District 9 Review and Standings – Week 2

Tagged under: District 9, News, pfn

Phil Myers | September 6, 2022

The top game of the week had to be the DuBois Beaver 27-26 win over Brockway. The game came down to the final play from the DuBois 5-yard line where a slant pass was stopped at the 1-yard line to prevent the Rovers from winning. The Brockway coaching staff elected to go for the touchdown instead of kicking a field goal due to an injury to their regular kicker during the game.

DuBois in dark uniforms. Brockway in white jerseys.

The second-best game was the Central Clarion 29-24 comeback win over Port Allegany. The Wildcats were down 16-0 at one point, but came back to take a 29-16 lead. The Gators scored in the 4^th quarter to cut the deficit to five points and had a couple chances to take the lead, but were intercepted twice to end those drives.

Ouch! Keystone’s spanking of PFN’s #10 Single A team, the Union/AC Valley Falcon-Knights by a score of 43-7 was a shocker to many, but not the Panther faithful. Punxsutawney may be one of the pleasant surprises this year as they went to 2-0 by dismantling Kane 37-16. Finally, Clearfield’s Tim Janocko won his 300^th career football game when his Bison scored a 4^th quarter touchdown to defeat BEA 7-3. Congrats coach! He is only 1 of 20 coaches in PA to ever hit the 300-career win mark. His record now stands at 300-118-3.

Let’s take a look at last week’s top individual performances and some other odds and ends.

Quarterbacks (threw for over 200 yards and/or 2 or more touchdowns) – Dan McGarry of Curwensville led his Golden Tide to a win over Juniata Valley by passing for 301 yards with 2 TDs, and running for 112 yards and 2 scores. He also had a pick six for 30 yards accounting for all 5 of his team’s touchdowns. Central Clarion’s sophomore sensation, Jase Ferguson, tossed 3 TD passes and threw for 276 yards. Another soph sensation, Brockway’s Brayden Fox, overcame a sluggish first half and ended up throwing for 236 yards and 3 scores against DuBois. Bradford’s Talen Reese had 309 yards and 2 scores in a losing effort for the Owls. Charlie Coudriet of St. Marys pitched the pigskin for 254 yards and 3 touchdowns. Cam Wagner of Redbank and Preston Alfieri of Smethport both had 3 TD tosses, while Andrew Schenfield of Otto-Eldred had 2. Gavyn Ayers of Coudersport accounted for 4 touchdowns by running for 3 and passing for the other.

Running Backs (ran for over 100 yards and/or scored 3 TDs) – Zeke Bennett ran for 206 yards, scoring 3 times for his Punxsy Chucks. Keystone’s Kyle Nellis rushed for 140 yards and 3 TDs. Ricky Zampogna from Kane had 150 yards running and scored twice. Moniteau’s Hunter Stalker had 154 yards on the ground, Elk County’s Noah Cherry carried the ball for 130 yards, Coudersport’s Ethan Ott ran for 153 yards, and Redbank’s Drew Byers had 109 yards rushing.

Keystone Panthers at D-9 Media Day. From left to right: Kyle Nellis, Aidan Sell, Cole Henry, and Tyler Albright.

Receivers (over 100 yards and/or 2 or more TDs) – Chris Fegert of Curwensville had 106 receiving yards and a couple of TDs. Logan Mosier of St. Marys and Noah Archer of Port Allegany both garnered over 100 yards in receptions. Dawson Hotchkiss of Central Clarion snared a pair of passes for touchdowns.

Special Teams – Hotchkiss sparked Central Clarion’s second half comeback win by returning the kickoff 95 yards to score his first of 3 TDs for the game. WR Manning Splain of the Ott-Eldred Terrors had a 34-yard pick six and a 48-yard punt return. (He also caught a TD pass giving him 3 TDs for the day.) Redbank’s Ashton Kahle returned an Interception 72 yards for a TD. Tyler Albright had a 38-yard pick six and now has 5 interceptions in 2 games! Nick Wilfong of Port Allegany returned an interception 44 yards to the house. Keystone’s Elijah Will and Bradford’s Greg Tyler scored TDs off of blocked punts.

Top Games for the Week – Many believe the real big game this week will be the Redbank Valley (2-0) at Punxsutawney (2-0) contest. Other interesting games include Bucktail (1-0) at Elk County Catholic (2-0), DuBois (2-0) at Clearfield (1-1), and Curwensville (2-0) at Bellwood-Antis (1-1).

Standings after 2 weeks:

Region 1: