Clearfield 20, Hunter 19
CLEARFIELD — With 15 seconds remaining in the game Friday night between Clearfield and Hunter, the Falcon faithful were hoping the Clearfield defense could do something they could not do all night; stop the Hunter offense.
With the ball on the 16-yard line, no timeouts and no time for a field goal, Hunter's talented quarterback, Tarell Richards, took the snap and looked downfield. With all his receivers covered he took off for the end zone himself but was buried at the 5-yard line as the clock ran out and the Falcon players swarmed the field.
The result was an elated Clearfield team, which won the first game of its season against a good Hunter team that now needs to regroup after two season-opening losses.
Clearfield combined a potent running attack and mistakes by Hunter to escape with the 20-19 victory. The Falcons depended upon junior running back Carter Vaughn all night, as he totaled 95 yards on 12 carries.
"Carter is a very talented player with a lot of great football sense," said Clearfield coach Randy Johnson. "He played a great game, but we have a lot of work to do. We really need to clean up our game."
Johnson could have been speaking for both coaches as the game was full of penalties, errors and turnovers. Fortunately for Clearfield, most of the turnovers were from the Wolverines. On four separate occasions Hunter fumbled the ball. The last, and most costly, came with 9:40 remaining in the game and the score tied 13-13. Vaughn had just scored to tie the score, when on the first play from scrimmage Hunter again fumbled on a handoff. Two plays later senior running back Mike Conatser scampered 26 yards into the end zone to put the Falcons on top for good 20-13.
Hunter seemed to have plenty of time to get back into the game, as they methodically marched downfield behind the powerful running of Nick Fonus and David Fangupo, and scored on a beautiful pass from Richards to Mike Laloni.
The Wolverines went for the lead with five minutes remaining but failed to convert on the two-point conversion. After Clearfield was unable to score, they punted the ball away but the final Hunter drive fizzled to end the game.
The loss marred an otherwise great night of running by Hunter's Fonus, who totaled 106 yards on 20 carries.