Central Clarion Plays Best Game of Year and Defeats DuBois

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Phil Myers | October 17, 2025

There was a lot of excitement at Mansell Stadium in DuBois Thursday night.  One, it was senior night, and two, the Beaver quarterback set the school record for career touchdown passes.  But other than that most of the excitement and cheers came from the visitor’s side of the field as Central Clarion pretty much manhandled DuBois by beating them 35-19.  The game was not as close as the score.

Central Clarion was led by their sophomore quarterback, Carter Hindman.  He had a breakout game for the Wildcats as he tossed 4 touchdown passes, 2 each to Ethan Rex and Mason Burford.  Hindman completed all eleven of his passes, although one was an interception by DuBois.  Dave Eggleton, Clarion’s head coach said, “He had a good night.  We have all the confidence in the world in this kid to make some throws.”  

Carter Hindman, Central Clarion

The defense played a huge role too.  The Wildcat ‘D’ held DuBois to under 200 yards for the game until a Central Clarion fumble gave DuBois the ball back with under a minute to play.  They shut down one of the top statistical QBs in the state of Pennsylvania in Trey Wingard.  And they limited the top wide receiver in the state, statistically, in Jaxson Hanzely, to 4 catches and 77 yards (41 of those yards came in that last Beaver drive).

Coach Eggleton said he stated all week, “If Mason Burford can lock down Hanzely, we’re going to win the football game.  Until he got hurt, he did that.  He’s one of the best corners in the state.  I have no doubt of it.  And he showed it again tonight.  A fantastic job by him and the whole defense.”

One of the key things to watch on the night was when DuBois had the ball, who was going to watch their all-state potential wide receiver, Jaxson Hanzely #7. The answer was Mason Burford #17, the all-state corner.

DuBois began the game by driving to the Central Clarion 16 yard line with the help of a couple of penalties.  Then maybe the play that turned the complexion of the game around happened when a pass by Wingard slipped through a receiver’s fingers into the waiting arms of Jackson Mravintz.  The Wildcat returned the interception from in the end zone out to the Central Clarion 28.

A Wildcat first down was followed by another that was negated due to a penalty.  Facing a third and thirteen, Hindman threw a short slant/bubble screen to Ethan Rex who did the rest by taking the ball to the house, completing a 65-yard touchdown pass.  Logan Bish’s PAT put the Wildcats on top 7-0.

On Central Clarion’s next possession, the Wildcats drove to the Beaver 10-yard line where the DuBois defense came up big by stuffing a couple of runs for no gain on third and fourth down.

That defensive stand by the Beavers seemed to spark the DuBois offense.  They advanced down the field getting first downs on a penalty and two long passes.  London Duncan then took a handoff from Wingard and busted in for the score from two yards out.  Maddox Barnes tied the game with his point after kick.

From that point on Clarion controlled the game.  Their next two drives resulted in touchdowns.  Both of those scores were the result of Hindman to Burford pass plays.  The first one went for 40 yards and the second 52 yards.  Both times the speedy Burford got past his defender and Hindman dropped the ball right into his lap.  

Central Clarion threatened again before the half, but Samson Deeb intercepted a Hindman pass.  That was Hindman’s only ‘incomplete’ pass of the evening.  The score at the half and at the end of the third quarter was the same, Central Clarion 21 and DuBois 7.

Hindman threw his fourth TD pass early in the last stanza, completing an 81-yard drive.  That made the score 28-7.  Hindman chalked up 200 yards passing and had another 38 yards running the ball.  Briggs Beckwith scored on a 8-yard dash late in the 4th quarter to seal the deal.  His touchdown was sandwiched in between two DuBois tallies.

The first TD in the fourth quarter by DuBois came after Jaxson Hanzely returned Central Clarion’s kickoff 75 yards to the Wildcat 13.  On the first play Wingard broke the Beaver career passing touchdown record by throwing a thirteen yarder to Thatcher Hanzely.  That gave Wingard 88 career touchdown passes, surpassing the old total of 87 held by Gabe French.

Trey Wingard #10 in black uniform. #63 for DuBois is Tyler Hanzely and #52 for Central Clarion is Brant Parker.

The second was a 14-yard throw to Deeb with 19 seconds left on the clock.  Wingard only completed 10 of his 31 pass attempts for 192 yards as the Central Clarion defense disguised some blitzes and put a lot of pressure on Wingard all night long making it uncomfortable for him to stay in the pocket.  Two of those incompletions were interceptions by Clarion.

The Wildcats, with a couple of exceptions when DuBois was tuned in, were able to run the football very efficiently.  In fact they had 339 yards on the ground led by Ethan Rex who ran for 119 on 23 carries.  Mravintz only had 7 totes but managed 80 yards.  “We’ve gotten better the last three weeks,” stated Eggleton, “We got another lineman back and our running game is better.  The O-Line, they just did it, and the backs lowered their shoulder and got those extra tough yards when we needed to.”

Ethan Rex (in pink trim) getting the handoff from Carter Hindman. Also, for Central Clarion is #17 Mason Burford and #14 Briggs Beckwith.

Central Clarion lifts their record to 5-4 and will host one loss Butler next Friday.  Butler is 6A and Central Clarion is a 2A school.  Three of Central Clarion’s losses came to schools that are still undefeated and “three of those losses we were right there,” said Eggleton.  He continued, “We played a schedule that’s going to get us ready to play football at a high level right now and that’s what the hope is.”

DuBois, which is a 5A school, fell to 6-3 and must travel to unbeaten Hollidaysburg next week.  Two of those DuBois losses were to Punxsutawney who is unbeaten at the moment.

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