One of District 9’s three champions has been crowned, and now the final two postseason matchups are slated for this weekend.
Last Saturday, Clearfield topped St. Marys, 41-30, for the Class AAA title. The Bison will now face D5 champion Bedford Friday night at Clearfield.
This weekend, the AA and A championship will be staged. In Class AA, top-seeded Brookville and No. 3 Karns City will face off Friday night, while in Class A, the two division champions from the year, Smethport and Redbank Valley, will duke it out Saturday. Both games will be at Varischetti Field in Brockway.
Both matchups ought to be good ones, too, though there are some major question marks in the 2A game. On Tuesday evening, the Ridgway Area School District issued a press release noting that one of its football players tested positive for COVID-19, and so the entire Elker team is in quarantine.
The issue is that Brookville and Ridgway just faced off in the semifinals last Friday. Ridgway stated that it notified Brookville’s district of the case, but how that impacts this week’s championship game remains to be seen.
Those questions aside, the AA title appears to be Brookville’s to lose, as the Raiders stomped KC in the regular season, 44-0. Brookville made the championship by topping Ridgway, 49-15.
But, tread on the Gremlins at your own peril. Karns City knocked off Central Clarion — a team it had lost to in the regular season — to reach the title game, and the Gremlins have some momentum.
Meanwhile, in Class A, Redbank Valley is making its second-straight D9 title game appearance, while the Hubs are playing in their second championship game in three years.
The teams met a year ago down in New Bethlehem, which resulted in a 21-0 Bulldogs regular-season victory. But Smethport has shown all year that 2020 has been different, and it can play elite defense.
So, too, can Redbank Valley, which leads one to think that Saturday’s showdown will be similar to the one Smethport just played with Union/A-C Valley. The Hubbers beat the Falcon-Knights last Friday, 12-10, to advance. Redbank beat Union/AC-V in the regular season, 10-7.
Meanwhile, the Bulldogs beat Coudersport 28-12 to advance to the title game. Smethport toppled the Falcons 14-0 in the regular season.
Suffice it to say that the 1A game features two teams that will be evenly matched and should be a defensive struggle, at least on paper.
IU9 UPSETS
The first week of crossover games between the IU9 Large and Small School Division teams featured a pair of upsets. Otto-Eldred outlasted Kane in a shootout, 41-34, while Port Allegany pulled away from Bradford late for a 30-6 win.
Cole Sebastian led the Terrors in their win, accounting for four touchdowns — two through the air and two on the ground. O-E jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead then held on late after Kane made a furious rally.
It was the first meeting between the schools since Kane topped O-E in the 2017 AML title game, 33-0.
Meanwhile, Port led Bradford just 8-6 heading into the fourth quarter before using turnovers and defense to end out with the 24-point victory in a rare meeting between the schools.
REGULAR SEASONS CONCLUDING
This week marks the end of the 2020 regular season for most non-playoff teams, at least here in the IU9 bubble.
Games were originally supposed to be played through Nov. 6, but all of next week’s non-playoff matchups have been nixed for one reason or another. In addition, this week’s Kane-ECC game has been canceled, as well as the Crusaders’ season finale next week against St. Marys.
Bradford will conclude its season at O-E Friday, while Port finishes its schedule off with Cameron County Friday.
The Red Raiders and Terrors will face off in Emporium on Nov. 6, but that’s the only IU9 game scheduled at this point.
(Joel Whetzel, a Bradford Era sportswriter, can be reached at jwhetzel@bradfordera.com.)
