WINGATE- Of the six games that the Clearfield Bison have played on the gridiron this year, all but one have been decided by two scores or less. Four have been decided by seven points or less, and Clearfield has won three of them. Every week has been been a battle of attrition, seeing who could make the necessary play, and who ultimately wanted it more. Friday night against Bald Eagle was shaping up to be another one of those nights; a ground-and-pound, smash mouth contest that meant battling in the trenches, low scoring, and grinding away the clock.
The stats for both sides were not spectacular, but when it mattered the most, the Bison made the plays in the big moments, securing a tight 12-6 victory.
“I tell you what, my blood pressure is way up right now,” head coach Myles Caragein said with a chuckle. “That was a great game, a back-and-forth night. This game, much like others, showed how these kids just keep fighting.”
The Bald Eagles came out with no mystery in what they wanted to do. Offensively, the home squad packed the box with a stacked line, two backs directly behind the guards, and one receiver spread to the outside. Quarterback Gradyn Fisher would carry the load on the opening drive for all but one play, but the Bison offense stood him up just past midfield, forcing the punt. The ensuing possession for Clearfield never lasted long as on 1st-and-10 from the Bison 35, quarterback Xavier Curry was flushed out to the right, and in doing so found a gap. He would shed tacklers and turned on the jets to rumble 65 yards to the end zone for the opening score, as the team followed up by flooding him with high-fives and leaps. During the celebration, the Bald Eagle sideline got into a jawing match with officials, earning a warning prior to the ensuing two-point try.
Clearfield was stuffed on the ensuing attempt, leaving the score at 6-0 midway through the opening quarter.
Bald Eagle got the ball back, and then went on a quest to keep Clearfield off the field and slow the game down. In doing so, they wore off the remaining six minutes of the opening quarter. Clearfield held the ball for just under 90 seconds in the first quarter, but held the lead. Still, Bald Eagle wore down the defense, gaining no more than eight yards a play, working into the red zone and a mere 10 yards from the goal line. However, the Bison defense stood them up, forcing Jackson Millward to come out and boot a 27-yard field goal to cut the lead in half.
The Bison answered back with their own long drive that saw Curry and Colton Ryan push to just inside the Bald Eagle five-yard line. Sadly, faced with 4th-and-1, a false start, followed by a holding call on what would have been a go-ahead touchdown, negated the drive. Ultimately, Bald Eagle held on and kept Clearfield from scoring, taking the 6-3 score into halftime.
Once again, the Bison worked on grinding the ball into the heart of the Bald Eagle defense to start the second half. Beginning at their own 38, Curry, Ryan, and Cooper Broad worked to gain yard after yard. The Bison would finish with 191 total rushing yards, with Curry accounting for 130 of those yards. The drive would sadly stall at the Bald Eagle two, and Curry would be stuffed on 4th-and-Goal, giving the ball back to home squad.
Neither team would get on the board in the third quarter, but Bald Eagle managed to get a field goal one minute into the final stanza to even the game up. It became a battle of who would make the play to swing momentum either way.
That came on the first Bald Eagle possession following the field goal. Faced with 2nd-and-9, Fisher once more followed his line up the right side of the field. The Bison defense halted him from the line to gain, but also managed to get the ball out of the grasp of Fisher. The scrum for the ball went Clearfield’s way near mid-field, and a dead ball foul by Bald Eagle moved the line to the Bald Eagle 32.
The turnover ignited everyone on Clearfield’s sideline, fueling the offense to make a play. Ryan would get the first call, but a 20-yard strike to Elijah Glunt let the Bison work into the red zone, setting up 1st-and-Goal at the Bald Eagle 8. A loss by Ryan, and no gain by Broad, put Clearfield in a tough spot at the 14-yard line. Following a timeout, the Bison came back and looked to put their stamp on the field.
Curry rolled out to his left, and sailed the pass over the defense, almost too deep. Somehow, Broad reached up for the ball and pulled it down with both feet touching in play for the 14-yard touchdown.
Caragein noted that there was not one moment in the game that truly felt like a momentum swing, since so many were happening that could have made a difference in the outcome, saying, “I can’t pinpoint one that truly made it in our favor. It was such a back-and-forth battle that our kids kept fighting, without getting frustrated. I didn’t feel a lot of the penalties were going our way tonight, but you can’t control that.
“These kids did a good job at controlling what they could control. The officials may see something and make the call, so we just have to live with it and move onto the next play.”
With 4:42 left, Bald Eagle had one more opportunity to get down the field and punch the ball into the end zone. Fisher lined up with a spread formation with receivers spread out, and one back to his right in the backfield, however called his own number once more in order to try and gain footage. He would gain 95 yards on the night, chipping away at the Bison defense on the final drive. He would complete two passes on the drive, but after a 14-yard run to the Bison 34, began seeing the line struggle to create a lane. He would ultimately gain two yards to the Bison 32, and looked at a 4th-and-8 to keep the Bald Eagle drive going.
Following the timeout, he would come out and spread his receivers out. The defense swarmed, flushing him out to the right, where he had a receiver on the sideline ready to make the catch. The problem was, Clearfield’s Cash Diehl saw it as well, and he stepped in front of the pass to halt the drive just inside the 20. The turnover would seal the night for the Bison, giving them their fifth win on the year, and third by seven points or less.
During the final timeout, Caragein’s message to his defense was as clear as a moonlit sky, as he said afterwards he asked his team, “Who’s going to be the man to stand up?” In the end, it was his secondary that accepted the challenge.
“We got pressure on the quarterback, and then Diehl undercut the route, making a nice pick,” he said.
Excluding the runaway win over Penns Valley, Clearfield’s margin-of-victory in the other four wins this season is just over six points, and those tight games have shown to come down to a single play or single drive. The two losses on the year have a combined eight points, showing that this year the “keep fighting” mentality goes from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.
It isn’t getting any easier for the Bison (5-2) as they continue the three-game road trip next week against Somerset.
SCORE BY QUARTER
Clearfield 6 0 0 6 – 12
Bald Eagle 0 3 0 3 – 6
BOX SCORE
1st Quarter
- BISON: 65-yard run by Curry (Run Failed), 6:18
2nd Quarter
- BALD EAGLES: 27-yard field goal by Millward, 8:08
3rd Quarter
- No scoring
4th Quarter
- BALD EAGLES: 27-yard field goal by Millward, 11:01
- BISON: 14-yard pass from Curry to Broad (Run Failed), 4:42
GAME STATISTICS
Clearfield/Bald Eagle
- First Downs: 8/8
- Rush Yards: 191/121
- Pass Yards: 66/21
- Penalties-Yards: 5-55/3-25
- Total Yards: 257/142
- Turnovers: 0/2
- Time of Possession: 23:13/24:47
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
- Clearfield: Ryan-16 carries, 56 yards; Curry-11 carries, 130 yards, TD; Broad-3 carries, 7 yards; Team-2 carries, (-2) yards.
- Bald Eagle: Fisher-29 carries, 95 yards; Cunningham-7 carries, 27 yards; Clark-1 carry, 2 yards.
Passing
- Clearfield: Curry-4 for 7, 66 yards, TD.
- Bald Eagle: Fisher-5 for 8, 21 yards, INT.
Receiving
- Clearfield: Broad-2 catches, 25 yards, TD; Ryan-1 catch, 21 yards; Glunt-1 catch, 20 yards.
- Bald Eagle: Hosband-2 catches, 13 yards; Millward-2 catches, 8 yards; Johnson-1 catch, 0 yards.
Clearfield Bison Scoreboard:
8/22 BELLWOOD-ANTIS 21 – 28, 0 – 1
8/29 at Bedford 21 – 14, 1 – 1
9/5 PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 27 – 15, 2 – 1
9/12 at Bellefonte 21 – 18 OT, 3 – 1
9/19 HUNTINGDON 27 – 28, 3 – 2
9/26 PENNS VALLEY 46 – 14, 4 – 2
10/3 at Bald Eagle Area 12 – 6, 5 – 2
10/10 at Somerset
10/17 at Bishop Guilfoyle
10/24 TBD, LHAC CROSSOVER
