Oct 16, 2025
Collins
Claysburg-Kimmel starting quarterback Mason Campagna has done it all for the Bulldogs this season, but on Friday, he’ll be standing across the field from a player who has arguably played an even bigger role for his team.
Mount Union’s Nasir Collins has rushed for 1,469 yards and 20 touchdowns and passed for 649 yards and eight scores even though he didn’t open the season as the Trojans’ quarterback.
“It’s a huge challenge,” Claysburg-Kimmel coach Chuck Kassick said. “Obviously when you watch them on film, their athleticism really stands out, especially Nasir Collins. If you don’t think he’s a human highlight film, you’re not watching much film or seeing what he’s done the last two years. He’s fantastic.”
Collins was pressed into quarterback duties after starter Maddox Hobbs suffered an injury — a common theme in Mount Union this season. The Trojans have had to play some games with as little as two reserves on the sideline in uniform.
But as long as Collins is one of the healthy players, Mount Union (7-1) is a threat to anyone it plays.
“We can simulate some of what he does, but a kid like that — you can’t really simulate no matter what you do no matter who you put back there unless you have someone from the same mold.” Kassick said. “I don’t really think there’s another kid in our conference that I have seen on our schedule that is anything like Nasir Collins. That’s going to be extremely hard to simulate in practice.”
Claysburg-Kimmel has won four straight after starting the season 2-2.
“We have locked in a lot better with our mentality on game nights and with our preparation going into game nights,” Kassick said. “We have really taken a look at film and come together to see how we can stop other teams and exploit them with our offense. In the last couple weeks, we are starting to figure out our identity on both sides of the ball.”
A win by the Bulldogs coupled with a Juniata Valley win over Southern Huntingdon would mean a three-way tie between C-K, Valley and Mount Union for the Inter-County Conference North title. A year ago, Claysburg, Moshannon Valley and Mount Union were tied, and C-K won on a point-differential tiebreaker.
“It’s going to be a good night with two good football teams,” Kassick said. “We’re going to have to contain Collins. I don’t think he’s stoppable, but we’re going to have to contain him, and we’re going to have to be efficient when we have the ball in our hands. If we can’t do those two things, it’s going to be a long night.”
Good news
There hasn’t been much go wrong for Hollidaysburg’s football team this season, but the Golden Tigers got a scare last week when sophomore Wyatt Frazier had to be taken to the hospital in Selinsgrove and was temporarily unable to move his legs.
Fortunately, Frazier got a good report and was discharged.
“Wyatt is home, and he’s doing better,” Hollidaysburg coach Homer DeLattre said. “He’s expected to make a full recovery, and he’s doing well.”
Hollidaysburg will try and continue its undefeated season when it travels to Williamsport on Friday.
“I think they are probably the most athletic team that we have played so far,” DeLattre said. “They have a lot of skill, starting with their quarterback position. Tevin Williams is only a sophomore quarterback. He’s definitely very talented, and they have a receiver/corner back that is being recruited by a lot of schools. They are a long, athletic team with a lot of speed.”
The Millionaires started the season 4-1 but have allowed 172 points over their last three games, all losses, for an average of 57.3 points per game.
“They are 4-4 right now, but the teams they have lost to are either 8-0, 7-1 or 5-2,” DeLattre said. “They have lost to good teams, and they are a solid opponent.”
With just two weeks left in the regular season, DeLattre would also like to see Hollidaysburg button up some miscues from the Selinsgrove game.
“I was very disappointed in our special teams,” DeLattre said. “We gave up a kick return and fumbled on a dropped punt return. There are a lot of things to clean up on special teams. We did have a couple nice punts and downed one inside the 2-yard line with good coverage, but those two times we gave them a score and the ball in scoring position. We’ll work on those this week.”
Tough Cliff to climb
In their first meeting since 2009, Cedar Cliff beat Altoona, 31-20, last season.
The Colts, who will host the Mountain Lions at 7 p.m. on Friday, have a lot of returning talent from that squad.
“They are big and physical like they were last year,” Altoona coach Vince Nedimyer Jr. said. “They have a lot of kids back, and we’ll have to be able to execute to have some success.”
Altoona (2-6) is coming off a 28-10 loss to Chambersburg that the Lions led at halftime.
“It kind of snowballed on us a little bit,” Nedimyer said. “You can’t turn the ball over to the other team. We look back at it, and with seven minutes to go in the game, we had the ball down four points with the opportunity to go down and put a drive down and score. Unfortunately, we turned it over. There are some correctable things, and we look to be better this week.”
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