Friday night in front of a large crowd at Pittsburgh City League’s Cupples
Stadium 17 Bison seniors entered the stadium with one goal in mind; do
not make this our last game. With a mix of confusing defenses and
amazing ball control they did just that. Clearfield broke their three game state
playoff drought in dramatic fashion sending the District 8 Champion Brashear Bulls
home with a 24-21 victory.
In typical Clearfield football fashion the Bisons deferred the coin toss
and elected to kick. Senior kicker Parker Herrington made a beautiful
“pooch” kick to the Brashear 30 which was almost picked up by a Bison
player on a live ball, but went out of bounds off of a Brashear
defender. The Bulls then set up shop on their own 32 yard line and
needed only 3 plays to score the first points of the game on a James
Reed 24 yard touchdown scamper.
The Bisons first offensive possession of the game did not go much better
than their first defensive series as Head Coach Tim Janocko called for a
fake punt hoping to catch the aggressive Brashear team out of position.
Unfortunately for the Bisons Brandon Sass’s pass was deflected by a
Bisons receiver and ended up in a Bulls defender’s hands.
On the Bulls ensuing possession Clearfield turned it up a notch forcing
the Bulls to punt. Brashear then tried to use a little magic themselves
electing to try and fake the punt, but the Bisons came up big tackling
the Bulls ball carrier before the first down marker.
“That was a huge play by our defensive. They tried to catch us off
guard, but we stay disciplined and made the play,” said Janocko.
On the Bisons second possession it seemed as they were once again going
to be forced to punt, but on 4th and 1 Coach Janocko went to the play
that has accounted for many first downs over his play calling career.
Senior quarterback Jarrin Campman took the snap from senior center Nick
Redden and followed him from behind for what appeared to be enough for a
first down; then out of nowhere Campman appeared out of the pile Tim
Tebow-esque and sprinted untouched down the sideline for a 54 yard
touchdown to tie the game.
“I was just sitting in the pile and I remember thinking ‘If I break this
to the outside, I think there’s nobody there,’” Campman said. “I just
hit it.”
After forcing Brashear to punt on its next possession, the Bisons took
the lead for good as Campman capped a 10-play, 79-yard drive by going in
on a quarterback sneak from two yards out. Herrington’s boot gave
Clearfield a 14-7 edge less than two minutes into the second quarter.
The Bisons never looked back from that point on.
“We were a little bit on our heels at the beginning of the game,”
Janocko said. “We got some momentum back. Once we regained our
composure, we were back in the game.”
On the Bulls ensuing possession, not to be outdone by his older brother,
Trey Campman picked off a Henri Chatman pass and returned it to the Bulls
19 yard line setting up Jarrin’s 3rd score of the half.
The Bison defense again came up with a pair of big plays on the Bulls’
next offensive possession as Cruise Kerr sacked Chatman for an 8-yard
loss on third down, then Josh Rippey tackled Eric Lynch on a bad snap on
a punt on fourth down to give Clearfield the ball at the Brashear 34.
The Clearfield defense wreaked havoc all night as Nick Redden, Derek
Danver, Andre Buck, Robert Faust, Scott Nishida, Rippey, and Kerr were
in the backfield all night.
“I have to give a lot of credit to my Defensive Coordinator Forrest
Campman. He called a great game and gave them problems all night. He
and Nate Glunt installed some new things defensively this week and that
was huge,” commented Janocko.
The Bisons next possession stalled on the Bulls 10 yard line and that
was when Janocko called upon Herrington to attempt a 26 yard field goal.
Herrington’s field goal sailed through the uprights to give the Bisons
a 24-7 lead.
The field goal ultimately decided the outcome of the game as the Bisons would fail to convert points The Bulls would open up the second half scoring 14 unanswered points while the momentum quickly swung into their favor.
“We had some things happen there in the second half that were out of our
control, some injuries and a couple things happened,” Janocko said.
“But, our kids hung tough.”
With a little over two and half minutes to go the Bisons were forced to
punt, and the Bulls set up shop at their own 40. It only took one play
for the Bisons to assure the win. As Chatman scrambled out of the
pocket Danver on an all out hustle play chased Chatman down and “Tomahawk
Chopped” his arm forcing the ball free, allowing Brandon Sass to
fall on it.
Only needing one first down to seal the game the Bisons called on
District 9’s leading rusher, Isiah Morgan. Morgan broke a tackle then
bounced to the outside picking up the first down and giving the Bisons
their first state playoff victory since 2002.
“It feels amazing,” senior wide receiver Brandon Sass said. “We were the
underdogs, and nobody expected us to win. It feels awesome to pull it
out in the end.”
Clearfield will now travel to a site TBA to take on the top ranked team
in PA class AAA Erie Strong Vincent.
CLEARFIELD 24, BRASHEAR 21
Score by Quarters
Clearfield 7 21 0 0 — 24
Brashear 7 0 0 14 –21
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
B – James Reed 24 run (Xavier Brown kick), 10:55.
C – Jarrin Campman 54 run (Parker Herrington kick), 4:15.
Second Quarter
C – J. Campman 2 run (Herrington kick), 10:02.
C – J. Campman 11 run (Herrington kick), 4:57.
C – Herrington 26 field goal, :47.
Fourth Quarter
B – Larue Benton 18 pass from Henri Chatman (Brown kick), 9:13.
B – Manasseh Garner 22 pass from Chatman (Brown kick), 4:27.
Team Statistics Clfd Brash
First downs 12 15
Rushes-yards 48-257 27-106
Passing yards 48 201
Com-Att-Int 5-8-2 16-24-1
Total offense 56-305 51-307
Punts-average 3-29.3 1-36
Penalties-yards 7-55 6-50
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Clearfield: J. Campman 31-186, Isiah Morgan 12-72, Trey
Campman 3-2, Team 2 (-3). Brashear: Garner 1-28, Bruce Patterson 8-27,
Reed 1-24, Chatman 15-22, Team 1-4, Eric Lynch 1-1
PASSING – Clearfield J. Campman 5 of 6, 48 yds., 1 Int., Brandon Sass 0
of 2, 1 Int. Brashear: Chatman 16 of 24, 201 yds., 2 TDs, 1 Int.
RECEIVING – Clearfield: T. Campman 2=20, Derek Danver 2-20, Josh Rippey
1-8. Brashear: Garner 6-67, Taji Linnis 3-44, Reed 3-13, Benton 2-31,
Lynch 1-43, Patteron 1-1.
INTERCEPTIONS – Clearfield: T. Campman. Brashear: Antwan Bell, Dillon
Semian.
FUMBLE RECOVERY – Clearfield: Sass.
