College Football  

CLARION HOSTS PSAC-WEST RIVAL SLIPPERY ROCK SATURDAY

Clarion's 2001 football team returns home Saturday, October 20th, to host PSAC-West rival Slippery Rock at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1pm.

Clarion fans can hear the game on WCCR-FM, 92.7, or on the internet with Mike Kalinowski and Dave Katis providing the play call. The internet broadcast is available at www.redzonemedia.com.

The Golden Eagles enter the game with a 3-4 overall record and a 1-2 mark in the PSAC-West. All three Clarion wins have come at home against Tiffin (27-14), Kutztown (36-7) and California (29-22). All four losses have come on the road at Est Stroudsburg (33-27), at Youngstown State (44-0), at Shippensburg (34-29) and last week at Edinboro (24-12).

Clarion head coach Malen Luke is in his eighth season at Clarion with a record of 40-43 overall and a PSAC-West slate of 21-24. His 14-year collegiate record is 77-64.

Slippery Rock is led by 14th year head coach Dr. George Mihalik. The veteran Rock mentor has the Rockets at 3-3 overall this season and 1-3 in the PSAC-West. Slippery Rock opened with two wins over Florida Atlantic (40-7) and Tiffin (45-13), then lost three straight to Edinboro (14-7), IUP (23-7) and Shippensburg (32-20). Last Saturday the Rockets won a big road game at Cal by a 37-27 margin. Mihalik led SRU to PSAC-West titles in 1997, 98, 99 and a share of the title with Clarion and IUP last year. Mihalik's record at Slippery Rock is 97-49-4.

Clarion's offense enters the game averaging 337 yards of total offense (8th in PSAC) including 235 rushing yards (3rd in PSAC) and 102 passing yards (13th in PSAC).

Directing the offense is junior signal-caller Adam Almashy. In 2001 he has hit on 40 of 118 passes for 649 yards and 5 td's with 6 interceptions. He has also rushed for 322 yards and 2 td's on 112 attempts. In his career he has now completed 257 of 587 aerials (43.8%) for 3,587 yards and 33 td's. He has also rushed for 701 yards and 10 td's on 370 career attempts.

The running game will have Demetric Gardner at fullback, with Robert Walker, Glenn Lovelace, Ben Culver and Chris Roberts all available. Gardner leads the team with 471 yards and 4 td's on 88 tries. He ranks 9th on the all-time rushing list with 1,449 yards and needs only 27 on Saturday to move past Geoff Alexander's 1,475 yards (1981-84) into 7th place. He has rushed 287 times and has 11 rushing td's.

Walker missed the Edinboro game, but will be back this week. He has 423 yards and 9 td's on only 58 carries (7.3 p/c). Lovelace is next with 267 yards and 2 td's on 46 attempts, while Culver has 58 rushing yards, plus 4 catches for 93 yards and 1 td. Roberts has 43 rushing yards.

The receiving corps is led by wideout Mike McCullum (15 catches, 263 yards, 2 td's) and tight end Andy Pore (6 grabs, 134 yards, 2 td's).

Clarion's defense is limiting opponents to 347 yards of total offense (9th in PSAC), including 180.9 rushing yards (8th in PSAC) and 166.1 passing yards (9th in PSAC) per game.

Clarion's defensive front has played well this season with Doug Diegelman (33 hits, 8 tfl's, 5 sacks) at noseguard and George O'Brien (33 stops, 7 tfl's) and Tom Pore (35 hits, 3 tfl's) at the tackle spots.

Guarding the perimeters will be Chris Janson, Kevin Platz and Derek Puchalsky. Janson leads the team with 63 tackles, 11 tfl's and 6 sacks, while Platz has 26 jolts, 5 tfl's and Puchalsky 8 stops, 3 tfl's.

The inside linebackers are also having solid seasons. Dennis Yu (46 hits, 4 tfl's, 3 fumbles caused) anchors the middle with Tom Gaydosz (27 stops, 5 tfl's, 3 sacks) and Scott McGrady (24 jolts).

The secondary has Myron Hargon (4 int's, 4 break-ups), Kevin McKeither (14 stops, 1 int) and Jhermel Goss (15 tackles) at the corners, with Korey Eppinette (54 stops, 1 int), Emil Johnson (45 tackles) and Steve Devennie (13 hits) at the safeties.

Slippery Rock's offense exploded for 518 yards at Cal last Saturday including 399 rushing yards. On the season the Rockets are getting 345.3 yards of total offense (7th in PSAC) including 224.3 rushing yards (4th in PSAC) and 121 passing yards (12th in PSAC) per game.

The Rock seems to have settled on Kevin Dvorchak at quarerback. He has completed 44 of 87 for 489 yards and 1 td with 8 interceptions. He completed 8 of 16 for 119 yards and 1 td at Cal. Also available is Tim Arthurs who has connected on 28 of 45 aerials for 237 yards and 1 td with 1 int.

The running game is led by talented tailback Dorrian Glenn. Glenn rushed for a Slippery Rock record 355 yards at Cal on Saturday. He had 38 attempts and rushed for 4 td's. His 335 yards were the second most in PSAC history behind Millersville's Ricke Stonewall who had 350 versus New Haven in 1982. Glenn is #2 in the PSAC this season averaging 151.2 yards per game. He has 907 yards and 12 td's on 133 carries (6.8 per carry). Also toting the pigskin will be Brandon Markus (63 rushes, 375 yards, 3 td's) and halfback Ryan McKavish. He leads the team with 17 catches for 156 yards and 1 td.

The receiving corps has Neil Henry (16 grabs, 125 yards), D.J. Flick (14 catches, 215 yards, 1 td) and Chris Eckenrode (8 receptions, 84 yards).

Slippery Rock's defense is giving up only 314.7 yards per game (6th in PSAC) including 211.5 rushing yards (10th in PSAC) and 103.2 passing yards (1st in the PSAC) per game.

Up front the Rock has noseguard Ian Anderson (23 stops), tackle Louis Jamison (26 hits) and ends Nathan Hogg (11 jolts) and John Benka (16 tackles).

Linebackers Frank Valvano (45 tackles, 2 fumbles caused), Joe Marecic (37 hits, 2 int's), Chris Petrarca (31 jolts, 6 tfl's) and Jesse Kelley (14 stops) are ready for action.

The secondary is led by strong safety Shawn Hanzely (48 tackles, 2 int's) and free safety Brad Foor (41 stops, 4 tfl's) who are the #1 and #3 tacklers. Corners Jim Urbano (33 stops, 4 int's) and Kent Crytzer (15 tackles, 5 break-ups) are top cover men.

CLARION NOTES: SRU's Glenn has rushed for 2,972 career yards and ranks 6th on their all-time list ... He also has 37 career td's ... Glenn will likely be ranked as the #6 rusher in D-II this week when the stats come out... SRU as a team will rank about 20th in rushing offense, while Clarion will be 15th ... This will be t he third top 5 rusher in the nation the Golden Eagles have hosted... Kutztown Yorel Prosser and Cal's Wesley Cates also made visits to Clarion this year ... Prosser gained 5 rushing yards and Cates had 102 against the Eagle defense... Slippery Rock leads the series between the two schools 34-22-3 dating back to 1928... Last year SRU defeated Clarion 27-14 in a game that was a lot closer than the score indicates... SRU's Glenn led both teams with 140 yards and 2 td's on 14 carries ... The Rockets rushed for 253 as a team... Clarion's Almashy hit on 8 of 25 passes for 179 yards and 2 td's ... The Clarion "D" posted 7 qb sacks against Randy McKavish ... In 1999 SRU defeated Clarion 45-7 at Memorial Stadium... Glenn was also the leading rusher in that game with 92 yards and 1 td ... Almashy was 15 f 25 in that game for 159 yards with Andy Pore catching 4 passes for 41 yards ... Clarion's last win over Slippery Rock came at SRU in 1996 when the Eagles notched a 54-28 victory ... The last win over Slippery Rock at Memorial Stadium came back in 1993 by a 29-24 margin... Clarion will host PSAC-West leading IUP on Saturday October 27th at 1pm... That game will also serve as the annual Senior Day.