ALWAYS MOVING: High-Motor Junior Linebacker Braylon Beckwith Has Been a Key Cog Driving the Stout Central Clarion Defense

CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Braylon Beckwith takes it personally.

By the end of a Friday night, he wants to see a zero under the opponent’s name on the scoreboard. When he doesn’t, the junior linebacker on the Central Clarion football team is miffed.

“We take a lot of pride in that,” Beckwith said. “We don’t like it when people score against us.”

Lucky for Beckwith and the undefeated Wildcats, that doesn’t happen very often.

The Central Clarion offense gets much of the buzz — and for good reason. The Wildcats lead the state in scoring at 61.5 points per game.

But that defense has excelled, too, notching four shutouts — including two in a row — and coughing up just 67 points.

And Beckwith has been right in the middle of it all.

(Pictured above, Braylon Beckwith/photo by Kirkland Photography)

When Ryan Hummell graduated, there was a void in the middle of that Central Clarion defense.

Beckwith was ready to step into that breach.

Hummell was a tackling machine last season. Beckwith has managed to fill that role seamlessly.

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“With Ryan graduating, I knew I kind of had to step up,” Beckwith said. “Coach (Dave) Eggleton said last year at the loss to Westinghouse (in the PIAA Class 2A playoffs) that I needed to step up and to get ready this offseason for the season.”

Beckwith did just that.

The junior hit the weight room. Hard. He watched film so he could better react. He did speed training to get faster filling the holes, dropping into coverage and chasing down ballcarriers.

All that work has paid off.

“I did countless endurance training and speed training,” Beckwith said. “I went to a lot of college camps and did some of their agility stuff and it really helped.”

Beckwith could feel the difference almost immediately.

This summer at several 7-on-7 drills, Beckwith said he felt faster and stronger.

“I had a lot of success,” Beckwith said. “I was getting in my drops faster and just moving around so much quicker.”

Combine Beckwith’s improved physical and mental skills with his unbridled relentlessness and Eggleton is not surprised at all that Beckwith is having the season he is having for 9-0 Central Clarion, which travels to Redbank Valley to take on the undefeated Bulldogs on Friday night.

Beckwith is leading all of District 9 in tackles per game at 13.3. He also has 16.5 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks from his linebacker position.

“He’s just one of those high-motor guys,” Eggleton said. “He’s always ending a play around the football. He’s just always around it. He put a lot of time in during the offseason and it’s really showed up.”

Eggleton has been most impressed by Beckwith’s growing knowledge of the game.

It has helped him be even more of a terror in the field.

“He’s very, very good at reading and diagnosing the offense,” Eggleton said. “He makes good reads and he find good run throughs to make plays.”

Beckwith is quick to point out he is free to run and make tackles so unhindered because of the defensive line and its ability to soak up blocks and get penetration.

Beckwith’s job is just to clean up the mess.

“It makes everything so much easier,” Beckwith said. “They occupy their gaps really nice.”

And Beckwith is rarely flat-footed. He’s always ready to pounce.

“I always try to get in on everything,” he said. “I hate just standing around. It makes me feel like I’m not doing enough.”

Football has long been important to Beckwith, who has been began playing as long as he can remember.

It was a somewhat of an escape for him after losing his mother to cancer when he was just seven.

Monday was her birthday.

“My dad said I had to toughen up,” Beckwith said. “He’s the most supportive person I have, but he said I gotta toughen up because somebody else always has it worse than you. You can be sad about what happened, but you have to keep moving.”

That’s why Beckwith doesn’t like to stand around on the football field — or in anything he does.

He also became a mentor to his younger brother, Briggs, who is also on the Central Clarion football team.

“I had to be there for him, guiding him a little more,” Beckwith said. “I had to provide some of that emotional support that he might have missed out on.”

Beckwith’s father remarried and Braylon is close with his step mother.

“She’s a great support for and Briggs and my sister,” Beckwith said. “She doesn’t try to be my biological mom, but she’s always there for us.”

Central Clarion football coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.