Bobcats Down Raiders, Move To 4-0 In D9 League Large School Division
Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News
PFN Staff | September 16, 2019
Cover Photo by Mike Smith
David McClain CLARION SPORTS ZONE
Coach Wiser with Cutter Boggess (left) and Colton Zacherl as they are interviewed after the win against Brookville
The Clarion Bobcat Football Team won a tough, hard-fought, hard hitting 29-12 game against the host Brookville Raiders, on Friday (September 16th).
Both teams had some turnovers, do in large part to some very good defense. But overall, it was an exciting game.
Brookville scored first on a six yard run by quarterback Jack Krug, with 6:44 on the clock in the first quarter, giving the Raiders a 6-0 lead. Krug would go out of the game with an injury shortly after. But in his limited time in the game, he showed his fine athleticism and field generalship.
The Bobcats would get their first score just nine seconds into the second quarter, when Cal German, who completed 5-of-12 passes for 165 yards, hooked up with Ethan Burford on a 37 yard touchdown, on a fourth-and -ten. German dropped back and found Burford, who button hooked in front of a Raider defender at the fifteen along the left sideline. Burford ran it in from there and with Beau Verdill’s point after the Cats led 7-6. The score remained the same through the half. Burford had 2 catches for 72 yards on the night.
The Bobcats went to the air again for their next score, at 9:23 of the third. German found Cutter Boggess in the middle of the field at the thirty. Boggess split two defenders, angled to the left side and outran them to the front corner of the endzone. With Verdill’s kick, Clarion led 14-6. Boggess finished the night with a pair of catches for 76 yards.
Austin Newcomb ran the ball through a gaping hole in the line, provided by the big guys up front for a two yard touchdown, with 7:21 left in the quarter. Holder, Christian Simko snagged a high snap and carried it in around left end for two points extending the Cats’ lead to 22-6. Newcomb, who finished the game with 135 yards on 30 carries, had a big hand in Clarion’s controlling the clock in the second half.
Brookville added another score on a four yard run by Cole LaBenne, with 8:15 left in the game, cutting Clarion’s lead to ten, 22-12.
But the Bobcats answered with the night’s final score, at 3:03, with Newcomb taking a pitch and weaving through traffic, down the left side from twenty-six yards out. Verdill, who was perfect on the night, added the PAT to set the 29-12 final.
The Bobcats are now 4-0 in the District Nine League – Large School Division.
CAT QUOTES
Coach Wiser: My theme anytime would be “Not every game is going to look pretty.” At the end a W’s a W. It might be ugly at times but… Obviously, I’m not pleased with some of the turnovers. But I’m obviously pleased with some of the big plays, flash plays that we were able to hit, Calvin hitting Burford again, hitting Cutter with a couple of key passes there.
Austin was running his heart out, at the end of the game, squeezing out every yard, breaking tackles and so forth; Austin is Austin.
There are things we will obviously have to work on. And probably the big thing is just getting healthy after this game. It was hard hitting on both sides. I thought they were one of the better Brookville defenses I’ve coached against. Keth did a nice job at linebacker.
Probably one of the few schools, when you lose somebody like Krug, you have somebody like Keth to come in. Hopefully he is OK and hopefully Krug is OK.
I’m going to guess we could meet up some other time. They’re going to have their hands full, just like us. But we’ll see how things go from here.
Defensively, we played a lot of the second half on Brookville’s side of the field. I was pretty pleased. They did get in on that one play, down there. We missed a tackle… I’m never happy when an opponent scores. That’s me.
We talked a lot at the beginning of the week; (Brookville does a lot of cross routes. I brought these two guys (Cutter Boggess and Colton Zacherl in to be interviewed) because I thought they did a heck of a job tonight. They really shut down a lot of that inside passing game, forcing (Brookville) to throw the ball out there. They did a great job at their defensive back positions.
Cutter is really a linebacker; he’s half linebacker, half defensive back. And it’s basically the same thing with Colton.
(To Cutter and Colton) I really thought you guys did a super job… You guys faced some pretty good receivers tonight.
Cutter Boggess: Well basically we were playing it kind of like man to man, but we were still in zone. He told us all week, to jam the guy and keep him on the line and not let him get out. (They run a lot of timing routes) and let our D-line rush the quarterback.
Colton Zacherl: It was just not letting anybody get off the line, giving the line time to get to the quarterback. So it was not giving any pressure dropping back after we passed the dude on (to the defender at the next level) and just being ready to pick up on the ball.
Ethan Burford and Timmy Burchwell helped out a lot at corner. They had some good coverage on all the passes.
Cutter: The rest of our defense (helped), our line and our linebackers rushing off the edge, putting pressure on the quarterback, not letting him have time to look and make the right choice.
I think we were running no huddle and just got the call on that route. It’s been there. I think that was the second time that we ran it. So I knew I was getting the ball there. I was just ready for it.
Coach Wiser: This is Coach Louder’s quote, “This is the best game Cutter has ever played.” Offensively and defensively. And this is the best game Colton has played at strong safety.
The Bobcats will host St. Marys at the Clarion-Limestone Field on Friday (September 20th).
(Thanks to Mike Smith for the photo. Let’s Go Cats. Beat St. Marys!!!!)
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