By Rich Rhoades

DuBOIS — The DuBois Beavers will take another crack at the State College Little Lions and they can’t wait for Friday night at Altoona’s Mansion Park.

It’s been two weeks since the Beavers played last and that happened to be their only loss of the season, a 17-15 setback to Slippery Rock that denied them their first perfect regular season since 1952.

Head coach Frank Varischetti’s 8-1 squad will try to knock down a door that the Beavers haven’t been able to do since 1996. DuBois hasn’t won a playoff game since beating Hollidaysburg in the District 6-9 Class AAAA semifinals that year.

It’s the playoff drought that the team was focused on even before the run at a perfect regular season started.

“An undefeated season would be great, but the kids’ main goal at the beginning of the season was to win playoff games,” Varischetti said. “It’s been 16 years since we’ve won a playoff game and that’s what the kids wanted to do.”

As it turned out in this year’s District 6-9 Sub-Regional Tournament, the Beavers earned the top seed and a first-round bye since only three teams entered. Last week, State College beat Central Mountain, 42-25, to set up this week’s matchup at Mansion Park. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

DuBois and 8-3 State College met in last year’s semifinal round and the Little Lions beat the Beavers, 28-17, at Mansell Stadium. The score was 14-14 at halftime before State pulled away in the second half.

Varischetti likes his team’s chances, but of course it won’t be easy.

“The first key to beating State is the mental hurdle,” Varischetti said. “We haven’t beaten them in a long time and we were down 14-0 last year before the kids realized that they weren’t any better than us and by the time we figured that out, we outscored them the rest of the game.”

Both teams lost plenty of seniors from last year’s teams. DuBois certainly has some new playmakers leading the way, led by senior running back Garrett Brown and sophomore quarterback Gabe French.

Brown put together some unbelievable performances this season and he’s piled up his numbers — 1,654 yards rushing (9.7 yards per carry) and 23 touchdowns, 18 catches for 196 yards and two TDs, and two kick returns for TDs — despite playing in just 7 ½ games due to two Beavers bye weeks and Brown getting ejected from an early-season game and sitting out the following game due to the PIAA mandated suspension.

Brown has run for over 200 yards in four games, including 359 yards in the 58-24 win over Meadville in Week 8. He was limited to 84 yards on 22 carries in the loss to Slippery Rock. If Brown gets loose against State College, life will be much easier for the Beavers.

“He’s without a doubt the best running back and probably the best player I’ve coached,” Varischetti said. “He’s extremely fast and powerful and you never seem to get a clean hit on him. He’s practiced every day this season and I think we’ve only tackled him a handful of times and that’s going against our first-team defense.”

Brown has taken a lot of pressure off French, who’s performed well running the Beavers’ spread offense. French has completed 111 of 169 passes (65.7 percent) for 1,565 yards with 17 touchdowns against six interceptions.

“A lot of people thought this was a big rebuilding year with the loss of (senior QB) Sean Sleigh and others, but Gabe worked hard in the offseason,” Varischetti said. “He played JV as a freshman and really developed well. We haven’t called on him to throw a lot. He’s been doing a good job managing the game for us.”

French’s season-high in pass attempts is 27, done twice against Oil City and Brookville. His top receiving targets are sophomore Bryson Paulinellie (29 catches, 446 yards, 9 TDs), senior Garrett Miles (31 catches, 358 yards, 3 TDs), Jared Baummer (20 catches, 344 yards, 2 TDs) and Brown.

All of the offensive firepower has the Beavers ranking five in the state in scoring at 48.1 points per game, only ranking behind fellow D9 team Port Allegany (53.4), Aliquippa (51.6), Cathedral Prep (51.0) and South Fayette (49.1).

With the offense getting most of the headline attention, Varischetti has been pleased with his defense and how it’s picked up its game when points were flowing at times.

“If we don’t have one facet of our team working on all cylinders, other aspects pick us up,” Varischetti said. “There’s been a few games where the defense didn’t play like we’d like, but our offense has bailed us out. Against Brookville, the running game didn’t work as well, but the passing and defense played well.”

Senior linebacker Shane Marshall leads the Beavers in tackles at 93 stops despite missing the Slippery Rock game with an injury. He’s one of the reasons that Varischetti didn’t necessarily mind having last week off.

“Nobody wanted our bye week in the middle of the season, but this one came at a good time,” he said. “We had some key injuries to some starters. It gave us a chance to get healthy.”

In State College, the Beavers face a balanced roster. While junior quarterback Pat Irwin has passed for 1,360 yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 303 yards and three scores, three other Little Lions have rushed for over 300 yards with senior Ryan Goeke leading the way with 537 yards on 101 carries. Junior Andrew Kelly has rushed for 473 yards on 70 carries.

“We have to play disciplined on those three and deal with a dominant offensive line,” Varischetti said. “They have some good wide receivers and the quarterback can throw. It’s the most balanced team we’ve seen this year.”

State College, playing in the District 3 Mid-Penn Conference, owns the strength of schedule edge not surprisingly. The Little Lions lost back-to-back games to Harrisburg (33-12) and Central Dauphin (32-7) in Weeks 4 and 5 and fell to Cumberland Valley (17-14) in week 10. The Little Lions finished behind those three teams and in fourth place in the Commonwealth Division.

Last week, Harrisburg, Cumberland Valley and Central Dauphin all won their opening District 3 Class AAAA playoff games.

The result that got the Beavers’ attention was State’s 20-13 win over Mifflin County in Week 9. One of the Little Lions’ touchdowns came on Darian Herncane’s 96-yard interception return.

The Beavers beat Mifflin County in their season-opener, 34-24.

Friday’s winner advances to the PIAA playoff to take on the McDowell-Perry winner at a site and time to be announced. Those teams square off at Fairview High School near Erie Friday night as well.

“It’s a big game for us,” Varischetti said. “Not winning a playoff game in almost 20 years, it’s a monkey we need to get off our back. We have bigger aspirations down the road, but this is the first hurdle we have to get over.”

NOTES: It’s the 52^nd meeting between teams with State College owning a 33-17-1 advantage. The Little Lions got the edge thanks to winning the last 11 meetings and 16 of the last 18 matchups with the Beavers. DuBois’ last win over State was a 14-7 victory in 1996. … The Beavers are 0-8 in the postseason since their 24-0 win at home over Hollidaysburg in the 1996 playoffs. Last year’s loss to State College was their first home playoff game since then. DuBois lost to State in the playoffs in 1999 (49-21) and 2001 (24-17) prior to last year’s setback. … The Beavers are 4-12 all-time in the postseason.