clarion’s running game is coming off a trio of 100-yard games from Bubba Rue, Kevin Grejda and Bobby Boyer in last week’s blowout of Union. For the year, Rue leads the team with 643 yards and is second on defense with 52 tackles. Grejda has rushed for 320 yards and leads the team with 67 tackles. Quarterback Dan Walters has passed for 429 yards, his top receiving target being Cody Renninger (15 catches, 232 yards).

Along with Grejda and Rue on defense, freshman lineman T.J. Armstrong leads the team with nine sacks. He ranks third on the team with 47 tackles.

Cameron County can clinch the AML-North title with a win over the Gators while a Gators win would send them to Coudersport next Friday with a chance to clinch a division title.

The Red Raiders are led by Jason Blose, Andy Lippert and Andrew Fragale. Blose has passed for 361 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception, rushed for 360 yards and three scores while ranking third on the team with 41 tackles. Lippert’s 706 yards rushing rank sixth in the district with a second-best 47 tackles. Andrew Fragale leads the Red Raiders with 54 tackles.

Port Allegany is led by Matt Bodamer, who’s passed for 640 yards and eight touchdowns. Running back Seth Lowery has rushed for 598 yards and six touchdowns with a third-best on the team 42 tackles. Ryan Bodamer has rushed for 355 yards and leads the Gators with 73 tackles. Lucas Kline is the top receiver with 12 catches for 373 yards.

In other KSAC games Friday, Moniteau travels to Brookville in a matchup of 3-3 teams in search of securing one of the four Class AA playoff spots. (See playoff breakdown below). The Warriors have beaten the Raiders in five of their last seven meetings, including two wins last year by a combined score of 97-14, outgaining the Raiders 1,083-215.

Moniteau running back James Shope’s 731 yards rank fifth in the district. Quarterback Kyle Armagost has passed for 638 yards and rushed for 329 yards, although 251 yards of his passing total came in last week’s overtime loss to Keystone.

For Brookville, the quarterback rotation Garrett Weaver and Tyler Dombrowski have split their stats almost down the middle for a combined 850 yards, 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. Ethan Harmon leads the team with 434 yards rushing and Jared Heschke’s 580 receiving yards rank third and his 99 tackles lead District 9.

Punxsutawney (4-2) hosts Redbank Valley (2-4) as the Chucks have won four straight games while the Bulldogs have lost three straight. Keystone quarterback Dan Reed, coming off last week’s RRR Roadhouse D9Sports.Com’s District 9 Player of the Week, leads his 4-2 Panthers into Strattanville to take on 1-5 Clarion-Limestone. Reed has passed for 1,405 yards and 15 touchdowns. He ranks second in the district behind Brockway’s Derek Buganza in passing yardage and total offense.

Both conferences have two very similar matchups between teams at the bottom of the standings on Friday. In the KSAC, it’s a battle of winless A-C Valley and Union in Foxburg. The Falcons, on a 37-game losing streak, last won in 2005 in a 26-13 win over Union. Going into this year, either A-C Valley or Union have gone winless in seven straight seasons.

Since 2001, Union and A-C Valley have gone a combined 7-136 against the rest of their schedules. The last time both teams had a winning record in the same season was 1997 when the Falcons went 6-4 and the Knights finished 5-4.

In the AML-North Saturday afternoon, 1-5 Sheffield hosts 0-6 Smethport. One of the Hubbers’ two wins were against Sheffield last year and Sheffield’s only win in 2007 came against the Hubbers. Then in 2006, the two combined for one win with Sheffield’s only win coming against winless Smethport.

Also in the AML Friday, the three 4-2 teams in the South Division play the other three teams below them. Brockway (4-2) visits Johnsonburg (3-3) as the Rovers’ Buganza needs 134 yards passing to reach 2,000 for the season and 211 yards to get to the 5,000-yard career milestone.

Kane (4-2) hosts Ridgway (2-4) and Curwensville (4-2) visits Elk County Catholic (2-4) as the Tide face the district’s leading rusher in the Crusaders’ Ricky Pearsall (916 yards), who will try to be the first back to reach 1,000 for the season. The Tide’s Jed Greslick isn’t far behind with 832 yards rushing.

In the AML-North, Coudersport (4-2) travels to Otto-Eldred (1-5).

In the Mountain Athletic Conference-Nittany Division, Clearfield (3-3) tries to shake off its loss to winless Bald Eagle Area last week with a trip to Penns Valley (1-5). Two MAC teams are playing non-division or non-conference games. St. Marys (4-2) visits Indian Valley (1-5) and DuBois (4-2) hosts Chestnut Ridge (2-4).

Unbeaten Bradford (6-0) starts the tough part of its schedule when it hosts Strong Vincent (4-2). Both teams have beaten Warren and Erie Central by about the same scores. From here, the Owls have North East (4-2), Cathedral Prep (4-2) and Corry (5-1) left.

PLAYOFF TALK

Class A

Playoff standings are posted. Three teams are vying for the eighth and final position — Ridgway, Elk County Catholic and Redbank Valley all at 4-2. But the Elkers hold a slight points advantage going into this week.

Class AA

The playoff points standings are not posted. Here is what they are going into this week. Teams receive points for beating teams and get a different total depending on what classification the school is — 140 Class AAAA, 120 Class AAA, 100 Class AA and 80 Class A. Teams also receive 10 points for each win an opponent they’ve defeated wins. Points are accumulated in each team’s nine conference games only:

1. Karns City   6-0       690

2. Kane            4-2       400

3. Brockway    4-2       390

4. Brookville   3-2       290 (Bellefonte game was non-conference)

5. Moniteau     3-3       280

6. A-C Valley  0-0       0

7. Sheffield (Not eligible this year)

While the positioning of the four eventual playoff teams could change, the Brookville-Moniteau winner this week could determine quite a bit very soon. If the Raiders, who are ahead by 10 points despite one less conference game played, beat the Warriors, Brookville could clinch one of the four spots as quick as next week if Moniteau loses to Karns City. If the Warriors win Friday, the Raiders could still clinch the berth without running the table the rest of the way if Moniteau loses to Karns City.      

Class AAA

Three teams are gunning for two spots. Bradford leads the way at 6-0 while St. Marys (4-2) and Clearfield (3-3) could be headed for a Week 10 showdown to see who gets the second bid.

Class AAAA

The DuBois Beavers are virtually assured a playoff berth in the District 6-8-9-10 subregion. They sit in third place in the six-team points standings that determine a field of up to five teams with 410 points. The Beavers trail McDowell (5-1, 620 points) and State College (5-1, 610) and lead Central Mountain (3-3, 290), Altoona (2-4, 280) and Allderdice (0-6).

HONOR ROLL UPDATE-ADDITION    

Add Clarion-Limestone quarterback Dan Miller to the 3,000-yard passing club in District 9. Career totals updated going into this weekend. Active players are in bold:

Passer                                                             Yards              TD

Mike DeFilippi, Smethport (1999)                  6,638               59

Chad Kroell, Clearfield (1994)                       6,088               79
Adam Black, Keystone (2001)                       5,338               55

Tyler Armagost, Moniteau (2008)                  5,278               52

Derek Buganza, Brockway (2010)               4,789               44

Tom Pore, Keystone (1997)                            4,504               46

Hayden Johnston, C-L (2004)                                    4,401               70

Jon Guth, Brookville (1993)                           4,033               29

Zach Anderson, Kane (2007)                         3,922               34

Jim Kelly, East Brady (1977)                         3,915               44

Dan Miller, C-L (2009)                                 3,802               25

Ben Marzullo, Brookville (1999)                    3,710               32

Boomer Wetzel, Coudersport (2007)              3,637               42

Andrew Janocko, Clearfield (2005)               3,615               28

Jeremy McCool, Keystone (1989)                  3,484               31

Jarrin Campman, Clearfield (2008)                 3,217               29

Jake Smith, Redbank Valley (2007)               3,221               43

Tanner Kelly, Clearfield (2004)                      3,063               24