District Nine’s Mid-Season Report

Tagged under: District 9, News, pfn

Phil Myers | September 28, 2023

There is not much that has surprised many in District 9 as far as who the top teams are.  The head of the class right now appears to be Central Clarion with their 5-0 record.  The Wildcats are PFN’s #7 ranked AA team.  They average 60 points a game and are pretty dangerous on defense too, pitching a pair of shutouts and scoring 6 touchdowns, 2 on punt returns.  Quarterback Jase Ferguson has thrown for 1,119 yards and 20 TDs in just 5 games.  And he has only been intercepted once.

Right behind Central Clarion is Redbank Valley who also is 5-0.  The Bulldogs average 53 points a game and pride themselves in playing a stellar defense also. Braylon Wagner, Redbank’s signal caller, has 1,319 yards passing.  He’s thrown for 18 touchdowns and has had only two passes picked off.   Redbank is PFN’s #7 ranked 1A team.  If both teams keep winning, they play each other at Redbank the last game of the season.  It is very likely that they are on a collision course of very high magnitude.

Not to be overlooked is the Port Allegany Gators, who did lose a game to Central Clarion, but has solid line play with experienced veterans and skill guys who are coming around.  They take on Redbank in mid-October in a game that will go a long way in the single A seedings for District 9.  The Gators are the sleeper here.  They are also the defending D-9 single A champs.

In 3A the Punxsutawney Chucks appear to be in the catbird seat so to speak.  They have a nice mix of veteran players and young guys who will only get better in the years to come.  Their two losses have been to Central Clarion and Redbank.  The Chucks were in both games until the 4^th quarter which bids well for the program.  It is possible Punxsy will win out, but they do have 3 or 4 games left that are not gimmes.

Finally, you can never count out Clearfield.  The Bison play in the Laurel Highlands League against some good competition and are 4-1 so far.  Clearfield does not play D-9 teams so it is sometimes hard to get a gauge on capabilities.  The next 4 weeks the Bison play teams that are a combined 19-1.  The results of those games will tell where Clearfield stands in the realm of things.

There have been some surprises and the main one that comes to mind is Bucktail.  Although the Bucks are a D-4 team their schedule is against D-9 opponents.  Thus far they are 4-1, but the schedule gets tougher.  Bucktail’s offense is fun to watch, averaging 45 points per contest and they do have 3 skill guys that most teams would love to have in Brody Pentz, Braylon Fantaski, and Tanner Pettingill.

You also have to give Otto-Eldred some love as they are 4-1 also.  The Terrors’ quarterback, Shane Magee, has been playing inspired ball thus far.  He has tossed the ball for 777 yards and 13 touchdowns.  He too has thrown only 2 picks to date.  In addition, Otto-Eldred is averaging 43 points per game.

On the other end of the spectrum, you’d have to say Brockway is a bit of a disappointment since PFN had them ranked as high as 6^th in class 1A.  Then they were upset by Union/AC Valley and soundly defeated by Port Allegany in back-to-back weeks.  They have the coaching staff and the talent to figure it out, but at this point, they must right the ship.  Time will tell as they still have Redbank on a Thursday in October, a team they beat in the 1A playoff semis last year.

STANDINGS THROUGH 5 GAMES

Region 1

Region 2

Region 3

(Clearfield and Curwensville play in leagues outside of the District Nine League, so they are not in any region above.  Clearfield, as mentioned, is 4-1 and Curwensville is 1-4 to date.)

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