HUNTINGDON — It took just 15 seconds at Veterans Memorial Field to know how Friday night’s game would go. It was only a kickoff, but it was enough to know it was going to be a long night for one team. The Clearfield Bison, coming in with an unblemished record, took the kickoff from the homestanding Huntingdon Bearcats. It landed in the hands of senior superlative running back Brady Collins.
One catch, one fast running back, and one touch was enough to put Clearfield on the board, and the rest was history. Collins started the night with a 97-yard kickoff return touchdown, and with the help of his front line and his teammates continuing to block, he would lead Clearfield to a 46-7 rout of the Bearcats.
“I have always said that athletes that play multiple sports are just so good. Brady just fits that,” Bison head coach Myles Caragein said afterwards. “With his wrestling, he just has that stance for when he’s trying to be tackled to just stay up. His track and field builds up his core and his speed, and it just makes him an all-around special player.”
That opening kickoff return put Huntingdon behind early, and impossible to overcome. After the Bearcats were shut down on their opening drive, Clearfield’s front six went to work creating a big gap, as Collins’ first carry on offense went for 54 yards. Teammate Carter Freeland capped the drive with a 26-yard scamper into the end zone, while Connor Morgan added the extra point. Not even halfway into the first quarter, Clearfield looked at a 14-0 lead, and were already thinking of opening it up more.
They did that in the second quarter as the ground-and-pound effort by Collins and Freeland was continuing to be a problem, as Freeland got into the end zone a second time at the nine-minute mark to help put Clearfield ahead by three scores.
But, Collins would then put on a clinic as he held the ball on four of the final six Bison offensive plays in the second quarter, with none being more exciting than his final one.
After Huntingdon blasted a punt to put Clearfield inside their own 10, Collins only could manage to move out to the 17, setting up a 3rd-and-1. Taking the shotgun snap from Xavier Curry, Collins broke through the right side of the line, and turned on the track speed for an 83-yard strike that demoralized the entire Bearcat sideline. Sitting at 28-0 heading into halftime, Collins had already eclipsed the 200-yard mark on the night, his fifth consecutive game to do so.
The senior back would finish the game with a career-high 355 yards on the ground, plus the 97-yard kick return touchdown. But, Caragein would still give a lot of the credit to the guys in the trenches up front making it possible for Collins to have those statistics.
“The guys up front, they compete at practice every day. They battle, push, and at the end of the day, they enjoy being around one another,” Caragein said.
Collins would not be done on the night, but the passing game had its highlight in the third quarter. Curry, who up until late in the game had only made one pass and threw one interception, looked to his left and found Cooper Broad, who made a spectacular catch over the defender, and then rumbled 64 yards to the end zone for the lone passing Bison touchdown. In a stunning moment, Morgan missed the extra point, leaving the score 34-0 with just under three minutes left in the third.
Huntingdon finally made it on the board right after, as Eric Mykut, who also had running back duties, found Caleb Rutter for a 50-yard pass that caught the Bison defense off-guard.
It took less than a minute for Clearfield to answer back as Collins scored his third touchdown on a 63-yard rumble, his shortest touchdown run of the game. A missed two-point conversion kept it 40-7 heading into the final quarter, and Clearfield was looking to put a finish on the night, and Collins would give his curtain call in doing so.
The senior’s final rush came with under 10 minutes left in the game, and it was a 67-yard cut to the outside that let him roll into the end zone, and cap a career night for the senior. His final stats, in addition to the kickoff return touchdown, came in at 355 yards rushing on 19 carries, a staggering average of 18.7 yards per carry, and four total touchdowns.
As the team met their parents and began cleaning the sideline, Caragein reflected on his 5-0 start as a head coach, and tried to find the right word to describe his team for 2024. It did not take long for him to decide.
“Relentless; that’s exactly what this team is. Whether we are up by three scores, or battling in a tight game, this team doesn’t quit. As long as there’s time on the clock, we are fighting to the very end,” he said.
At the same time, Caragein took in the victory, but almost right afterwards was looking ahead to the immediate future.
“We as coaches and players have goals we want to accomplish later this year, but right now, our focus is what’s next,” Caragein said. “What’s next, for us, is Penns Valley.”
The Bison will travel to face the Rams next Friday, marking the first time Clearfield will make the trip to Spring Mills in five years. The last time Penns Valley (0-5) hosted Clearfield was in 2020, where the Bison shut out the Rams, 27-0. The game was the first during the pandemic that saw only the Bison players make the trip to Penns Valley High School due to restrictions on crowd size.
Kickoff on Friday is set for 7 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Clearfield 14 14 12 6 – 46
Huntingdon 0 0 7 0 – 7
BOX SCORE
1st Quarter
- BISON: 97-yard kickoff return by Collins (Morgan kick), 11:45
- BISON: 26-yard run by Freeland (Morgan kick), 7:36
2nd Quarter
- BISON: 4-yard run by Freeland (Morgan kick), 9:00
- BISON: 83-yard run by Collins (Morgan kick), 0:24
3rd Quarter
- BISON: 64-yard pass from Curry to Broad (kick failed), 2:54
- BEARCATS: 50-yard pass from Mykut to Rutter (Snare kick), 2:14
- BISON: 63-yard run by Collins (Pass failed), 0:29
4th Quarter
- BISON: 67-yard run by Collins (Kick failed), 9:57
GAME STATISTICS
Clearfield/Huntingdon
- First Downs: 6/8
- Rush Yards: 408/97
- Pass Yards: 99/86
- Penalties-Yards: 3-30/3-15
- Total Yards: 477/168
- Turnovers: 1/2
- Time of Possession: 19:04/28:56
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
- Clearfield: Collins-19 carries, 355 yards, 3 TD; Freeland-7 carries, 54 yards, 2 TD; Fletcher-3 carries, (-1) yards; Curry-1 carry, 12 yards; Team-1 carry, (-10) yards.
- Huntingdon: Erdman-15 carries, 86 yards; Guisler-8 carries, 10 yards; Dodson-3 carries, 7 yards; Lane-3 carries, 4 yards; Mykut-3 carries, 0 yards; Hughes-2 carries, (-7) yards; Mccall-1 carry, 7 yards.
Passing
- Clearfield: Curry-2 for 5, 99 yards, TD, INT.
- Huntingdon: Guisler-3 for 5, 21 yards, INT; Mykut-2 for 2, 65 yards, TD.
Receiving
- Clearfield: Broad-1 catch, 64 yards, TD; Freeland-1 catch, 35 yards.
- Huntingdon: Rutter-1 catch, 65 yards, TD; Mykut-1 catch, 17 yards; Gibson-1 catch, 15 yards; Moore-1 catch, 6 yards; Lane-1 catch, (-2) yards.
BISON SCOREBOARD:
Date Opponent Score Record
08/23 @ Tyrone 36 – 20 1 – 0
08/30 FOREST HILLS 27 – 7 2 – 0
09/06 @ Philipsburg-Osceola 33 – 7 3 – 0
09/13 BELLEFONTE 28 – 7 4 – 0
09/20 @ Huntingdon 46 – 7 5 – 0
09/27 @ Penns Valley
10/04 BALD EAGLE AREA
10/11 RICHLAND
10/18 CENTRAL
10/25 @ LHAC cross over game (TBD)