D9Sports.com: Clarion, Union Fall in Semifinals

Jake Bauer

Published November 16, 2014 5:19 am

DUBOIS, Pa. (D9Sports.com) — Kane came in to Saturday’s District 9 Class A semifinal game against Clarion allowing 8.8 points per game.

That stat held true to form, as the Wolves shutdown Clarion’s explosive offense, beating the Bobcats 18-8 and advancing to next week’s championship game against Brockway.

And while they hit their average, this one was extra special given the magnitude of the game and the fact that Clarion, considered a heavy favorite by most, was averaging 48.7 ppg.

“Top to bottom, from our scout guys getting us ready this week to the way our offense and defense played tonight, I can’t say enough about our guys,” said Kane coach Todd Silfies. “Obviously, that’s a great football team that is extremely well-coached and extremely talented. You don’t do the things they’ve done the past several years without being a good team. I’m just so proud of our guys.”

Rovers Beat Union, 35-22

As far as turnover ratios go, Brockway Rovers head coach Frank Zocco knew his team didn’t have a good one going into Saturday afternoon’s District 9 Class A matchup with Union.

You can imagine how he felt after his Rovers — minus-7 for the season before going plus-2 against Union — turned two first-quarter Union turnovers into 14 points. That turned out to be basically the difference in the Rovers’ 35-22 win over the Knights at E.J. Mansell Stadium.

“We’ve been looking for that all year long,” Zocco said. “Our turnover ratio has been bad all year and we were looking for something like that to create turnovers. And we created those two. We did a great job. We hit them and punched the ball all. It was good to see. It helped us and we were able to capitalize on it.”

The win puts the Rovers in a Class A final for the first time in team history. Largely a Class AA school over the years, the 7-5 Rovers will try to win a district title for the first time since 2010 when they rolled to the Class AA title. They’ll meet Kane in next week’s final.