BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — It was a Redbank Valley kind of night.
The Bulldogs had plenty to do with a 20-0 win by the South over the North in the ninth-annual Frank Varischetti Football All-Star Game on Friday evening.
Owen Clouse, who found out only Sunday he would be pressed into service at quarterback, passed for 184 yards on 10-of-15 passing and also rushed for 7-yard score that put an exclamation point on the win. Mason Clouse, Owen’s twin brother, caught four passes for 86 yards and also had a 7-yard TD run to his credit. And Brandon Ross had three quarterback sacks to make sure Redbank Valley was well-represented and pivotal.
“Owen hadn’t played quarterback since youth,” Mason said, smiling. “He was just throwing darts left and right.”
(Pictured above, Mason Clouse, right, and Owen Clouse, Redbank Valley graduates, were named the defensive and offensive MVPs in the Frank Varischetti Football All-Star Game on Friday night, leading the South to a 20-0 win over the North.)
It was a cap to an interesting career for Owen Clouse, who shined in youth football before a serious of concussions forced him to leave that sport behind and pursue another.
Soccer.
Turns out, Owen was just as good on the pitch, scoring 125 goals in his career to shatter the school record.
As a junior, Owen decided to put the football pads on again and served as Redbank Valley’s kicker. But he also showed off some of his passing skills on certain 2-point conversion plays.
When a rash of injuries hit the Bulldogs QB room before the District 9 playoffs, forcing Braylon Wagner and Jaxon Huffman to the sidelines, Owen was in line to start, but suffered his own injury when he sprained his ankle during a soccer match.
That put Mason Clouse at quarterback in a postseason win over Coudersport.
So when Owen was thrust into the QB role when Brookville graduate Charlie Krug was not cleared to play, he was the choice for South coach Todd Smith.
“I can’t say enough about him for, first of all, not being a quarterback, and he just did a great job. He had a great attitude all week,” said Smith, the head football coach at Redbank rival Keystone. “All week he got better and better with what we were asking him to do. But I gotta admit, I did my homework a little bit. I called (Redbank Valley coach Blane Gold) and he told me in that playoff game Owen would have started at quarterback had he not gotten hurt in the soccer game. So we went with Owen and then we wouldn’t lose Mason on the outside.”
The Clouse-to-Clouse connection was clutch.
Owen found Mason for a 37-yard pass — the biggest play in terms of yardage in the game — to set up a 7-yard touchdown run by Mason to put the South up, 7-0, with less than a second on the clock in the first quarter.
Another Clouse-to-Clouse 21-yard hookup got the South to the North 1-yard-line to pave the way for a TD plunge by Punxtawney’s Landon Martz to make it 13-0 in the second quarter.
The North, which had just one first down before its final drive of the first half, marched to the South 10, but was turned away.
The South defense stifled the North, holding it to just 28 yards passing and 58 yards rushing in the first two quarters.
It didn’t get much better in the second half for the North, which was running a modified single-wing attack with Cameron County’s Maddox Baughman and Ridgway’s Cam Larkin rotating at QB.
But just as many snaps were going to running backs Jendy Cuello of Brockway and Peyton Stiles of Port Allegany.
The South was ready for it, holding the North to just 57 yards rushing on 38 attempts.
Those numbers are a bit skewed because of the sacks. Ross, just like he did all week in practice, wrecked havoc,
“He’s hard to block,” Smith said of Ross. “We had trouble blocking him all week in practice. He’s a dynamic player.
“I thought our D played with a chip on their shoulder,” he added. “It was definitely a good showing.”
It was Ross’ final game in football pads as he will enter the workforce.
Ross started since his freshman year.
“One last time to leave it all on the field,” he said. “It was pretty fun to come back out here. The sacks were fun. More time to play with these guys. I’m pretty good friends with everyone on the South for the most part.”
Redbank Valley grad Ashton Kahle also had a strong game for the South.
He rushed for 32 yards on five carries and also caught two passes for 40 yards.
“It’s always impressive when you can take a bunch of guys from different teams, throw them on a team for a week and then play football together,” said Kahle, who was also playing in his final game as he will also enter the workforce. “It was just amazing we were able to come out here and pitch a shutout and also put up 20 points with a bunch of new guys with a quarterback who hadn’t played there before.”
Owen Clouse capped the victory with 7-yard run, taking off up the middle when nothing was open.
It was the third win in a row for the South and closed the gap in the series with the North now leading just 5-4.
Perhaps more key than the outcome of the game was the fact $20,000 in scholarship money was handed out bringing the nine-year total to $141,000.
And, of course, the relationships gained.
“I told the guys the hard thing about a week like this is you spend the whole week together and then all of a sudden you just don’t see each other,” Smith said. “I told them they are connected to me now. If they ever need anything, all they have to do is ask. I’m here for them.”
As for Owen Clouse, thus ends a remarkable athletic year.
Owen, the offensive MVP in the game on Friday, won D9 titles as a member of Redbank Valley’s football, soccer, basketball and baseball teams as a senior. He will attend Indiana (Pa.) University to study accounting and will not play a sport.
Mason, the defensive MVP in the game, will head to Grove City College to play safety.
“You know, I had this game to play, so I didn’t really think about all of that,” Owen said. “Now I’ll probably think about it a lot more.”
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