If there was ever a mulligan in football, St. Marys received it last week.
Needing a win to clinch a berth in the District 9 Class AAA title game, the Dutch were dominated by a more physical Clearfield team in a 29-6 loss last Friday night. As fate would have it, Corry scored two touchdowns, including a two-point conversion for the winning points, in the final 3:10 to nip Bradford, 28-27.
Corry's win put St. Marys in the title game for the second straight year and gave the Dutch a second chance at the Bisons in as many weeks - with this game going for all the marbles. Friday will mark just the second time the two D-9 rivals will play for the district title. Clearfield beat St. Marys, 21-18, for the 2005 AAA crown. The Bisons lead the all-time series 29-11-2 and now have won 13 of the last 16 meetings.
However, the week between games won't give either coach much time put in many new wrinkles, so Friday's title tilt will come down to execution, something the Bisons excelled at in last week's meeting.
Clearfield dominated the game up front on both sides of the ball, particularly on defense where it held St. Marys to just 90 yards rushing, 127 yards below the Dutch's season average per game. And 43 yards of that total came on two rushes in the final 53 seconds of the first half with Clearfield playing a prevent defense.
The Dutch also racked up all 74 of their passing yards on two plays in the final three minutes of the game that led the Dutchmen's lone score. In total, Clearfield held the Dutch to 164 yards, but St. Marys only had 47 yards of offense in the real heat of the game.
St. Marys' defense also did a solid job keeping Clearfield under its season averages for rushing and total yards, but the Bisons were able to run more than enough with quarterback Jarrin Campman and tailback Isiah Morgan. The duo virtually split the load between halves as Campman ran for three touchdowns and 62 of his 68 yards in the first half, while Morgan had 54 of his 72 yards and a score in the second half. Morgan and Campman have combined to run for 2,337 yards and 39 touchdowns this season.
In all, Clearfield ran for 163 yards, about a 100 yards less than its season average and ended with 227 total yards, well under its average of 384.9. Clearfield and St. Marys have the op two rushing offenses in the Tri-County area.
Clearfield put together two nice scoring drives of 67 and 47 yards on its first two possessions and used defense and special teams to give itself short field for its next three scores. An interceptions by Bison Nick Redden set up a short three-play, 3-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, while the Bisons last two scores were set up by a Parker Herrington punt.
Herrington's 49-yard punt in the third quarter that pinned St. Marys at its 1-yard line set up a safety by the Clearfield defense, while the Bisons got the ball at the Dutch 38 on the ensuing free kick.
Clearfield took advantage of the short field and needed just seven plays for the score and a commanding 29-0 lead.
Clearfield nearly had another short field late in the second quarter of the game, but a Trey Campman interception was negated by a Bisons' penalty.
The Bisons' win avenged a 30-14 loss to the Dutch in last year's Class AAA semifinals, which came on the heels of an impressive 28-13 win by the Bisons at St. Marys in the regular season.
The turnaround in the playoffs last season is just one reason Bisons' head coach Tim Janocko knows that last week was last week and that this Friday is an entirely new game.
"We just have to continue to do what got us to the playoffs and continue to execute," Janocko said. "St. Marys has a good team and they didn't mail it here (title game) by accident. We're expecting a good, hard-fought game.
"I think it was good for the kids to get playing them (Dutch) once out of the way, but it's not the ideal situation (to play two weeks in a row). I'm sure they're not thrilled about it either. We just have to go out there and play and see what happens.
"Our kids are excited to be playing for the district title, and coming off winning the league championship last week, it's just one big game after another. But, we're definitely battled-tested with the schedule we've had. I think we've had about the toughest schedule you could have in the area playing the likes of Tyrone, Central, Huntingdon, DuBois and now St. Marys twice."
For the Dutch to turn things around this postseason, it comes down to their play up front according to head coach Joe Schlimm.
"Clearfield is an outstanding football team and we're going to have to play near-perfect to be in it," Schlimm said. "This time of year you really can't change too much, so the bottom line is we need to come off the football and do a better job up front. And, we can't give them the opportunities we gave them last Friday.
"We were disappointed with how we played last week, but kids are resilient and they're excited to be playing for the district championship again. Hopefully you'll see a much different St. Marys football team this Friday night."
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Frank Varischetti Field in Brockway.
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