District 5/6/8/9 Championship: Somerset 27, Clearfield 0

CLEARFIELD		SOMERSET
30	RUSH ATTEMPTS	47
34	RUSH YARDS	222
0	RUSH TDs	4
4-12-0	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	3-9-0
16	PASS YARDS	25
0	PASS TDs	0
50	TOTAL YARDS	247

NOTES

This will be an abbreviated recap, but look for a season wrap-up post sometime this weekend.

• The loss was the first time Clearfield had been shutout since a 61-0 loss in the state playoffs to Perry in 2002.  The Bison had scored in 142 consecutive games since that loss.
• Clearfield’s 34 yards rushing was the fewest the team had in a game since the 2007 District 9 championship game, a 30-14 loss to St. Marys.  In that game, the Bison rushed 25 times for just 18 yards.
• The 50 total yards gained by the Bison are the fewest by the program since the 1987 team gained just 22 total yards in a 28-0 loss to Punxsutawney.
• Despite the loss, the 2014 season saw a number of impressive statistical performances, especially by the Clearfield defense.  It surrendered fewer than 18 points per game for the fifth consecutive year and held opponents to 89.9 yards rushing per game.  Three opponents failed to reach 100 total yards and six converted fewer than 10 first downs.  The Bison also recorded 36.5 sacks and picked off 11 passes.
• Offensively, Clearfield ran for 2,733 yards and threw for another 1,101, giving the team an average of 319.5 total yards per game.  The Bison averaged 32.5 points per game by running for 38 touchdowns and throwing for 14 more.  The team averaged 5.48 yards on its exactly 700 plays in 2014.
• Somerset now moves on to face District 4 champion Selinsgrove.  The winner of that game will take on the winner of Bethlehem Catholic and Crestwood for the right to move into the Eastern Final.

District 5/6/8/9 Semifinal: Clearfield 42, Johnstown 27

CLEARFIELD		JOHNSTOWN
63	RUSH ATTEMPTS	21
315	RUSH YARDS	39
5	RUSH TDs	1
1-6-1	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	7-17-3
29	PASS YARDS	211
0	PASS TDs	3
344	TOTAL YARDS	250

NOTES

• Clearfield is now 4-2 all-time versus Johnstown, with all four wins coming in playoff games since 2010.
• The Bison now have an all-time playoff record of 23-22.  Friday night’s win pushed Clearfield’s playoff winning percentage to .511.
• Clearfield now sits at 9-2 for the 2014 season after winning its 8th straight game.  This is the sixth time in the past seven years that the Bison have won at least 9 games.  Since 2008, Clearfield is 74-14 (.841) overall.
• Johnstown scored the first points of Friday’s game, but Clearfield stormed back to take a 42-7 halftime lead.  Over the past four games, the Bison have outscored their opponents 139-14 in the first half, an average of 34.8-3.5 per game.
• Clearfield now has 390 points scored this season, putting them just 10 away from the program’s 8th 400-point season.  Last year’s team set the record for points in a season with 535.  On a per-game basis, the 2014 team’s 35.5 points-per-game would rank 6th in Clearfield history.
• This year’s team also crossed the 500 rushing attempt mark for the fifth straight season and now has 518 this year.  Friday’s game was Clearfield’s second 60+ rushing attempt game of the season and the program’s fourth in the past two years.
• After attempting 96 passes during this year’s first five games, the Bison have relied on the running game in recent weeks.  Clearfield has attempted just 44 passes over the past six games.
• The Bison have limited six opponents to fewer than 10 first downs this season, including each of the last four teams Clearfield has faced.
• Through 11 games, Clearfield has allowed just 857 rushing yards to its opponents, an average of 77.9 per game.  Teams are averaging 2.7 yards per carry against the Bison this year, half of Clearfield’s 5.2 yards per carry average on offense.
• Johnstown threw three interceptions Friday night and became the first team Clearfield has picked off three times since doing so in back-to-back games last year against Johnstown and Somerset.
• Clearfield’s season continues Friday night in the District 5/6/8/9 Subregional final against top-seeded Somerset (10-1).  The Bison knocked off Somerset in the same game last year, 21-6.  The game will be played at Richland High School, located just outside of Johnstown.  The Bison have never played a game in Richland and have only played Somerset once, which was last year’s meeting.  The winner of Friday’s game will move on to face the winner of the District 4 championship between Selinsgrove and undefeated Jersey Shore.  An updated PIAA class AAA bracket can be found here.

District 9 Championship: Clearfield 35, Punxsutawney 8

CLEARFIELD		PUNXSUTAWNEY
46	RUSH ATTEMPTS	22
241	RUSH YARDS	16
3	RUSH TDs	0
2-7-1	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	6-14-0
82	PASS YARDS	68
2	PASS TDs	0
323	TOTAL YARDS	84

NOTES

• Clearfield’s victory secured the program’s 5th straight District 9 championship and 6th in the last seven years.  The Bison are the only D9 team to win a class AAA championship this decade and have won those five games by an average score of 37.8 to 7.2.  Clearfield hasn’t allowed an opponent in the D9 game to score more than 8 points since a 26-14 win over Punxsutawney in 2010.
• Saturday’s win also broke a series tie with the Chucks.  Clearfield now leads Punxsutawney 44-43-3 all-time.
• The Bison now have a .500 record over the course of the 44 playoff games the school has played in its history.  Clearfield’s all-time playoff record now stands at 22-22.
• Dustin Maines had three sacks versus Punxsutawney, giving him the school record for sacks in a season.  Maines has 13 this year, surpassing Christian Lezzer’s total of 12.5 in 2012.  Maines now has 14.5 career sacks, putting him 7th on the school’s career list.
• Clearfield senior Erik Sellers broke the 1,000 yard barrier versus the Chucks, marking the 31st time in school history that a Bison has done so.  Sellers now has 1,018 yards and 20 rushing touchdowns this season.
• With his two touchdown receptions on Saturday, Ryan Lezzer now has 12 touchdown catches in his career, putting him tied for 11th in school history with Todd Shaw (1999-2002).  This season, Lezzer has 29 catches for 585 yards and 9 touchdowns.  The 9 touchdown catches this season tie Lezzer for 8th in school history with Trey Campman (2009).
• Junior quarterback Cody Spaid now has 961 yards passing in 2014, leaving him 39 yards shy of giving Clearfield its 26th 1,000 yard passing season ever.
• Seth Caldwell is 99 yards shy of his first career 1,000 yard season.  Should he reach that mark, the Bison would have a 1,000 yard rushing tandem for the fourth time in the past seven seasons.  Caldwell currently stands at 1,701 career rushing yards.
• The Bison have scored at least 26 points in each game this year and are averaging 34.8 points per game.  That average would rank 7th in school history if the season ended today.  In terms of total points, Clearfield’s 348 points ranks 11th on the all-time list and is 12 points from passing 2003’s total for 10th place.
• Through 10 games this season, the Bison have allowed just 818 rushing yards on an average of 2.76 yards per carry.  On a per-game basis, the 2014 team currently has the third best rush defense of any team since 1937.  Its 81.8 rushing yards allowed per game trails only the 1952 team (74.2) and 2004 team (79.7) in school history.
• The Bison get one more home game in 2014 as they will host Johnstown in the District 5/6/8/9 Subregional semifinals on Friday evening.  The winner will go on to face the winner of top-seeded Somerset and fourth-seeded Punxsutawney.

Week 9: Clearfield 50, Philipsburg-Osceola 3

CLEARFIELD		P-O
46	RUSH ATTEMPTS	29
233	RUSH YARDS	3
6	RUSH TDs	0
4-6-0	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	5-14-1
70	PASS YARDS	41
1	PASS TDs	0
303	TOTAL YARDS	44

NOTES

• Clearfield has now scored at least 50 points against the Mounties in 3 of their past 5 meetings since 2010.  Since 2001, the Bison have averaged 44.6 points per game against P-O (10 meetings).
• After giving up 35+ points in two of its first three games, Clearfield has held its opponents to 11.3 points per game over the past 6 contests.
• The Mounties became the 6th team to rush for fewer than 50 yards against the Bison this season.  Through nine games, opponents are averaging just 2.93 yards per carry against Clearfield.
• Offensively, the Bison crossed the 2,000 yard threshold on the ground and went over 3,000 yards of total offense this season.  Those totals now stand at 2,143 and 3,117, respectively.
• For his career, Seth Caldwell sits at 1,609 rushing yards, good for 17th all-time in school history.
• Erik Sellers sits just 37 yards from becoming the 31st Bison to surpass 1,000 career rushing yards.  His 18 rushing touchdowns this year ranks tied for 13th on the school’s single-season list with Dave Richards in 2001.
• Ryan Lezzer moved into 20th place on the school’s career receiving yardage list.  He now has 740 yards in his two years on varsity and is just 20 yards behind Beau Ryan (2003-2005) for 19th place.  Lezzer’s 503 yards this season is the 27th 500+ yard receiving season by a Bison.
• With the win, the Bison held onto the second seed in the District 5/6/8/9 Subregional.  They will take on Punxsutawney for the District 9 AAA title at 1 p.m. Saturday in DuBois.

Week 8: Clearfield 49, Bald Eagle Area 14

CLEARFIELD		BEA
41	RUSH ATTEMPTS	28
264	RUSH YARDS	74
4	RUSH TDs	1
7-9-0	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	7-13-1
131	PASS YARDS	93
3	PASS TDs	1
395	TOTAL YARDS	167

NOTES

• Clearfield’s 131 yards passing against the Eagles was its most since throwing for 300 yards at Keyser in Week 1.
• The Bison are currently averaging 238.8 rushing yards per game in 2014.  This season would be the 5th year in a row that Clearfield averaged 200+ yards per game on the ground if that average holds up.
• Clearfield is averaging 351.8 yards of total offense per game through its first 8 games of 2014.  That average would rank 8th in school history; last year’s team set the school record with 385.8 yards per game.
• With 809 passing yards this season, junior quarterback Cody Spaid is 191 yards from earning Clearfield’s 26th 1,000 yard passing season.
• Erik Sellers now has 15 rushing touchdowns this season, which ranks tied for 17th in school single-season history.  Sellers’ total is tied with Ken Wisor (1998) and Tyler Stratton (2012).
• Senior Dustin Maines now has 8.5 sacks this season after recording one against BEA, tied for 5th in school history with Christian Lezzer (2011) and David Hoover (2010).  Maines’ 10 career sacks ranks tied for 14th all-time with Tyson Johnson (2002-2004).
• Nick Kovalick now has 206 career tackles and has sole possession of 5th place in school history.  He is just two tackles behind Jeremy Irwin (1996-1999) and three behind Brandon Hogue (2008-2010), meaning he could sit in third place after Friday’s game with Philipsburg-Osceola.  Seth Ford (2011-2013) holds the school record with 253 and is followed by Matt Meckey (1998-2001), who had 223.
• Spencer Herrington’s 5 made extra points on Friday gave him an even 200 for his career.  In four years as the Bison kicker, Herrington is 200 for 209 on extra points and 9 for 9 on field goals, giving him 227 career kicking points.  He holds school records in all of those categories.
• An updated look at the District 5/6/8/9 Subregional playoff standings is included below, thanks to the PIAA District 6 website.  Teams will not advanced based on total points, but rather average points because not all teams will play the same number of games.  Therefore, average point totals are included in the table below.  As noted by D9Sports.com, Clearfield’s District 9 championship game against Punxsutawney will count as a regular season game, meaning that points will be accrued by the winning team to put toward the subregional standings.  It also means that the team that loses that game is not automatically out of the subregional playoffs; if the team still has a top-4 point total, it will still advance to the subregional playoffs.
  • 1. Somerset – 102.5
  • 2. Clearfield – 87.5
  • 3. Johnstown – 68.75
  • 4(t). University Prep – 66.25
  • 4(t). Punxsutawney – 66.25
  • 6. Bellefonte – 22.5
  • 7. Bradford – 13.75

Week 7: Clearfield 26, Tyrone 14

CLEARFIELD		TYRONE
48	RUSH ATTEMPTS	22
195	RUSH YARDS	50
3	RUSH TDs	1
4-11-0	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	12-32-2
34	PASS YARDS	141
0	PASS TDs	1
229	TOTAL YARDS	191

NOTES

• Clearfield has now won four of its past five meetings with Tyrone and each team the Bison have beaten during that stretch was a quality opponent.  The Golden Eagles went 10-2 and were riding a 35-game regular season winning streak when they fell to the Bison, 35-34, in 2008.  Tyrone went 8-4 in 2012, 9-3 last year, and were 6-0 this season before Friday’s loss.
• Erik Sellers now has 1,165 career rushing plus passing yards, putting him at number 37 on the school’s all-time total offense list.  He is just 28 yards behind Bill Miller (1937-1939), who finished his career with an official total of 1,193 yards of total offense.  Sellers sits at 719 rushing yards this season, putting him 281 yards from becoming Clearfield’s 25th 1,000 yard rusher.
• Seth Caldwell is close behind Sellers, needing 315 yards to also rush for 1,000 yards for the first time in his young career.  Caldwell currently sits at 1,485 career rushing yards, good for 18th place on the school’s all-time list.  He needs 28 yards to pass Justin Ingram (1994-1996) for 17th place.
• With 7 tackles Friday night, Bison linebacker Nick Kovalick passed the 200 tackle mark for his career.  With his 201 career stops, Kovalick is currently in 6th place on the all-time list and is just 9 tackles from taking over 3rd place.  He passed former Bison Justin Karp (2005-2007), who had 199 career tackles, and Dennis Yohe (1995-1997), who had 196.
• With Friday’s win, Clearfield is now 57-8 in its last 65 games, including 46-3 in its last 49 regular season games.  The Bison will travel to Wingate on Friday to take on Bald Eagle Area.

Week 6: Clearfield 41, Bellefonte 6

CLEARFIELD		BELLEFONTE
40	RUSH ATTEMPTS	47
439	RUSH YARDS	259
5	RUSH TDs	1
1-5-0	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	1-5-1
7	PASS YARDS	23
0	PASS TDs	0
446	TOTAL YARDS	282

NOTES

• The 439 rush yards by the Bison mark the most gained by a Clearfield team since running for 452 yards against Central in 2008.  Friday’s output is the 6th-highest rushing yardage total in school history.
• Over the past three games – all Bison victories – Clearfield is averaging 54 carries, 349.7 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns on the ground per game.
• The Bison reached the 40 point threshold for the first time in 9 games after reaching that mark in 13 of their previous 23 games.
• With a total of 29 tackles over the past two games, Nick Kovalick passed recent Clearfield graduate Christian Lezzer with his 194th career tackle.  Lezzer, who is now a freshman linebacker at Boston College, finished his high school career with 190 tackles.
• Josh Funk, the former editor of the Pennsylvania Football News, tweeted that Erik Sellers and Seth Caldwell are on pace to continue an impressive recent run of Bison backfields:

With Eric Sellers/Seth Caldwell each over 600 rush yds Clearfield well on its way to a pair of 1,000-yd rushers for 4th time in last 7 years

— Josh Funk (@Funk_pafb) October 5, 2014

• Clearfield ran just 45 plays against Bellefonte, the team’s fewest plays run since running 44 in last year’s 51-7 District 9 championship game win over Bradford.
• Thanks to poor weather conditions, the Bison and the Red Raiders combined for just 2 pass completions in the game.  That marks the fewest completions in a game featuring Clearfield since a 42-13 win over Juniata in 2011.  In that game, Juniata completed 2 of 6 passes while the Bison went 0 for 2.

Week 5: Clearfield 28, Brockway 17

CLEARFIELD		BROCKWAY
55	RUSH ATTEMPTS	22
219	RUSH YARDS	24
3	RUSH TDs	1
8-17-2	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	18-25-0
108	PASS YARDS	167
1	PASS TDs	1
327	TOTAL YARDS	191

NOTES

• Following Friday’s game, Clearfield has been held to under 300 yards of total offense just twice over the past 31 games: Week 7 of the 2012 season at Tyrone (247 yards) and in the state playoff loss to Berwick last year (289).
• At the halfway point of the 2014 season (5 games), the Bison have nearly matched last year’s passing stats through 14 games.  The 2014 team has gone 41 for 96 for 732 yards, 8 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.  Last year’s season totals were 43 completions in 105 attempts, 908 yards, 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
• Through the team’s first five games, Clearfield is averaging 66 plays per game.  The current school record (since 1974) is 63.7 plays per game during the 2005 season.  Over the past 3 games, the Bison are averaging 72 plays per game.
• After averaging more than 9 penalties per game in Weeks 1-3, Clearfield has a total of 7 penalties over the past two games.
• In Week 1 versus Keyser, the Bison allowed 50 rushes for 311 yards and 4 touchdowns.  In the four games since then, Clearfield has allowed an average of 24.5 carries for 26.3 yards and 3 total rushing touchdowns.  Opponents are averaging 2.8 yards per carry against the Bison this season.
• In the first five games of the 2014 season, Clearfield is out-gaining its opponents by an average of 349 yards to 202.

Week 4: Clearfield 30, Huntingdon 14

CLEARFIELD		HUNTINGDON
67	RUSHING ATTEMPTS	16
391	RUSHING YARDS	41
4	RUSHING TDs	1
4-14-1	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	2-5-2
75	PASSING YARDS	12
0	PASSING TDs	0
466	TOTAL YARDS	53

NOTES

• Seth Caldwell’s 227 rushing yards marked the 38th time a Bison has rushed for at least 200 yards in one game.  His total ranks 17th in school history and is the most for a Clearfield player since Christian Lezzer ran for 233 yards against Punxsutawney in the 2012 playoffs.
• Caldwell’s big night also pushed him past 1,000 rushing yards for his career.  He now sits in 24th place in school history with 1,199 yards.  In just the 4th game of his sophomore season, Caldwell reached the 1,000 yard milestone earlier in his high school career than any other Bison.
• Clearfield ran 81 plays Friday night, the most a Bison team has run since running 86 plays against DuBois in the 2008 season opener.  Meanwhile, the 21 total plays run by Huntingdon are the fewest by a Clearfield opponent in history.  Philipsburg-Osceola ran just 23 plays in a 26-6 loss to Clearfield in 1992.
• Huntingdon’s 53 yards of total offense is the lowest amount allowed by Clearfield since Central gained 52 against the Bison in 2010.
• Clearfield’s 67 rushing attempts against the Bearcats are the second-most in school history, trailing only the school’s 1947 game against Punxsutawney, when the Bison had 68.
• The 391 rushing yards by the Bison rank 14th on the school’s single-game list.
• Clearfield’s 466 yards of total offense are tied for the 19th most in school history with the 1954 win over Osceola Mills and the 1997 win over Curwensville.
• In Clearfield’s last two meetings with Huntingdon (2013 and 2014), the Bison have rushed 125 times for 810 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Week 3: Central 35, Clearfield 28

CLEARFIELD		CENTRAL
41	RUSH ATTEMPTS	28
189	RUSH YARDS	-1
2	RUSH TDs	1
11-22-2	COMP.-ATT.-INT.	15-31-0
123	PASS YARDS	290
2	PASS TDs	4
312	TOTAL YARDS	289
14-111	PENALTIES-YARDS	8-66

NOTES

– Clearfield’s loss to the Dragons marked CHS’s first conference loss in 27 games.  The last time the Bison fell to a conference opponent was October 9, 2009, a 34-21 loss to Bald Eagle area.  That game was also the last time a Clearfield team fell at home, breaking a streak of 21 consecutive wins (including playoff games) at the Bison Sports Complex.

– Central handed coach Tim Janocko his 100th career loss in his 333rd career game.  Janocko’s career record now stands at 230-100-3 (.695).

– After falling to Keyser (WV) and Central and beating Penns Valley, the Bison have their first 1-2 start since the 2007 season.  That year, Clearfield beat Bald Eagle Area before falling to Brookville and Hollidaysburg.  They would finish the year 7-4.

– Central’s 290 yards passing is the most given up by a Clearfield team since allowing 353 yards in the final game of the 2012 season, a 36-22 loss to University Prep in the subregional playoffs.  Central passed for 309 yards against the Bison that same year, but Clearfield won the game, 34-33.

– The -1 yards rushing by Central marks the fewest yards gained on the ground by any team to ever beat Clearfield.  In 2003, Brookville beat the Bison 14-12 despite rushing 35 times for 13 yards.  In 1981, Bellefonte and Clearfield tied a game in which the Red Raiders rushed 24 times for 5 yards.

– Friday was the 3rd consecutive game in which Clearfield passed for at least 100 yards, the first such streak since the Bison passed for 100+ yards four weeks in a row during the 2012 season.  Clearfield surpassed 100 yards passing only once in 14 games during the 2013 season.

– According to various reports, former Bison Christian Lezzer will have his redshirt removed and will play for Boston College tonight against USC.  The game kicks off at 8 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN.