Published: August 27, 2008 12:28 am            

Clarion banking on brighter future

FAIRMONT — To say Jay Foster and his Clarion (Pa.) University Golden Eagles are excited for the 2008 season to start may just be a bit of an understatement.

When you’ve suffered through an 0-11 season and have won just one game the past two years the future has to appear brighter.

And with 17 starters and 33 lettermen returning from the 2007 squad which ended up winless, but lost three of its last four games by seven points or less, Foster is fairly confident of that.

“The number one thing for us and the most glaringly obvious is we’ve got to win games,” said Foster, who is beginning his third season at the school after serving as a long-time assistant coach at Slippery Rock. “We’re coming back with some experience and we feel a lot better this season about ourselves. Last year we knew we were going to have to have some young kids start for us and we knew we had to find them during the two weeks of camp which is tough. This year we weren’t in that situation.

“This year in camp we knew who our established players were and who could play for us and who couldn’t. Instead of trying to learn the offense and teach, we’ve been perfecting what we do on both offense and defense. Our kids are physically older and more mature for us now and our expectations are that we’ve got to win some games this year.”

Offensively Clarion, which opens up Thursday evening at 6 p.m. at home at Memorial Stadium against visiting Fairmont State, averaged 315.5 yards per game and 16.7 points in 2007. Six starters and 14 lettermen return on that side of the ball led by senior running back Eddie Emmanuel, who rushed for 722 yards and seven scores last season while garnering second-team all-league honors.

Emmanuel will be joined in the backfield this fall by talented sophomore fullback Nick Sipes, who started at safety out of necessity last season and was third on the team in tackles with 71. Sipes, the all-time rushing leader in Pennsylvania District 9 history with 5,968 yards and 84 touchdowns, is a more natural fit at running back for the Golden Eagles.

Triggering the offense this fall will be sophomore quarterback Gino Rometo, who beat out last year’s starter in camp Tyler Huether. Rometo, a 6-2, 200-pounder, completed 45.8 percent of his passes last season (49-of-107) for 517 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He was intercepted twice. Huether, a 6-1, 205-pound junior, was 150-of-294 passing last fall for 1,859 yards and nine scores. He, however, threw 12 interceptions.

Expect Rometo’s top target to be 5-4, 150-pound speedster Alfonso Hoggard, who was the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-West Rookie of the Year in 2007 when he hauled in 48 passes for 505 yards and three scores. Jaques Robinson, a 6-3 sophomore, also returns on the outside. He caught 23 passes for 231 yards last year.

Matt Foradora, a 6-5, 240-pound junior, returns at tight end after missing all of the 2007 season with an injury. In 2006 he caught 24 passes for 295 yards and four scores.

Clarion’s offensive front returns three starters.

On defense look for improvement from a year ago for the Golden Eagles, who surrendered 478.3 yards and 39.7 points per game. Senior All-American tackle Jimmy Simmons, a 6-3, 260-pounder, returns after missing all of last year with a neck injury. He recorded 70 tackles, including 27 for losses and five sacks in 2006. His 27 tackles for losses were second in NCAA Division II two years ago.

At linebacker and in the secondary Clarion returns several sophomores who all saw considerable playing time last season.

“We know we’ve got to be better on defense this fall and I think we can do that,” said Foster. “We played an awful lot of freshman last year which is evidenced by how many sophomore guys we have on defense returning. They have a year of experience under their belts and as a group I think they understand we expect more out of them now.”

Fairmont State defeated Clarion last season, 21-14, at Duvall-Rosier Field.

        

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