By Rich Rhoades

It’s an early start to Week 6 of the District 9 football season this week as the 5-0 Clarion Bobcats host 2-3 St. Marys Thursday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium during Autumn Leaf Festival Week.

The rest of the schedule has 14 more games, 12 of them on Friday with Saturday games in Port Allegany and Hermitage where Union heads to Kenned Catholic to finish out the week.

The count of 13 unbeaten or winless teams in the district went down by one last week as Clarion beat Union to give the Knights their first loss. The Bobcats are among the seven 5-0 teams with Brockway, Curwensville and Elk County Catholic in the Allegheny Mountain League’s South Division, Port Allegany in the AML-North, Clearfield in the Mountain League and DuBois, which is idle this week following its 84-6 stomping of Bradford last week.

The count of now 12 unbeaten or winless teams will go down at least two this week as Curwensville and Brockway square off in a key AML-South battle in Brockway. And in the “Who would have thought this?” matchup of the week, winless Moniteau hosts winless Redbank Valley, which is off to one of its worst starts since 1978’s two-win season.

A few of the district’s teams have shown up on the state scoring ranking lists, according to www.epasports.com numbers:

Points per game

1. DuBois                    53.8

2. Port Allegany          53.4

Points allowed per game

T8. Elk Co. Catholic   4.8

T10. Clarion                5.4

Point Differential per game

T5. Port Allegany        +43.2

7. Clarion                    +43.0

13. DuBois                  +39.6

Here is a closer look at this week’s matchups, headlined by the Curwensville-Brockway showdown:

Allegheny Mountain League

Curwensville (5-0) at Brockway (5-0)

The Golden Tide have won 9 of 13 meetings against the Rovers since both joined the AML, but the Rovers have won the last two games, including a 17-12 win last year in Curwensville.

Brockway quarterback Alec Shaffer-Doan has passed for 1,216 yards and 13 touchdowns, with most of that going to receivers Jacob Perrin (36 catches, 603 yards, 7 TDs) and Anthony Benson (19-368, TDs). Running back Chad Melillo (562 yards, 10 TDs) gives the team balance in both directions.

The Golden Tide are naturally run-oriented with Zach Tibbens (660 yards, 8 TDs) and Jed Greslick (612 yards, 6 TDs)  leading the way, but quarterback Hunter McCracken has passed for 470 yards and seven touchdowns. Most of that has gone to receiver Jordan Russell (26 catches, 418 yards, 7 TDs).

Elk County Catholic (5-0) at Kane (3-2)

One of the district’s top defenses will take on a Kane offense that has put up some numbers as the unbeaten Crusaders to on the road against the Wolves.

Brock McCullough (471 yards) and Hank Cappiello (335 yards) lead the ECC running game, but quarterback Mitchell Vallone is coming off a season-high 115-yard passing game last week.

The Wolves are led by quarterback Sean Jordan, who’s passed or 839 yards and nine touchdowns, most of that going to receivers Jeff Kocjancic (25-307, 6 TDs) and Sean Rollick (16-253). Jonah Smith has rushed for 493 yards and five touchdowns.

Ridgway (1-4) at Johnsonburg (1-4)

The oldest rivalry between district teams renews this week for the 108^th time as the Elkers will try to extend its close edge in the series that stands at 50-49-8 in favor of Ridgway, which won last year, 39-0.

Ridgway’s Zac McKnight has rushed for 578 yards and leads the team in tackles at 10.2 stops per game. Sophomore quarterback Ben MacDonald has passed for 367 yards and is second on the team in tackles on defense at 10 per game.

Johnsonburg relies on its passing game led primarily by quarterback Frank Kocjancic and receiver Mitchell Holmberg. Kocjancic has passed for 783 yards and eight touchdowns, 595 of that yardages and six touchdowns going to Mitchell Holmberg.

In the AML-North

In the AML-North, the high-scoring Port Allegany Gators are at it again Saturday afternoon against Smethport (3-2). Quarterback Matt Bodamer (92-for-117, 1,644 yards, 28 TDs, 1 Int.) is within striking distance of two milestones. With 113 career TD passes, he’s five away from tying all-time state leader Kyle Smith of Lancaster Catholic. With 8,641 yards passing, he needs 359 to become the third Pennsylvania quarterback to pass for 9,000 or more yards.

One of Bodamer’s receiving targets, senior Tyce Miller (30 catches, 553 yards, 11 TDs), needs one touchdown catch to tie Clarion-Limestone’s Brad Beggs’ district-record mark of 30 touchdown receptions. Nick Conway (27-498, 10 TDs) also has strong numbers.

Smethport’s Clay Schuler has rushed for 655 yards and 10 touchdowns.

In other AML-North games, Coudersport (1-4) travels to Cameron County (0-5) and Sheffield (2-3) tries to get to .500 with a trip to winless Otto-Eldred (0-5).

Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference

It’s a non-divisional week in the KSAC, starting with Clarion’s Thursday night’s home game with St. Marys.

St. Marys (2-3) at Clarion (5-0)

Thursday, The Bobcats try to continue their perfect run against the Flying Dutchmen in a game that features a strong St. Marys running game against a tough Clarion defense. While the Dutch average 334 yards per game on the ground, the Bobcats have yielded just 365 yards rushing all season or a 73-yard per game average.

Alex Feldbauer leads the Dutch with 793 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns. Joe Luchini (373) and Cody Baker (287) also carry the ball effectively.

For Clarion, T.J. Armstrong (410 yards, 8 TDs) is coming off a 200-yard rushing game against unbeaten Union. Damien Sike (286 yards, 3 TDs) and Camron Kirkland (176 yards, 2 TDs) are also dangerous out of the backfield. Quarterback John Katis (538 yards, 8 TDs) and Cody Hearst (264 yards, 4 TDs) lead the Clarion passing game.

Other KSAC games

A-C Valley (2-3) travels Brookville (4-1) trying to stay alive in the Class A playoff picture. The Falcons haven’t beaten the Raiders since 1988, a streak of eight straight losses. The Raiders currently sit atop the Class AA playoff standings, one game in the win-loss standings ahead of Karns City.

Clarion-Limestone (0-5) takes a 14-game losing streak to Punxsutawney (3-2), which is coming off a dramatic 21-20 win over St. Marys. While Clearfield controls the top spot in the three-team race for two Class AAA playoff spots, the Chucks are ahead of Bradford in the power points.

Karns City (3-2) visits Keystone and Moniteau (0-5) hosts Redbank Valley (0-5) as the Warriors haven’t gone 0-6 since 1999. Union (4-1) tries to shake off its first loss of the year to Clarion when it visits 1-4 Kennedy Catholic.

Mountain League

The Clearfield Bison host Bellefonte (2-3) in a league game after starting 5-0 for the third straight season. Junior quarterback Christian Lezzer has done it all so far, passing for 634 yards and nine touchdowns, rushing for 490 yards and eight touchdowns and leading the defense with five sacks. Junior running back Tyler Stratton has rushed for 561 yards and five touchdowns. Senior receiver Trey Jordan (18-537, 9 TDs) is Lezzer’s top receiving targer.

District 10 Region 5

Bradford (2-3) visits Franklin (1-4), trying to shake off last week’s 84-6 loss to DuBois. The Beavers, meanwhile, will take an off week due to not being able to find an opponent to fill the schedule. DuBois scored the most points by a District 9 team in the post-World War II era and it was the most scored by a district team since Curwensville’s 86-0 win over Moshannon Joint in 1943.

The Beavers have the district’s leading rusher in Garrett Brown, who’s rushed for 878 yards and 14 touchdowns. It’s likely he’ll still retain the district league with a week off.