Clearfield's Cruise Kerr (63) chases down Philipsburg-Osceola's Zach Czap during the first half of the Bisons' 35-0 win Friday at Memorial Field. Kerr recorded four sacks and forced a fumble as the Bison defense limited the Mounties to one first down and negative offensive yardage. (Photo by Mike Czap)

The Bison defensive front four of Andre Buck, Cruise Kerr, Nick Redden and Zach Stephens spent most of their evening in the Mounties' offensive backfield, limiting P-O to negative yardage and only one first down.

The result was a 35-0 Clearfield victory.

Clearfield sacked P-O quarterback Steven Rusnak six times, with Kerr coming up with four. The longest play from scrimmage the Bisons allowed all game long was a 6-yard Zach Czap run. And the only first down given up was actually on a special teams penalty.

"Cruise had a good game," Clearfield head coach Tim Janocko said. "I thought the whole defensive line kind of took over the game and took away anything P-O tried to do offensively. That's what we need out of those four guys. We need them to dominate, and I thought they had a real good night."

"The bottom line is we didn't get a first down on offense," P-O head football coach Jeff Vroman said. "We never made a play on the offensive line of scrimmage. That's probably the thing that is most disappointing. It's something we worked hard at this week.

 "That was the key to the ball game. They controlled the line of scrimmage and we couldn't get anything going."

Meanwhile, the Bison offense had an effective night, balancing the run and pass for 331 yards.

Clearfield quarterback Jarrin Campman completed nine of his 13 pass attempts for 166 yards and two touchdowns. He also added 56 yards and a score on 11 carries, as the Bisons rushed for 165 yards. Sophomore running back Derek Morgan led the team with 68 yards on 11 carries - all in the second half.

P-O got the opening kickoff and got a first down when the Bisons were called for roughing P-O punter Dustin Golding on fourth down. But three plays later, P-O was forced into punt formation again.

Neither team was able to get any kind of offense going until the Bisons found their rhythm on their second offensive possession.

"Defensively, I thought we played pretty well at times," Vroman said. "It's coming. We are playing a new scheme and with that, sometimes you have growing pains. But for the most part, I was pretty pleased with some things on defense. I saw some bright spots there."

Clearfield traveled 52 yards in seven plays - all but one on the ground - and Campman ran a quarterback draw for 12 yards and a score for the first points of the night.

"We ran more of a control game in the first half," Janocko said. "We tried to mix things up a little bit. We were using play action, and we were running the ball pretty well. I thought we were pretty efficient."

The Bisons added to their lead on their next drive, going 49 yards in seven plays. Isiah Morgan punched it in from the 4-yard line, and Parker Herrington added the second of his five extra points to give Clearfield a 14-0 advantage.

After another three-and-out from the Mounties and Golding's third punt of the night, Clearfield set up shop at its own 39-yard line.

Just one play later. Brandon Sass raced 61 yards to the end zone when Jarrin Campman found him all alone on the sidelines.

"I don't know what happened," Janocko said. "Maybe they had a blown coverage. We did play action there, so I don't know if maybe they played the run. It was a good fake by Isiah.

"We had a missed assignment and watched (Sass) make a play down there," Vroman said. "We just stood around and watched him."

Clearfield got the ball back one more time in the first half, starting at its 8-yard line after Golding ripped a 57-yard punt. But after a 9-yard run from Campman, the Bisons lost starting fullback (and inside linebacker) Josh Rippey and starting tailback (and outside linebacker) Isiah Morgan to injury on consecutive plays.

The Bisons were forced to punt, and P-O took over on the Clearfield 31-yard line with 1:18 to go.

But Kerr and company quickly put to rest any thoughts of a Mountie score. Kerr sacked Rusnak on consecutive plays, and Redden chased the Mountie quarterback out of the pocket and planted him on the sideline as he let a pass go downfield that fell incomplete as the first-half clock expired.

The third quarter had a promising start for P-O as it forced a Bison punt and got a 44-yard return from Czap that set the Mounties up in Clearfield territory at the 41. But on fourth-and-2 from the 33, P-O was only able to gain a yard and the Bisons took over on downs.

Just seven plays later, the Bisons were in the end zone again.

"I thought we had some momentum early in the third," Vroman said. "We pinned them deep and got the football back, but then we came up short on the fourth down play. We thought we could get something going because the momentum, I thought, was starting to swing our way a little bit. But we never took advantage of that."

Jarrin Campman hit brother Trey for a 18-yard touchdown to make the score, 28-0. Trey ran a drag pattern, cutting in front of three P-O defenders, making a leaping catch and outrunning everyone to the end zone.

At first, Janocko thought his quarterback made the wrong read.

"He made a big play," Janocko said of Trey. "I didn't see him coming. Jarrin saw something I didn't see. I was looking at another receiver and I thought he made a bad throw."

The last Bison score came in the fourth quarter when Braden Dixon jumped on a loose ball in the end zone after Rusnak lost the handle when Kerr recorded his fourth sack of the night.

"Our defense played well," Janocko said. "We improved pretty much from Week 1 to Week 2, so we're real happy with that. We had a lot of young kids in there. We had a freshman (Curtis Frye) and two sophomores (Derek Danver and Jack Millgard) playing linebacker tonight, and we had a sophomore at corner because of the injuries. So we needed our defensive line to step up, and they did. And our linebackers made plays."

Clearfield, which attempted 39 passes last week only went to the air 13 times against the Mounties. And only four times in the second half.

"We had the lead and got a couple kids hurt, and I didn't want to open up everything," Janocko said. "Philipsburg-Osceola played hard. They played a hard four quarters, and I want to give Jeff and his staff credit. But it was a good win for us. We had a heartbreaker last week, so it was good to bounce back and get the win."

P-O ran 35 plays from scrimmage. The Mounties ran the ball 27 times for negative-13 yards and completed 2 of 8 passes for five yards. In all, the Mounties recorded (-8) yards on the night.

"Our kids can block better than that," Vroman said. "In our scrimmage against DuBois and last week against Bald Eagle, we blocked people. I was not pleased with the performance tonight on that end. You play a whole game and don't get an offensive first down, that's horrendous."

Vroman added that this game was the most disappointing in his career at P-O.

"This is number one," he said. "To not be able to move the football with our scheme, to not get a first down, that's uncalled for. That is something I would have never expected. In the seven years I've been here, I've never witnessed our offensive line be dominated like that. It's never happened."

"But we have to get past it. I can't dwell on it ... that will do me no good. We have to get ready to play Lewistown. That's where it starts in the morning. That's where I have to go, and that's where the kids have to go. We've got a lot of work to do. Right now, it's up to the kids to suck it up and be ready to play next week."

P-O (0-2) travels to Lewistown Friday, while Clearfield (1-1) plays host to Indian Valley.

Clearfield 35
Philipsburg-Osceola 0

Score By Quarters
Clearfield                      7            14            7            7-35
P-O                              0              0           0            0-  0

First Quarter
C-J. Campman 12 run, (Herrington kick), 0:00.

Second Quarter
C-I. Morgan 4 run, (Herrington kick), 6:43.
C-Sass 61 pass from J. Campman, (Herrington kick), 4:21.

Third Quarter
C-T. Campman 18 pass from J. Campman, (Herrington kick), 3:26.

Fourth Quarter
C-Dixon 3 fumble return, (Herrington kick), 8:52.

TEAM STATISTICS
                                    C                     PO
Total First Downs    20               1
Rushes-Yards        40-165         27-(-13)
Comp-Att-Int         9-13-0         2-8-0
Passing Yards        166              5
Total Plays-Yards   53-331         35-(-8)
Fumbles-Lost        2-1               2-1
Punts-Avg            3-26              7-32.3
Penalties-Yards     3-30             5-35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Clearfield-D. Morgan 11-68, J. Campman 11-56, Frye 2-22, Rippey 3-13, I. Morgan 6-11, Smith 4-3, Wilson 1-1, T. Campman 1-0, Team 1-(-9).
Philipsburg-Osceola-Czap 10-19, Pollick 6-10, Lancaste 1-5, Rocco 2-(-4), Rusnak 8-(-43).

Passing
Clearfield-J. Campman 9-of-13, 166 yds., 2 TD.
Philipsburg-Osceola-Rusnak 2-of-6, 5 yds.; Czap 0-of-2.

Receiving
Clearfield-T. Campman 6-78, Sass 2-80, D. Morgan 1-8.
Philipsburg-Osceola-Czap 1-6, Rocco 1-(-1).