CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — The Clarion University football team will conclude the 2016 season at Noon Saturday when it hosts West Chester.
(Photo of Matt Lehman courtesy of Clarion University Athletics)
The Golden Eagles (4-6) enter the contest riding a two-game win streak and have a chance to end 2016 on a high note after sitting at 2-6 just a couple of weeks ago having lost four straight.
But the return of senior quarterback Connor Simmons from injury has spearheaded Clarion’s late-season surge.
Simmons, who was the PSAC West Offensive Player of the Week last week, broke the Golden Eagles record for career touchdown passes with his 66th in a 41-35 win over Gannon last week, a mark previous held by his head coach Chris Weibel (65). Simmons also has a shot at Weibel’s career yardage mark entering the game 306 yards shy of the record of 7,845 yards. He sits with 7,539.
This season, Simmons has thrown for 2,149 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Simmons is helped by having two of the most prolific receivers in school history.
Matt Lehman tied Terry McFetridge’s 21-year old career receiving touchdowns record last week with the 25th of his career, and he has 153 career catches for 2,441 yards including 48 for 763 yards and seven touchdowns this season. He is just 14 yards short of tying Jacques Robinson for the third-most receiving yards in school history, and he is seven catches away from tying Pierre Odom for the third-most catches in a career.
Meanwhile, Kevin Genevro can become just the third player in program history to record a 1,000-yard receiving season Saturday if he can gather in 87 yards worth of catches. He would be the first 1,000-yard receiver at Clarion since Weibel’s teammate Alvin Slaughter set the school record with 1,369 in 1998. Genevro’s 12 touchdown catches this year also rank third in school history, and he needs one to tie Slaughter (1998) for second and three to tie Lehman’s school record set last season.
Clarion also has a strong run game paced by Delrece Williams, who is just the 10th player in school history to rush for at least 2,000 career yards (2,075). Williams, the only junior among the top offensive threats, has 727 yards and five touchdowns on the season.
West Chester comes into the game having just missed out on the PSAC East title. The Golden Rams are 7-3 overall and finished 6-1 in the East with the lone loss coming by six points, 20-14, to East champion Kutztown. They enter the game with Clarion riding a five-game win streak that has seen them outscore their opponents by an average of 39.4 points per game to 9.6 points per game.
The Golden Rams do it on both sides of the ball and are only of just two teams to rank in the top four in the PSAC in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
Jarel Elder leads a strong West Chester running game averaging 93 yards per contest on the ground and has rushed for 930 yards and 11 touchdowns.
West Chester has used a pair of quarterbacks this year.
Andrew Derr played the first five games and then saw action in a win over Millersville last week. His numbers in six games are eye-popping having gone 136 of 242 for 1,971 yards (328.5 per game) with 15 touchdowns. But he has also thrown 11 interceptions.
Last year’s starter, Pat Moriarty, has played in nine games going 55 of 113 for 810 yards, eight touchdowns and just two picks.
Tyler Karpinski (43 catches, 751 yards, 8 TDs) and Jordan Banks (36 catches, 527 yards, 6 TDs) lead the receiving corps.
This is the 24th meeting between West Chester and Clarion and West Chester owns the series having beaten Clarion 20 out of the 23 times so far, including seven straight since Clarion’s last victory in 2002. The teams last met in 2013 at West Chester with the Golden Rams coming away with a 41-14 victory.
