Bisons make a long night for Mounties

Rich Murawski For the CDT

HYDE — Five turnovers, two long Clearfield pass plays and an injury to a team leader were too much for the Philipsburg- Osceola to overcome on as the Mounties dropped a 35-19 decision to the Bisons on Friday.

P-O tossed a pair of interceptions, including a second-quarter pick that was returned 16 yards by Trey Campman for a Clearfield touchdown. The Mounties also fumbled four times, losing three.

And Bison sophomore quarterback Curtis Frye connected on touchdown passes of 93 and 62 yards to Campman and Derek Danver, respectively, on consecutive second-half drives.

“Turnovers. ...You commit five turnovers against any football team it’s not a good thing,” P-O coach Jeff Vroman said. “And then we gave up big plays. We can’t give up big plays like we did. Their scores were easy. And we turned the ball over. Those were the keys to the football game.”

Frye hit 15 of his 26 pass attempts for 285 yards. Campman had eight receptions for 178 yards.

The Bisons (1-1) jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead, getting a 1-yard sneak from Frye on fourth down for the first score before Campman’s interception made it a two-touchdown advantage for Clearfield.

The (1-1) Mounties answered with a 72-yard drive that culminated with a Reggie Coval to Kurtis Walker 19-yard touchdown pass. That came after P-O moved the first 53 yards of the drive on the ground.

P-O only managed 10 yards of offense on its first four drives before the scoring series.

“Early in the game, I thought they were very physical up front and they were controlling the line of scrimmage,” Vroman said of Clearfield. “As the game went on, I think we got back to where we wanted to be. But not being able to control the line of scrimmage early was disappointing. We expected to have a much faster start than we did.”

Clearfield upped its lead to 21-7 with 42 seconds left in the third quarter on the 93-yard Campman score, but P-O came right back with a 77-yard drive that featured Zack Czap. Czap rushed five times for 42 yards on the drive and finished with a game-high 88 yards on the ground.

Coval finished the drive with a 9-yard scoring strike to Parker Watson. The extra-point attempt went wide, and P-O trailed, 21-13.

“We didn’t quit,” Vroman said. “But we thought if we got some first downs (in the second half), it would change the field position. That’s what we wanted to do. We got them pinned back at their own 7, and then we give up a long pass play. You cannot win doing that.

“And it’s not like we didn’t know it was coming. We have to make the play. We have to make the play, and we didn’t make it.”

P-O gave up another long pass play following the Watson score, as the 62-yard, Frye-to-Danver connection came just 22 seconds after P-O had moved to within one score of the lead.

Bison kicker Chad Zurat added the fourth of five extra points to stake the Bisons to a 28-13 lead with 9:40 on the clock.

The Mounties engineered one more long drive, going 71 yards in 10 plays with Coval running the ball in for the final two yards and the touchdown. A failed two-point conversion made the score 28-19.

P-O pounced on an onside kick following the Coval touchdown, but a Derek Morgan interception snuffed out any chance of a Mountie comeback.

Morgan returned the ball 45 yards to the P-O 16, then finished off the scoring three plays later with a 10-yard dash.

The Mounties lost starting center Cody Pepperday late in the second quarter to an apparent leg injury, and he did not return.

“That’s a shame, because he worked hard,” Vroman said. “Kyle Lanich came in and did a nice job. That’s probably where we’ll have to lean. We’ll need to give him some work and get him caught up. But it’s just a shame for Cody Pepperday because he is one of our team captains and one of our leaders. The kids really look up to him.”

P-O ended the night with 152 yards rushing and 115 through the air. Coval was 5-of-10 for 79 yards, while Rusnak hit 2-of-4 for 36.

“We were pretty two-dimensional,” Vroman said. “We were able to throw the football a little bit, so that will give people something to work on.”

P-O (1-1) plays host to Lewistown next week.