HYDE — With the sunset in the background, a local news station setting up for the “Game of the Week,” and the home fans packing the Bison Sports Complex, week two of the season for the Clearfield Bison was set to commence with a showdown against the team that a year ago gave them their first loss. Across the field, the Forest Hills Rangers made the long drive, but were also looking to stay unblemished to conclude August.
A tight battle early ultimately got decided in the trenches, and also saw defense cause miscues at key moments. The squad wearing all black made the right moves, at the right times, and in the end the scoreboard was in favor of the Bison, taking home a 27-7 victory to improve to 2-0.
“That’s a good team we beat tonight. Our line won the battle, and defense was excellent,” Bison head coach Myles Caragein said afterwards. “Everyone contributed to the win. Even the guys that didn’t play, they contributed at practice to help prepare.”
A game that going in felt like a true even matchup proved to be just that in the opening quarter, as neither team found the end zone on their opening drive, despite some promise on both sides. It wasn’t until the first play of the second quarter when Clearfield put up the first big play on defense. Faced with 2nd-and-4 near midfield, Rangers’ quarterback Nate Cornell looked to his right but in doing so got hit just at the release point. The wobbling ball went up in the air, and much like in basketball, the rebound came down right in the hands of Bryce Frushour, pulling down the interception to set Clearfield up at their own 30 mere seconds into the quarter.
Clearfield took advantage right after with a long run by Brady Collins, then a massive deep pass from Xavier Curry to Carter Freeland to set themselves up just outside the end zone. Freeland managed to cap it off with a sweep to his left, following his blockers, to put Clearfield on the board. The 6-0 score held after a mishandled snap on the extra point, but the Bison defense was not done yet.
After forcing a sack on the next drive to cause a three-and-out, Elijah Glunt managed to nab an overthrown pass from Cornell for the second turnover of the night.
Four plays later, Curry punched the ball in from a yard out to give Clearfield a two-possession lead, as Frushour put the extra point right through the uprights. Sitting with a 13-0 lead heading into the halftime break, Caragein knew that the Rangers were still within range of coming back, similar to how Clearfield battled back a year earlier.
“When we faced off last year, we were battling from behind all night long, but we came back to make a game of it,” he said. “So I knew they were capable, but our coaches came up with some great schemes on defense that really put the pressure on them.”
Clearfield held the Rangers to just 92 yards of offense in the first half, and when they got the ball to start the third quarter, Caragein and coaches decided to go for the knockout shot. Wearing down the defense courtesy of run after run, it took just seven plays before Collins capped the drive off with a 20-yard push to the end zone. Clearfield held a 20-0 lead and felt like they were in a good spot, but Forest Hills also was ready to punch back to get back in the game.
It took until late in the third quarter when Cornell finally caught a break in the Bison secondary, as he took a 4th-and-3 at the Bison 43, and hurled a deep ball that reached Chase Williamson to finally put the visitors on the board.
In that moment, it seemed the Bison began to falter, as the first snap after the ensuing kickoff went over Curry’s head. He managed to just barely get on the ball before it went into the end zone for a safety, recovering the ball at the 1-yard line. Just prior to fourth down, as the quarter ended, Caragein summoned the entire varsity squad, including the backups, to get the team refocused and ready to get back on the field. After the punt, the speech he gave seemed to hit home because the defensive line went right after Cornell once more, forcing him to scramble, and causing him to lose the handle on the ball. A third turnover deflated Forest Hills even more, something that Caragein did not lose focus on.
“We could have lost a lot on the bad snap, but I know this team has a lot of fight in them,” he said. “As long as there’s time on the clock, we keep fighting.”
They kept fighting to the point where the defense forced a second fumble with less than five minutes remaining, as Collins saw the ball come out and land right in his lap.
The drive after the turnover did not lead to anything, but Collins would have his highlight of the game with just over three minutes remaining. His final carry came after his teammates forced another fourth down stop. One play later, after getting a gap up the middle, Collins bounced to the right and followed his blocks all the way to the end zone, a 41-yard rush to put the game away, and capping off a 217-yard rushing performance, with nearly 75 percent of the yards coming in the second half.
“Brady may get the highlights, but the guys up front, they are the guys we credit for those moments,” Caragein said. “This team is disciplined, and we beat a great team tonight. We’re going to enjoy this win, but then it’s back to work next week.
“We are focusing one week at a time, and once we get through our next game, we’ll refocus on the next.”
The next game for Clearfield (2-0) is another on the road on Friday night when they head up route 322 to face Philipsburg-Osceola (1-1).
SCORE BY QUARTER
Forest Hills 0 0 7 0 – 7
Clearfield 0 13 7 7 – 27
BOX SCORE
1st Quarter
- No scoring
2nd Quarter
- BISON: 3-yard run by Freeland (Conversion failed), 9:57
- BISON: 1-yard run by Curry (Frushour kick), 4:59
3rd Quarter
- BISON: 20-yard run by Collins (Frushour kick), 8:09
- RANGERS: 43-yard pass from Cornell to Williamson, 1:41
4th Quarter
- BISON: 41-yard run by Collins (Frushour kick), 2:54
GAME STATISTICS
Forest Hills/Clearfield
- First Downs: 11/11
- Rush Yards: 78/264
- Pass Yards: 162/133
- Total Yards: 240/397
- Penalties-Yards: 4-25/4-25
- Turnovers: 4/0
- Time of Possession: 25:25/22:35
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
- Forest Hills: Richardson-9 carries, 31 yards; Papinchak-8 carries, 33 yards; Cornell-5 carries, (-8) yards; Mayes-3 carries, 19 yards.
- Clearfield: Collins-21 carries, 217 yards, 2 TD; Freeland-10 carries, 44 yards, TD; Curry-6 carries, 19 yards, TD; Ryan-3 carries, 2 yards; Team-2 carries, (-19) yards.
Passing
- Forest Hills: Cornell-14 for 26, 162 yards, TD, 2 INT.
- Clearfield: Curry-5 for 9, 133 yards.
Receiving
- Forest Hills: Williamson-5 catches, 94 yards, TD; Papinchak-4 catches, 14 yards; Richardson-3 catches, 44 yards; McGough-1 catch, 11 yards; Pramuk-1 catch, (-1) yards.
- Clearfield: Freeland-3 catches, 125 yards; Broad-1 catch, 5 yards; Glunt-1 catch, 3 yards.
CLEARFIELD BISON SCOREBOARD
Date Opponent Score Record
- 8/23 @ Tyrone 46 – 20 1-0
- 8/30 FOREST HILLS 27 – 7 2-0
- 9/6 @ Philipsburg-Osceola
- 9/13 BELLEFONTE
- 9/20 @ Huntingdon
- 9/27 @ Penns Valley
- 10/4 BALD EAGLE AREA
- 10/11 RICHLAND
- 10/18 CENTRAL H.S.
- 10/25 @ Open (LHAC Crossover or Championship)