Clarion Golden Eagles (0-0, 0-0 PSAC West) vs. West Liberty Hilltoppers (0-0, 0-0 MEC)
Thursday, September 1 // 6 p.m. // Clarion, Pa. // Memorial Stadium

MEDIA COVERAGE

Radio: Mike Kalinowski will have the radio call for Golden Eagle home games on the Golden Eagle Radio Network:

• AM 1120 WKQW
• WKQW Fox Sports 104.1
• WWCH The G.O.A.T. 94.1 FM

Streaming Video: All PSAC member institutions stream football games free of charge on the PSAC Sports Digital Network. Games are available on the web, and fans can download the PSAC Sports Digital Network App on the following: 

• Mobile: App Store (iOS), Google Play (Android), Amazon Fire
• Streaming: Amazon Fire, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku

Live Stats: Fans can follow along with live stats from all Golden Eagle football contests through SIDEARM live stats at clariongoldeneagles.com/sidearmstats/football. Links will also be available on the schedule at ClarionGoldenEagles.com.

The Kickoff    
The Golden Eagles will lift the lid on the 2022 season on Thursday, September 1 when they welcome the West Liberty Hilltoppers to Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is 6 p.m.

Series History

• This will be the seventh all-time meeting between Clarion and West Liberty, with the Golden Eagles owning a perfect 6-0 record against the Hilltoppers to date.
• It has been a long time since the Golden Eagles and the Hilltoppers have taken the field in anger against one another - 41 years, to be precise. Clarion defeated West Liberty in the 1981 season opener, heading on the road for a convincing 35-13 victory. The Hilltoppers scored the first touchdown of the game but the Golden Eagles countered with a split-end reverse pass from Bob Betts to Gary McCauley, and Dave Dragovich threw two more touchdown passes to Betts as part of a 201-yard, three-score day.
• The Golden Eagles won the previous year's meeting at home, a 25-20 victory at Memorial Stadium that marked the first win in a year that would ultimately result in a PSAC championship.  Clarion trailed 20-10 with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but quarterback Bob Beatty hit Betts and McCauley for touchdowns down the stretch - also connecting with Chuck Oaks for a two-point conversion - to put the team ahead late. The defense stood tall late, with Len Harding stopping West Liberty quarterback Frank Zebrosky short of the goal line with no time remaining on the clock.

About the Opponent

• West Liberty was predicted to finish 10th in the 2022 MEC football coaches released on August 17, receiving 39 points in the voting process. The Hilltoppers are coming off a 4-7 campaign in 2021, including a 4-6 record in conference action. 
• The Hilltoppers placed eight players on the All-MEC team last year, including returning first team defensive end Trevor Hoosier. Hoosier totaled 14.0 tackles for loss and five sacks a year ago. Other all-conference returners include defensive end David Gilcreast (12.5 TFL, 7.5 sacks in 2021), running back Tyler Moler (76.6 yards/game, three TDs), defensive back Elijah Hadley (five INT, 11 pass break-ups)
• Head coach Roger Waialae is in his 18th season as the head coach of the Hilltoppers. His 88 career wins leads all active MEC head coaches, and is second only to former head coach Joe Bartell (118) on the Hilltoppers' all-time wins list. He is also one of only three NCAA head football coaches to claim Pacific Islander heritage, and  the only one at the NCAA Division II level.

Meet the New Boss

• Raymond Monica, a two-time American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region 1 Coach of the Year and two-time Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East Coach of the Year with more than 30 years of experience at the college level, became the 14th coach in Golden Eagle history on Feb. 17, 2022.
• Before coming to Clarion, Monica was an assistant coach at Southeastern Louisiana from 2019-21, including a one-year stint as the defensive coordinator in 2021. The Lions made the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs in 2019 and 2021, winning their first round game in both of those seasons. In 2021, the Lions finished 15th in the final FCS rankings of the year.
• Where Golden Eagle fans may best recognize Monica, though, would be his tenure as Kutztown's head football coach from 2006-12. He turned the Golden Bears into one of the leading programs in the conference, culminating with back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Division II Super Region One playoffs in 2010-11.

PSAC Announces Preseason Coaches Poll
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) announced the results of their preseason coaches poll on August 4. The Golden Eagles were predicted to finish eighth in the PSAC West division in 2022.

PSAC West Division (First Place Votes)
T1.    Slippery Rock (3)
T1.    IUP (3)
3.    Cal U (2)
4.    Gannon
T5.    Edinboro
T5.    Seton Hill
7.    Mercyhurst
8.    Clarion

PSAC East Division (First Place Votes)

1. Shepherd (4)
2. Kutztown (4)
3. West Chester
4. Shippensburg
5. East Stroudsburg
6. Bloomsburg
7. Millersville
8. Lock Haven

Hager Brings Experience, Championship Lineage to Clarion

• Defensive coordinator Josh Hager enters his first season on the Golden Eagle staff in 2022, one year after service as the defensive coordinator at NCAA Division III Alvernia. Prior to that, he ran the defense at Missouri Southern from 2019-20, where he tutored the top two tacklers in the MIAA.
• As the defensive coordinator for Garden City Community College from 2016-18, Hager produced one of the top defensive units in the nation, and helped the Broncbusters win the 2016 NJCAA national championship.
• Among those players coached by Hager at GCCC were one national Defensive Player of the Year, two conference Defensive Players of the Year, two conference Defensive Linemen of the Year, 11 All-Americans, 41 First Team All-Conference players, and one first round draft pick in Mike Hughes (Minnesota Vikings - 2018).
• Hager is the son of legendary football coach Rocky Hager, whose career highlights include leading North Dakota State to seven NCAA Tournament appearances and two NCAA Division II championships (1988, 90).

Pioneer of "The Fly" Comes to Clarion 

• The Golden Eagle offense will be under the tutelage of veteran coach Mark Speckman, who brings more than 40 years of coaching experience to the program.
• The pioneer of the Fly offense that is widely used across high school, collegiate and professional ranks, Speckman spent the previous five seasons as the assistant head coach and running backs coach at UC Davis. He was part of the Aggies' 2018 Big Sky conference championship season.
• Speckman spent 15 seasons as a collegiate head coach, including 14 years at Willamette. He guided the team to an 82-59 record from 1997-2011, including two Northwest Conference championships, eight league title games and three NCAA Division III postseason appearances. Speckman's 2008 team finished 11-1 and ranked fourth nationally, earning him his second Northwest Conference Coach of the Year award and AFCA Division III West Region Coach of the Year acclaim.
• In addition to coaching football, Speckman has also become well-known for his motivational speaking engagements. Born without hands, he avoided drawing attention to himself as a younger athlete but has since embraced his own story to the point of earning numerous speaking appearances, including bookings at Boeing, Nike, Northwest Mutual, Patterson Dental, the Million Dollar Roundtable and other organizations.

Hamdan Takes Control

• Linebacker Kareem Hamdan has established himself as a sure tackler, and is one of the stars of the PSAC in terms of bringing down the ball carrier.
• In 2021, Hamdan earned Don Hansen Football All-America Honorable Mention honors after leading the conference in tackles, averaging 10.0 per game for exactly 100 on the season. He is the first Golden Eagle to hit the 100-tackle mark in a single-season since Layne Skundrich in 2017.
• Hamdan is one of two returning all-conference players from 2021, having earned Second Team All-PSAC West laurels at the conclusion of the season.

Owens and the Ground Game

• Now in his second full season with the Golden Eagles, running back Khalil Owens will try to build on the end of last year's campaign, when he became a major force toting the rock.
• Owens finished the season with 149 carries for 510 yards, but over the last four games of the year he totaled 95 touches and averaged more than 100 all-purpose yards per game.
• He had his best game of the season against Edinboro on November 6, 2021, rushing for 179 yards against the Fighting Scots.
• Like Hamdan, Owens was a Second Team All-PSAC West selection at running back in 2021. He is only the third different Golden Eagle running back to earn all-conference honors in the last decade, joining Mylique McGriff (2019) and Delrece Williams (2015).

Cracking the Books

• Senior Drew Blon showed his ability to excel in the classroom as well as on the field in 2021, earning CoSIDA Academic All-District honors last year.
• Blon, who finished his Bachelor's degree in Sport Management in December 2021, posted a 3.64 GPA while also starting every game on the back end of the Golden Eagle defense.
• Blon finished second on the team in total tackles with 71 stops in 2021, but his biggest contribution came in disrupting opposing offenses with turnovers and tight coverage. Blon finished second on the team in interceptions with three picks and led the team in both fumbles forced and fumble recoveries with two each.He also tied for the team-high with five pass break-ups in 2021. 
• Blon was a force at the line of scrimmage, ranking second on the team with 8.0 tackles for loss.

Setlist Notes: Last Mountain Jam...

• It has been a decade since the last time the Golden Eagles played any of the current Mountain East teams. The last such instance came on Aug. 30, 2012, when Clarion shut out Fairmont State 7-0 at Memorial Stadium. Neither team lit up the scoreboard in the first half, and the Golden Eagles got the only score they would need midway through the third on a touchdown pass from Ben Fiscus to Mark Nicholas.
• Despite allowing Fairmont State to record 24 first downs and 321 passing yards, Clarion got the shutout largely because they forced three turnovers in their own end, including a pick and a forced fumble / recovery by Andrew Paronish.

Legend in the Making?

• Defensive back Legend Davis got his career off on the right foot in 2021, showing a knack for taking away the football.
• Davis led the Golden Eagles with four interceptions last season, tying him with five other players for second in the PSAC.
• With that total, Davis became the first Golden Eagle to record four picks in a year since Dorian Johnson and Sam Fareri each notched four interceptions in the 2018 season. That year the Golden Eagles held opponents to just a 49.7 completion percentage.

PSAC Maintains Partnership with BlueFrame Technology for PSAC Sports Digital Network

• The PSAC is in the midst of a five-year partnership with BlueFrame technology to create an end-to-end digital network for all 18 member institutions.
• The PSAC Sports Digital Network is available on the web along with streaming applications for television and mobile devices for Android TV, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku (TV), iOS, Android (mobile) and Amazon Fire Tablet. The app can be found and installed by searching for the PSAC Sports Digital Network.

Next Week

• The Golden Eagles will play their first crossover game of the season, starting a two-game swing on the road with a date against the Bloomsburg Huskies on Sept. 10. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m.
• This will be the first meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Huskies since the teams played twice during the 2017 season. The teams have played just six times in the 21st century.
• In the last two meetings between the teams, Clarion fell by a 29-20 score at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 9, 2017, and by a 31-15 score in the 2017 season finale played at Redman Stadium on Nov. 11.