Kirtland’s Running Game and Defense Key to Victory Over Central Clarion

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Phil Myers | August 23, 2025

A western Pennsylvania native, that is a legend in Ohio, brought his Kirtland Hornets to Clarion to tackle the Central Clarion Wildcats on a weather perfect Friday night.  In the end, Tiger LaVerde’s Kirtland squad upended Central Clarion 30-7 before a large crowd.  It was the running game and the defense of the Hornets that stung the Wildcats time and again.

Try as they might, the Wildcats who were the state runners-up in Class 2A last year, could not stop the running game of Kirtland.  Led by QB Jake LaVerde, Coach LaVerde’s son, the Hornet ground game produced 376 yards on 55 rushing attempts.  That’s almost 7 yards a carry.  LaVerde unofficially had 182 yards rushing on 18 totes, scoring Kirtland’s two first quarter touchdowns on runs of 16 and 23 yards.  That pair of TD scores put Kirtland up 14-0, a lead they held through the second quarter and into halftime.

“He can be a pain in the butt at home, but out here on the grass he’s pretty good,” a happy Tiger LaVerde stated.  Smiling like only a proud dad could he added, “He did a nice job.  I’m very proud of him.  He played great on defense.  He’s a good leader.”

Then, in the second quarter, a bad snap on a punt attempt, a nice punt return by Ethan Rex, and a fumble apparently recovered by Brendan Bracken gave Central Clarion excellent field position at the Kirtland 24, 31, and 22 respectively.  But those possessions resulted in a total of 9 yards and no scores as the Hornets threw up a wall on defense.  “In that second quarter they kind of had us,” stated LaVerde, “we gave them short field after short field after short field and our defense kept battling and kept them out of the end zone the whole second quarter.”  Central Clarion managed only 19 first half yards.

Central Clarion is in the orange. QB Carter Hindman #9 leaps high to snag a high snap.

But the Wildcats are not quitters.  Coach Dave Eggleton and his staff made some adjustments on offense which resulted in Central Clarion taking the second half kickoff and driving 67 yards on 7 plays to cut the Hornet lead in half and get the home team and their fans back into the game.  Sophomore quarterback, Carter Hindman, did the honors by going in from 5 yards out.  “That’s a good football team,” said LaVerde, “they’re going to win a ton of games.  That was a great test for us.”

Kirtland answered with a field goal and led 17-7 going into the final stanza.  “That drive to get three points and get up 17-7 was big,” said LaVerde.  He continued by saying, “then we just wore them down.  I’m so proud of the effort of the kids.  They fought, they grinded, and we really wore them down in that 4^th quarter.”

Kirtland scored twice more in the last quarter on runs by Ty Bledsoe and John Silvestro to set the final score at 30-7.  The Kirtland defense proceeded to stone Central Clarion after their score early in the third quarter.  Eggleton said Coach LaVerde is a great coach and that it was like a chess match out there as they each made adjustments.  The Wildcats ended up with 141 total yards.  Hindman threw for 99 of those.

Eggleton’s final thoughts were, “We are going to be a way better football team playing this game tonight as opposed to playing somebody and being done at halftime.  This is what we need to do to be a better program.  You hear about Coach LaVerde a lot.  I have a lot of respect for him and the program he built.  That’s what we are shooting for.  We lost three starters both ways in the first quarter and had to adjust.  The guys who went in there, I’m proud of how they did.”

A yellow flag in the middle is just one of many against Kirtland in the game. The Hornets were called for 12 penalties totaling 113 yards. “We have some things to clean up,” said Tiger LaVerde.

Kirtland had good fan support and Tiger LaVerde had a lot of family and friends come down from the Oil City area to watch the game and visit with him after.  Both bands were very, very good for small school bands and the halftime show was really enjoyable.  Clarion will travel to Keystone next week to take on the 1-0 Panthers.

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