CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – A once-promising 2018 football season comes to a close for Clarion University at noon Saturday when the Golden Eagles host East Stroudsburg.
(Photo courtesy of Clarion University Athletics)
After a 4-1 start that included a four-game win streak after dropping the season opener to Shippensburg, Clarion has lost five straight and sits at 4-6 on the season.
East Stroudsburg has had a turbulent season of its own. Long-time Warriors head coach Denny Douds called a timeout in the closing seconds of East Stroudsburg’s home finale two weeks ago, told his team he was retiring, left the field, got in his car and drove away leaving former Warriors QB great Jimmy Terwilliger in charge as the interim head coach. ESU is 1-9 after a 48-7 loss to Shippensburg last week.
The Warriors have been hampered the last three weeks on offense because of the absence of tailback Jaymar Anderson, who ranked 7th in DII in rushing (135.3 ypg) through seven weeks.
The offense still does have senior wide receiver Jylil Reeder, who ranks third in the PSAC in receiving yards per game with 91.5 while having four 100-yard receiving outputs.
Redshirt freshman Jake Cirillo has started five of the past six weeks at QB for ESU and has thrown for 1,065 yards, eight touchdowns and five picks.
Clarion started a freshman of its own last week at QB with Tanner Jones coming in. Jones was just 8 of 29 passing for 102 yards and an interception. It isn’t known if Clarion will go back to Jeff Clemens (100 of 194, 1,278 yards, 6 TDs, 9 Ints) or Jovante Seard (37 of 68, 471 yards, 5 TDs, zero interceptions.
It probably doesn’t matter, as Clarion fails to crack 20 points a game on offense, which is a shame considering the Golden Eagles defense allows just 20.9 points per game, which ranks tied for fourth in the PSAC with Slippery Rock, who won the PSAC West.
Mylique McGriff (639 rushing yards, 7 TDs; 16 catches, 166 yards), Dana Jackson (27 catches, 459 yards, 4 TDs) and Marcus McCoy (17 catches, 310 yards, 3 TDs) are some of the lone bright spots on offense for Clarion.
NOTES – Clarion is assured of its 18th losing season since 1997, a year after it went to the NCAA Division II semifinals … Douds won 264 games in 45 seasons at East Stroudsburg with his most famous player probably being current Penn State head coach James Franklin … ESU leads the all-time series with Clarion, 9-4, and the Warriors have won eight of the last nine since 2000.
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