This has not been a week filled with good news for Moniteau football coach Steve Wilson.

His Warriors have dropped two straight close games, are still without versatile running back Adam Cousins and have to travel to Clarion — a team they've beaten only once in the last 11 years — for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday.

Worse yet, the Bocats (4-4, 3-3) have to win this game to reach the District 9 playoffs.

"That's something I don't like to hear because they are very, very good," Wilson said.

Clarion's four losses are to teams with a combined record of 26-6: Keystone, Redbank Valley, Karns City and Southern Columbia. The latter two opponents are undefeated.

Southern Columbia is the four-time defending PIAA Class A champion and hung a 35-0 loss on Clarion last week.

"That team is as good as advertised,"Clarion coach Larry Wiser said. "The good thing is our kids weren't intimidated by them. We just got beat.

"We were looking for a game to fill an open date on our schedule and our options were to take a bye week, play a team from near Philadelphia or one near Cleveland. We opted for (Southern)Columbia and it was a good experience for us."

Wiser is 119-56-1 in 19 years at Clarion. Besides a 15-6 win over St. Marys, the Bobcats own lopsided triumphs over A-C Valley (53-6) and over Union and Clarion-Limestone by 56-6 counts.

Quarterback Adam Bevevino has completed 38 of 86 passes for 627 yards, eight touchdowns and only one interception. Tyler Schwab has 16 catches for 239 yards and James Seidle has eight catches for 197.

Brad Rapp leads the Bobcats' ground game with 118 carries for 772 yards and nine touchdowns.

Rapp is also a returning all-state player at linebacker. Eric Grejda (61 tackles) returned as an all-conference defensive end and Jeff Wiant is back as an all-conference nose guard.

Clarion has seven players weighing more than 250 pounds.

"We're not a small team, but they're much bigger than us,"Wilson said. "We have a lot of speed and quickness at the skilled positions this year. This game boils down to our speed against their size."

Clarion holds a lopsided 28-5 advantage in the all-time series between the teams.

"You have to like what Steve Wilson has done with that program the past few years,"Wiser said. "They're among the best in the conference now.

"We've both lost close games to Karns City and Redbank. We can both move the football. The key for us will be putting the ball in the end zone. Moniteau's had one of the top defenses in the conference the past two or three years."

The Warriors (6-2, 4-2) have struggled to put the ball in the end zone the past two weeks in losses of 20-18 to Karns City and 7-6 to Redbank Valley.

Without having their regular kicker in Cousins, they went for two poiints after their lone touchdown last week.

"That was because of the muddy field conditions,"Wilson said. "Clay (Drnek) tried kicking out of the mud on that side during pre-game and made just one out of five. There was no footing there.

"Hindsight is always 20-20, but we should have thrown the ball more last week. We went from throwing 30 times against Karns City to throwing nine times last week. They were giving us the short pass and we weren't taking it. That was my fault."

Middle linebacker Aaron Randall sparkled for Moniteau last week, getting 12 tackles and a quarterback sack. Cousins will miss this Friday's game as well, but should return for next week's regular season finale vs. Wilmington.

"They're ranked sixth in the state, so this is a big game for us,"Wilson said. "We don't want to play them with a three-game losing streak."

Tyler Armagost has completed 49 of 97 passes for 955 yards, seven touchdowns and only three interceptions for Moniteau. Adam Pry and Cruz Eshenbaugh have combined for 26 catches and 493 yards.

Josh Loos is averaging 28 yards per catch on six receptions.

"That Armagost kid can beat you running or throwing the ball,"Wiser said.

"We have become more of a passing team this year,"Wilson allowed. "We should be throwing the ball 40 percent of the time, not 10 percent like last week."

<b>7 p.m., Friday </b><b>Streak: </b>Clarion has defeated Moniteau in 10 of their last 11 meetings and in 28 of 33 games overall.<b>Statistic: </b>Former Moniteau quarterback Josh Loos averages just under 28 yards per reception since switching to wide receiver.<b>Speaking: </b>"We should have lost that game to them last year. They completely shut us down all night. They made us feel helpless." — Clarion coach Larry Wiser on his team's 7-3 win over Moniteau last year.