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Clearfield takes down undefeated Central, 27-13
Monday, October 26, 2009
By Jon Christoff Sports Writer
ROARING SPRING - Seven teams have tried their hand at stopping Central's potent offense and no one had succeeded until Saturday night when Clearfield traveled to Roaring Spring.
The Bisons harassed Scarlet Dragon standout quarterback Lucas Runk each time he dropped back to pass, and the Clearfield special teams set the tone early with a blocked punt for a touchdown, as the Bisons handed Central its first defeat of the season, 27-13.
Clearfield's Derek Morgan blocked Runk's first punt attempt and teammate Andrew Redden, who recorded three of his team's eight sacks, pounced on the ball in the end zone to give the Bisons an early shot in the arm.
"The blocked punt set the tone at the beginning of the game," said Clearfield head coach Tim Janocko. "But I thought our defensive line played extremely well. Andre Buck, Dustin Kemp and David Hoover ... those kids just played their hearts out.
"They got after the Runk kid, who is just an unbelievable athlete, and we contained him for the most part. We know he's going to get his plays, but we kind of minimized his big plays and that was a big difference."
With the Bisons holding a 21-13 advantage late in the game, the Clearfield quartet of linemen again made their presence known and put an exclamation point on the win.
Runk, who finished the game with 62 yards on the ground, lost 40 yards on his last three carries, with 21 coming with 2:10 remaining in the game deep in his team's territory.
The Dragon signal-caller dropped back to pass, but was hit, had the ball stripped, and Buck was there to pounce on it.
Buck's fumble recovery set the final and gave Clearfield its second win of the week after defeating Penns Valley on Monday.
"I think we had a lot of good coaching during the week," Buck said. "(We worked on) keeping him contained and focusing on Runk. We did what we were supposed to do.
"(Runk) likes to roll out of the pocket, and he's dangerous when he rolls out, so we just wanted to keep him inside."
Central benefited from back-to-back pass interference penalties on the Bisons to move to first-and-goal at the 10, but Buck recorded his team's final sack and Runk threw three straight incompletions to give the ball back to Clearfield, which took a knee twice to run out the clock.
Runk finished the game just 8-of-25 passing, including a 1-for-12 effort in the second half for four yards. The junior QB misfired on his final 11 attempts in the half, and was intercepted three times in the contest.
"We just put in a gameplan," said Janocko. "We know (Runk) is just an unbelievable football player. The Central coaches do a good job with him, and they have a lot of other good players, too.
"Our kids just rose to the occasion. It was a great high school football game, and we were fortunate enough to come out on the winning end."
After Runk raced 32 yards to tie the game late in the first, Clearfield quarterback Curtis Frye also found the end zone with his feet, as he scampered five yards with 9:43 left in the first half.
Chad Zurat, who had two of his team's picks, added the PATs for the Bisons, who got another pivotal block after the Dragons, again, answered.
Runk found tight end Shane Cafferty in the end zone just over three minutes after Frye's scamper, but Clearfield blocked the extra point and maintained the one-point lead when the teams headed to the locker room at halftime.
The first drive of the second half is considered one of the most important drives of the contest, and Clearfield's three-play scoring drive extended the lead.
Morgan returned the kickoff 35 yards to the Clearfield 47, where receiver Trey Campman raced 33 yards on a reverse to the Central 20 on the first play.
Two plays later Campman took the handoff from Frye, but stopped before turning the corner. Campman then fired to Derek Danver in the end zone to make it 21-13.
Danver led all receivers with 76 yards on five catches, while Frye finished the game 9-of-16 for 101 yards.
Clearfield (5-3) will look for its third straight win Friday when it hosts Huntingdon.
"We've played some other big games where we were ahead at halftime but couldn't get the job done," Janocko said.
"Tonight we finished, and that's a sign that our team is starting to grow up a little bit."
Clearfield 27
Central 13 Score By Quarters
Clearfield 7 7 7 6-27
Central 7 6 0 0-13
First Quarter
CL-Redden blocked punt recovery in end zone, (Zurat kick), 8:35.
C-Runk 32 run, (Hollar kick), 1:46.
Second Quarter
CL-Frye 5 run, (Zurat kick), 9:43.
C-Cafferty 10 pass from Runk, (kick blocked), 6:35.
Third Quarter
CL-Danver 17 pass from Campman, (Zurat kick), 10:40.
Fourth Quarter
CL-Buck fumble recovery in end zone, (kick failed), 2:10. TEAM STATISTICS
CL C
Total First Downs 13 18
Rushes-Yards 33-125 34-102
Comp-Att-Int 10-17-1 8-25-3
Passing Yards 118 96
Total Plays-Yards 50-243 59-198
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 5-2
Punts-Avg 4-29.0 4-31.5
Penalties-Yards 8-85 8-53 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Clearfield-Frye 18-53, Campman 6-53, Morgan 7-21, Team 2-(-2).
Central-Runk 24-62, Knisely 4-23, Blattenberger 3-10, Keefer 3-7.
Passing
Clearfield-Frye 9-of-16, 101 yds., 1 Int.; Campman 1-of-1, 17 yds., 1 TD
Central-Runk 8-of-25, 96 yds., 1 TD, 3 Int.
Receiving
Clearfield-Danver 5-76, Zurat 3-23, Campman 1-12, Mellgard, 1-7.
Central-Saylor 1-40, Cafferty 4-26, Knisely 2-18, Hardy 1-12.
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