Central Clarion Overcomes 16-0 Deficit to Down Port Allegany, 29-24

PORT ALLEGANY, Pa. (EYT/D9) – The long ride home for the Central Clarion football team felt a whole lot better thanks to Dawson Hotchkiss.

The senior scored three touchdowns in the second half, including a 95-yard kickoff return to begin the third quarter, as Central Clarion overcame a 16-0 first-half deficit to down the Gators, 29-24.

“It wasn’t really changing a whole lot. It was just execution,” said Wildcats’ coach Dave Eggleton about crawling out of that 16-0 hole. “We weren’t making the plays that were there and we made some mistakes in the first half. Give Port credit. That’s a good football team and they capitalized on a couple of mistakes.”

Drew Evens made some plays with his arm and his feet in the first half for the Gators. He found Noah Archer for a 25-yard TD but stepping up in the pocket and rolling to his right for an 8-0 lead.

“He’s a good quarterback,” Eggleton said. “And a lot better in person today than we’ve seen on film. He made a lot of good plays, just extending the plays.”

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A 44-yard interception return by Nick Wilfong just seconds later made it 16-0.

Central Clarion began its comeback with a touchdown less than a minute later on a 50-yard TD pass from Jase Ferguson to Ashton Rex to cut the Port Allegany lead to 16-7.

The second half was the Hotchkiss show.

A 15-yard penalty at the end of the half by Central Clarion was assessed on the second half kickoff. Port Allegany decided to kick it deep and Hodgkiss grabbed it at the 5, broke a few tackles and raced down the left sideline for the touchdown.

“That really sparked the guys,” Eggleton said. “Obviously at halftime we were all unhappy with the way we were playing. It wasn’t that we weren’t playing hard, but we just weren’t making plays. But int the second half we made the plays that we needed to make to win the football game.”

He scored two more times in the second half on receptions of 26 and 49 yards from Ferguson, who had another big night throwing the ball for the Wildcats.

Hodgkiss’ third TD of the second half gave Central Clarion a 29-16 lead.

Blaine Moses scored on a 1-yard run with a little more than eight minutes remaining in the game to cut the lead to 29-24.

The Wildcats, though, were able to hang on to run their record to 2-0.

Central Clarion intercepted Evens four times. Brady Quinn, Tommy Smith, Braylon Beckwith and Ferguson came up with the picks.

The Wildcats had three interceptions last week against Brookville.

“Our defense was fantastic tonight,” Eggleton said. “They have a big running back (Moses) and we made them throw the ball. We’re continuing to force turnovers on defense and just playing solid football on that side of the ball. Our offense is dangerous and you might stop us for a while, but we have guys who are game breakers who are eventually going to get a big play.”

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 15, MONITEAU 6 – Noah Cherry rushed for 130 yards on 12 carries to lead the Crusaders to this road win over the Warriors.

Cherry’s 13-yard TD run made it 8-0 late in the first half.

Moniteau pulled to 8-6 on a Logan Campbell 1-yard run at the start of the fourth quarter, but Ben Reynolds returned the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown for ECC.

The Crusaders managed just 154 yards and six first downs. ECC had zero yards passing.

Moniteau’s Hunter Stalker rushed for 154 yards on 21 carries to lead the Warriors.

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