EDINBORO, Pa. – The Golden Eagle football team put on a late rally to try and come back from a halftime deficit, but Clarion was unable to make up the entirety of the lost ground in falling 27-20 to Edinboro at Sox Harrison Stadium on Saturday.  Clarion (3-6, 1-5 PSAC West) will play their final home game of the season next week when they host Mercyhurst in the PSAC West finale at Memorial Stadium.
 
Mylique McGriff made his return to the field after missing three weeks due to injury, and the junior running back had an immediate impact on the Clarion offense with 80 rushing yards and two touchdowns.  He and James Metzgar provided all of the scoring for the Golden Eagles on Saturday, with the latter going 2-of-2 on field goal attempts and making both of his extra point tries.  Metzgar improved to 7-of-11 on the season and needs just three more makes to crack the top-five in school history, while McGriff passed Robert Walker and Delrece Williams for seventh on the all-time rushing list at Clarion.
 
McGriff now has 2,201 career rushing yards, and could clip a few more former Golden Eagles by season's end.  Over the last two games of the year he needs 85 rushing yards to pass Ron DeJidas (2,286), 150 to catch Alfonso Hoggard (2,350) and 171 to pass Eddie Emmanuel.  That would put him in fourth place all-time at Clarion.
 
The Clarion defense forced three turnovers against the Fighting Scots, with Corey Wells intercepting his team-leading third pass of the season, and Dante Paul and Sam Fareri each recovering fumbles.  Fareri's recovery came on a great special teams play, pulling in a loose ball that was not fielded cleanly on a punt return, while Paul's recovery came when Kareem Hamdan punched the ball loose from CJ Reyes-Diggs in the fourth quarter.  The latter set up a field goal make from Metzgar and cut the Edinboro lead to 27-20 with more than 10 minutes remaining in regulation. 
 
Edinboro scored the first 10 points of the game, starting with a fade route to Ta'Nauz Gregory in the end zone to cap off an 81-yard drive.  The teams traded field goals for the next two scores, with Vicente Arriagada and Metzgar each putting balls through the uprights to make it 10-3.  Gregory scored his second of three touchdowns in the game with 51 seconds left in the first half, making it 17-3 heading into the locker room. 
 
After another Arriagada field goal put Edinboro ahead 20-3, McGriff put the Golden Eagles in the end zone for the first time with a five-yard run at the 2:13 mark of the third quarter.  The momentum was short-lived as Gregory closed a two-play drive with a 53-yard touchdown reception, but McGriff scored his second touchdown of the game with 13:27 left in the fourth quarter to pull the Golden Eagles to within 10 points.
 
Clarion got a big stop late in the fourth quarter and took possession of the football at their own 31-yard line with 1:56 remaining.  Michael Proios completed a huge fourth-down pass to Regan Schleicher to move the chains, and Proios took off for a first down run to the Clarion 43 on the next play.  The Golden Eagles were unable to keep the momentum moving, though, with Proios' final pass to Quinn Zinobile falling incomplete to essentially end the game.