Late charge gives victory to Bisons
By BRIAN COX, Sentinel sports reporter, bcox@lewistownsentinel.comArticle Photos
LEWISTOWN - Thirty seconds into the third quarter Friday, all appeared to be going Indian Valley's way.
The Warriors began the second half with an Aaron Reed interception of Clearfield quarterback Curtis Frye. Then a 42-yard touchdown run by Zach Hassinger - his third rushing and fourth overall of the game - gave the Warriors a 33-14 lead.
Then the Bisons rattled off five unanswered TDs in a furious rally to give Clearfield a 48-33 Mountain Athletic Conference football win at Mitchell Field.
"It makes it a tough loss," Indian Valley coach Tom Shearer said. "When you're ahead. When you're winning in the fourth quarter, you'd like to think you can finish, but we didn't."
"It was a tale of two halves, that's for sure," Clearfield coach Tim Janocko said. "I told the kids at halftime that we didn't play very well but we're only down 13, so we're still in the football game. ... To our credit, our kids fought back and got back in the game."
The Clearfield comeback began with a much-needed answer to Hassinger's gallop to begin the third. The Bisons drove 69 yards on seven plays highlighted by a 31-yard toss from Frye to Trey Campman to set up Cleafield at the Warriors' 9. Two plays later, the duo connected again for a TD toss to make the score 33-21 after the Chad Zurat extra point.
The Bisons defense then began to tilt the field in favor of the visitors. Indian Valley quarterback Cody Heane was intercepted on his next two drives, the latter setting up Clearfield at the Warriors' 24.
"They made some plays late and got the ball going," Shearer said. "They stopped a few of our drives and we didn't score enough toward the end."
Five plays later, Frye called his own number on a QB sneak from a yard out for the TD. But the kick failed, leaving the score at 33-27 with 2:08 to go in the third.
The fourth quarter began much as the third had gone for the Warriors. Heane was picked off for a third time, this one by John Mellgard who brought it all the way down to the Indian Valley 11.
"A couple of those picks are probably my fault - bad play calls," Shearer said.
Three plays later, Frye was in the end zone again as he carried it in from two yards out to knot the score. Zurat's kick was true to give Clearfield its first lead of the contest at 34-33 with 8:32 remaining.
The Bisons seemed to make a mistake by knocking the ball out of bounds on the kickoff, giving the ball to the Warriors at the 35. But Indian Valley went three-and-out, incurring a net loss of 16 yards on an intentional grounding penalty, forcing the Warriors to punt.
Campman took the kick and returned it 50 yards to the Indian Valley 5. Derek Morgan went the rest of the way one play later and Zurat's kick gave Clearfield a 41-33 advantage with just 7:05 to go.
With time becoming a factor, Indian Valley needed a drive. Instead, the Warriors got a first down and then turned it over on downs at their own 37. It was the last play Indian Valley ran.
Clearfield killed all but the last four seconds off the clock and added a touchdown as Frye scored his third TD of the game on a fourth-and-goal.
Before the rally, it had all gone well for the Warriors. Hassinger got the home team on the board with a 95-yard TD run.
He struck again on the Warriors' next possession as he seemingly carried half the Bisons defense and a couple of teammates across the goal line on the first play of the second quarter. Heane nailed the kick to make it 14-0 Indian Valley at that point.
"He's a junior and he's done really well this year," Shearer said of Hassinger. "He's faster than a lot of people think. He can run. He's done an excellent job this year."
Clearfield stayed in it with a 9-yard strike from Frye to Campman at the 6:56 mark of the second quarter, but Indian Valley answered with a 25-yard TD toss from Heane to Aaron Reed on fourth-and-five.
The Bisons continued to hang in there with a 70-yard dump-off pass that turned into a long catch-and-run for Morgan. But Indian Valley landed one more punch before the break as Heane hooked up with Hassinger for a five-yard TD pass with 1:03 to play until the half.
"I think some of our kids were a little shocked in the beginning at the speed Indian Valley had and they took advantage of it," Janocko said.
Indian Valley (1-2) will travel to DuBois Friday.





