CLARION, Pa. --- Facing a three-score deficit with just under 15 minutes left to play, the Golden Eagles football team sprung to life in the fourth quarter with a 20-point outburst, erasing a 19-point Edinboro lead and stunning the Fighting Scots 29-28 at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Eagles scored three touchdowns in the final quarter while stopping Edinboro on their final offensive drive to lock up the win.
 
Edinboro had expanded their early lead in the third quarter, going up 28-9 with 5:17 left in that period after Ziggy Thomas pushed his way over the left side of the line and into the end zone. A quick Clarion turnover derailed the next Golden Eagle drive, and it looked as though the Fighting Scots were in position to coast to the finish line in the fourth quarter.
 
It was at that time that things began to go awry for Edinboro, as the Golden Eagles stemmed the bleeding just two plays into the fourth quarter. The Fighting Scots had the ball on first down inside Clarion territory when Isaac Bernard's pass intended for Teagan Brown was popped up by Shane Kemper and into the hands of Griffin Buzzell for an interception. Clarion wasted no time in taking advantage, with Anthony Guercio lofting a deep ball to Ray Jackson for a 67-yard touchdown pass down the righthand sideline.
 
The Golden Eagles got a key stop on the next drive, forcing an incompletion by Isaac Bernard on 3^rd-and-7 from inside Edinboro territory. After the punt to the 14-yard line Guercio unloaded another deep ball, this time hitting Trevon Tate for a 68-yard gain into the red zone. Tate caught another pass to put his team inside the 10-yard line and Guercio did the rest with his legs, sprinting into the end zone for his eighth rushing touchdown of the season and cutting the deficit to 28-23.


Clarion benefitted from a fortunate bounce on the next Edinboro drive. The Golden Eagles forced a three-and-out and a punt but had to recover a fumble after the Fighting Scots jarred the ball loose from Legend Davis's grip on the return. Pushed back to their own 34-yard line the Golden Eagles marched down the field in chunks and converted a pair of third downs. The first came on a 3^rd-and-11 from their own 38-yard line, with Guercio and Tate hooking up for a 16 yard gain into Edinboro territory. The second came on a 3^rd-and-2 at the 23-yard line, with Logan Kent bouncing outside for a 12-yard gain. Two plays later Guercio fired a bullet into the back of the end zone for a diving Nick Maher, finding his man and making it 29-28.
 
The Fighting Scots had one more offensive drive in store, moving the ball into Clarion territory as the clock wound down. They got no further than the Golden Eagles' 40-yard line, as Christopher Shackleford pulled down an interception from Bernard at the 16-yard line. They milked the final 98 seconds off the clock to secure the win.
 
Guercio proved to be the Fighting Scots' boogeyman for the second straight meeting between the teams. After putting up a performance worthy of earning PSAC West Offensive Athlete of the Week honors following the 2023 meeting, he provided a heck of an encore performance against the Fighting Scots in 2024. Guercio threw for a career-high 372 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing 19 times for 88 yards and another touchdown. Tate, meanwhile, had his fifth 100-yard receiving performance in seven games this season, catching eight passes for 173 yards.
 
Early on, it looked like Clarion mistakes were going to haunt the Golden Eagles. A promising first offensive drive was derailed near the goal line when Guercio's pass into the end zone was picked off by Cory Gross Jr. The next Golden Eagles drive was also halted by a turnover, when Gross knocked the ball loose from Guercio's grasp and Jordan Atkins returned it 73 yards for a Fighting Scots touchdown. Another first half drive into Edinboro territory proved fruitless when Nick Rossi blocked Hunter Robertson's field goal attempt, and that led to a six-play, 69-yard touchdown drive for the Fighting Scots with 10:14 to go in the half.
 
The Golden Eagles finally got on the scoreboard midway through the quarter, thanks to two fourth-down conversions and a little trickery to boot. Stuck on their own 40-yard line with a 4^th-and-5, Clarion successfully pulled off a fake punt, with defensive end Mathew McGregor rumbling 30 yards into Edinboro territory. They converted another fourth down deep in Edinboro territory, when Guercio completing a pass to Amire Spencer on 4^th-and-3 from the 12-yard line. On 3^rd-and-Goal from the six-yard line, Guercio completed a swing pass to Kent for a touchdown.
 
Edinboro tacked on one more score before the half, with Jeremiah Neely pulling in a pass from four yards out to cap an eight-play, 75-yard drive. Clarion managed a scoring drive before the half, with Hunter Robertson booting a 30-yard field goal with seven seconds left before the break.
 
Jake Tarburton disrupted the Edinboro offense all day, recording six tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. The Golden Eagles' front stuffed the Fighting Scots' run game all day, limiting them to 44 rushing yards on 22 attempts. Bernard threw for 223 yards and a touchdown, but he was also sacked twice and threw two interceptions.
 
NOTES: This is the first win for the Golden Eagles over Edinboro at Memorial Stadium since Oct. 14, 2000, snapping a 10-game home losing streak to the Fighting Scots… this is the first time Clarion has won back-to-back meetings with Edinboro since winning consecutive games in 1997 and 1998.