Coming into Saturday night the Bisons were in control of their own destiny in an attempt to keep the school\’s 13-year streak of making the District 9 AAA Playoffs intact, and with a 27-13 win over state ranked Central they are keeping those hopes alive. The Bisons got off to a fast start and never looked back as Andrew Redden pounced on a blocked punt in the endzone on the Dragons first possession to put Clearfield on the board first, 7-0.
Central would bounce back on their second possession of the game with star quarterback Lucas Runk leading the charge. Runk scored on a 32-yard scamper set up by a long pass completion to senior Jordan Saylor. The Dragons were also helped out by a questionable pass interference call on a 3rd down play that gave the drive new life.
Not to be outdone by his under center counterpart, sophomore quarterback Curtis Frye called his own number scoring on a 3-yard plunge with a little over nine minutes remaining in the first half. The drive was set up by two long completions to junior receiver Derek Danver. Danver put together one of his best receiving games of the season hauling in five passes for a game high 76 yards.
Central would get on the board one last time in the first half with just over a minute remaining as a scrambling Runk found Shane Cafferty for the score from 10 yards out, but the Dragons failed to connect on the PAT and the Bisons took a 14-13 lead into the intermission.
In the second half it was all about the Bison defense lead by none other than senior captain Andre Buck. Buck, much as he has done most of the season, terrorized the Central offensive line by creating pressure and clogging up running lanes all night. The Bisons were able to send Runk to the ground on eight sacks in the game with Redden chipping in with three solos. Chad Zurat and Trey Campman also came up big in the secondary with Zurat netting two interceptions and Campman with one. It seemed every time the Bisons needed to make a big play on defense to derail a drive someone did.
Clearfield’s offense would get on the board one last time, but not in a conventional way. Head coach Tim Janocko looked deep into his bag of tricks and on a second down play from the Central 17 he sent Campman in motion for what appeared to be an end sweep, which they have run to him on numerous occasions this year. This time instead of trying to race around the corner Campman stopped and heaved the ball into the endzone finding a wide open Danver for a diving score.
With the way the Bisons defense was attacking all night that would be all Clearfield would need to keep the Dragons at bay, but for good measure Buck would recover a fumble in the endzone with a little over two minutes in the game to set the final at 24-13.
Clearfield will look to keep its playoff hopes alive next week as Huntingdon comes to town for Senior Night with kickoff scheduled for 7 PM