CLARION, Pa. (D9Sports) — The KSAC Large School Division title could be at stake at 7 p.m. Friday when Karns City heads to Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium looking to knock off one of the remaining two unbeatens in the district as the Bobcats, ranked No. 2 behind Kane in the latest Allegheny Grille rankings, try to claim an outright division title.
(Photo: Karns City’s Ed Conto (left) and Clarion’s Larry Wiser (right) go head-to-head Friday night in the first meeting of 200-win coaches in District 9 history)

Perhaps the Gremlins (5-2 overall, 2-1 KSAC Large) are slight underdogs, but they’ve beaten the Bobcats (6-0, 3-0) 13 of the last 16 times, including 31-7 last year in Karns City, and they’ve won five straight games since starting the year 0-2.

Clarion averages 420 yards of offense per game — 350 rush, 70 pass — and has a deep group of running backs leading the way. The Bobcats have played their last two games without injured 3,000-yard career rusher Colton Rapp (63 carries, 615 yards, 8 TDs) — Rapp had two carries two weeks ago against Moniteau before getting hurt. Logan Minich (50-380, 5 TDs) has rushed for 267 yards and three touchdowns over the past two games with Rapp missing all but the beginning of the game in which he was hurt.

And don’t forget about speedy Brendan Zerfoss (13-271, 4 TDs), who broke loose for 140 yards on three carries and two touchdowns against Redbank Valley last week. Quarterback Spencer Miller (26-57, 434 yards, 5 TDs, 4 Ints) hasn’t been asked to throw much.

Defensively, the Bobcats have limited teams to 62 points, including a shutout and three one-TD games. Zak Bauer (9.5 tackles per game, 25 tackles for losses, 7 sacks), Miller (7.8 tpg), Colt Stimmell (7.2 tpg, 7 sacks), Nick Porciello (9 sacks), Sterling Conner (4 interceptions) lead the defense.

Karns City has similar offensive numbers, averaging 433 yards per game — 366 rush, 67 pass — with three backs over 350 yards on the ground. Dalton Beham (80-901, 19 TDs) approaches 1,000 yards with Clay Garing (70-488, 6 TDs) and Sebastian Troutman (47-355, 3 TDs) getting significant carries as well. Sophomore quarterback Anthony Kamenski (37-84, 468 yards, 3 TDs, 1 Int) runs the offense.

Defensively, Trevor Knox led the team in tackles at 6.5 per game going into the Gremlins’ game against C-L.

It’s also the first time in the history that two 200-win coaches square off in a District 9 football game with Clarion’s Larry Wiser (211-93-1) and Karns City’s Ed Conto (201-123-3).

A Clarion win gives the division to the Bobcats. A Karns City win could set up the potential for a three-way tie for the title between the Gremlins, Bobcats and Brookville, who Clarion beat but Karns City lost to.

In other KSAC crossover games, St. Marys (0-6) travels to Redbank Valley (3-3), Moniteau (2-4) hosts C-L (3-4), Brookville (6-1) visits Union/A-C Valley (1-6) in Rimersburg and Punxsutawney (3-4) travels to Keystone (3-3).

Clint Thurston (116-1,048, 20 TDs) is over 1,000 yards rushing for the Bulldogs, who face the winless Dutch, who are on an eight-game losing streak overall. Tim Beimel and Carter Julian ran for 160 and 134 yards respectively in last week’s 34-28 loss to Keystone. The Dutch had scored 38 points in their first five games.

C-L has lost four straight games since starting the season 3-0. The Lions have moved the ball, scored a lot of points and given up plenty of yards and points as well. Quarterback Brenden Makray, the district’s leading passer with 1,785 yards, has thrown for 802 yards the past two games alone. Lions’ Riley Hummell has been quite the dual-threat, rushing for 649 yards and catching 28 passes for 500 yards. Moniteau quarterback Chance Nagy has thrown for 730 yards.

Union/A-C Valley has its hands full this week against Brookville’s full-court press offense that has helped the Raiders to the 6-1 record while seeing them score 50 or more points five times — quite the feat considering the Raiders did that just six times in their entire history until this season.

For Brookville, freshman quarterback Jack Krug (114-173, 1,777 yards, 27 TDs, 7 Ints) is right behind C-L’s Brenden Makray in passing yardage with most of it going to his 1,000-yard receiver in junior Bryan Dworek (58-1,007, 15 TDs).

Union/ACV, which lost 18-8 to a Moniteau team that the Raiders just beat 64-28, has quarterback Lucas Bowser (77-171, 953 yards, 10 TDs, 7 Ints) ready to go over 1,000 yards. Greg Duncan (121-566, 2 TDs) leads the team in rushing.

Punxsutawney quarterback Dylan Ishman (70-146, 1,069 yards, 15 TDs, 2 Ints) sports an impressive TD-Interception ratio and he’s second on the team rushing with 214 yards with Stone Smith (80-249) the leading ground-gainer. Tyler Richardson (39-710, 9 TDs) is Ishman’s top receiving target. Keystone beat St. Marys, 34-28, and the Dutch lost 23-6 to the Chucks two weeks ago. Panthers quarterback Nate Wingard (58-112, 925 yards, 12 TDs, 5 Ints) is close to 1,000 yards passing for the year while Corey Rapp is the team’s top rusher (57-307, 5 TDs), receiver (27-449, 7 TDs) and tackler on defense (8.2 per game) with a team-high three interceptions.

Top-ranked Kane (7-0 overall, 3-0 AML South) is cruising along but needs to take care of business its last two regular-season games with Ridgway and next week at Brockway. The Wolves’ 52.7 points per game rank third in the state behind California (57.2) of the WPIAL and Wellsboro (53.4) of District 4.

Kane quarterback Reed Williams (74-124, 1,290 yards, 17 TDs, 5 Ints) has been more than effective with teammates Evan DeLong (106-1,132, 19 TDs rushing) and Ray Maze (24-570, 8 TDs receiving) helping lead the offense. Aiden Hulings (7.2 tackles per game, 19 tackles for losses) leads the Wolves’ defense that’s given up just 61 points in seven games.

The Elkers (5-2, 1-2) try to get back on track, losers in two of their last three games, after last week’s 14-11 loss to Curwensville. Quarterback Johnny Mitchell (40-81, 531 yards, 6 TDs, 10 Ints passing; 56-286, 3 TDs rushing) and Neil MacDonald (75-605, 7 TDs rushing, team-leading 17-233, 5 TDs receiving) lead the Elkers. Evan Furlong (13 tpg) and MacDonald (9.7) are the top two tacklers.