Around the KSAC: Brookville Starts New Era Tonight with Tough Matchup vs. Karns City

Chris Rossetti takes a look at all of tonight’s football action in the KSAC.

Large School Division

Karns City at Brookville, 7 p.m. Friday – Karns City has won three straight District 9 Class AA titles while recording 33 wins over the past three years, and the Gremlins are the favorites again this year thanks to a program that reloads instead of rebuilding. Colin Dunmyre, a 1,000-yard rusher from a year ago, leads the way on offense and is joined Maverick Kelsea to anchor what should be a strong defense.

Brookville, meanwhile, starts a new era under first-year head coach Scott Park. The Raiders were just 2-8 last year and had a lot of internal turmoil. But Park, a 1987 graduate of the school who previously spent time as head coach at Sheffield, has a couple of underclassmen in junior Seth Ray and sophomore John Frank who could help make the transition smooth,

Moniteau at Punxsutawney, 7 p.m. Friday – Moniteau is looking for its first winning season since winning the school’s first District 9 Class AA title in 2011. Since that 12-win season, the Warriors have mustered just nine wins. But five of those came last year when the Warriors started 4-0 only to lose six of their final seven games including a heartbreaking 7-6 defeat in the rain at St. Marys in the District 9 semifinals. Derek Boben and Wyatt Ifft will be key players.

Punxsutawney has a new coach in Brad Wright, who previously spent time as the head coach at Warren. And Wright plans to bring a wide-open attack to Punxsy, which went 6-5 last year losing to Clearfield in the District 9 Class AAA title game and then to Somerset in the District 5-6-8-9 sub-regional first round. Braxton Giavedoni and Blake Bizousky give the Chucks a pair of exciting offensive weapons.

Bradford at St. Marys, 7 p.m. Friday – This is the only non-conference game involving a KSAC team this week. The Owls are trying to get back to their winning ways, something they haven’t done since 2010. In fact, Bradford is 11-31 since then with one of those wins a forfeit victory and has had back-to-back two-win seasons. Alex Colosimo is a player to watch on both sides of the ball for the Owls.

St. Marys had a strong season a year ago going 8-4 with two losses to Karns City, including one in the District 9 Class AA title game. The Dutch are expecting good things especially considering they return 1,000-yard rusher T.J. Hogan as well as starting quarterback Pat Schlimm and receiver Brady Bauer.

Small School Division

Clarion at A-C Valley 7 p.m., Friday – Clarion has been the toast of the KSAC Small School Division since its inception winning all 25 Small School games it has played and has 27 straight conference victories. The Bobcats welcome back quarterback Bo Miller, who missed all but four games with a knee injury last year but must replace The Rehab Centre D9Sports.com Jim Kelly Award Winner as District 9’s MVP Ian Corbett, who ran for 2,000 yards in 2014. Bobcat head coach Larry Wiser is 10 wins shy of becoming just the third coach in District 9 history with 200 wins. He would join Clearfield head coach Tim Janocko and former Coudersport head man Paul Simcoe in that category.

A-C Valley, on the other hand, has dropped 22 straight contests after back-to-back 0-10 seasons. The Falcons hope the addition of a few players from Mid-Atlantic Youth Services in Emlenton plus the return of quarterback Zach Muhl and leading rusher Evan Redding can help turn things around in 2015.

Clarion-Limestone at Redbank Valley, 7 p.m. Friday – Redbank Valley has finished second to Clarion in the Small School Division the last two years, and hopes are again high in New Bethlehem for the Bulldogs despite losing the school’s all-time leading passer, Jake Dougherty, to graduation. Dougherty’s replacement will come from the duo of Devin Schimp and Connor Shoemaker, and whoever is the QB will have lots of talent around him starting with wide out Wyatt Hetrick who had 58 catches for 852 yards and 10 touchdown. BryLee Shumaker will anchor the offensive line and lead the defense from his middle linebacker position.

Clarion-Limestone head coach Dave Eggleton believes his team is ready to take a step forward in 2015 after going 1-9 last year. Anthony Louder, the son of Union head coach Dave Louder, will lead the offense after throwing for 568 yards a year ago. Connor Keth and Mike Macefe are also back for the Lions.


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