KARNS CITY — Logan Moroney had a feeling he was going to have a big night.

And the Karns City senior did — with two kinds of shoes on his right foot.

Moroney caught eight passes for 122 yards, scored on a 4-yard run on a reverse and booted a 27-yard field goal as the Gremlins downed Clarion 16-6 at Diehl Stadium Friday night.

“It feels great because the last couple of games we didn't pass that much,” said Moroney, who came into the game with five receptions for 65 yards. “This game, I knew we'd have a lot more passing opportunities because they are a good team. We wanted to see what our passing game could do against a team like that.”

The answer: pretty well.

Caleb King completed 18-of-28 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown.

King played all but one series under center because Cody Deal, the other quarterback in the Karns City rotation, dislocated a finger on his throwing hand early in the game.

King made the most of his opportunity.

“He did a great job,” Moroney said. “All the passes to me were perfectly placed.”

Both Karns City and Clarion wanted a challenge in this game after rolling to big wins in their first three games.

They both got it.

Karns City was also challenged by its own mistakes.

The Gremlins rolled up 456 total yards to just 142 for Clarion, but struggled to score because of penalties and turnovers.

Karns City (4-0) was flagged eight times for 70 yards and also lost three fumbles.

The Gremlins were also stopped on four plays inside the Clarion 10 to turn the ball over on downs at the Bobcat 1 and also missed a short field goal.

“We made it challenging, that's the thing the kids need to understand,” said Karns City coach Ed Conto. “The good thing about it, we did need the work.”

After a scoreless first quarter dictated by the two defensive units, Karns City was able to mount an eight play, 80-yard drive that was capped by a 27-yard touchdown pass from King to Tristan Rhoades for a 7-0 lead.

King was 4-for-4 for 70 yards on the drive.

On Clarion's first offensive play of the ensuing drive, Ian Corbett burst through the line and was racing for a touchdown. But Tyler Dunn tracked him down and tripped up Corbett, who was fifth in the PIAA Class AA 100-meter dash at the state meet in the spring, at the Karns City 2.

It turned out to be a huge hustle play as Clarion fumbled the ball away on the next play.

“We knew (Dunn) had speed and he better be on the track team this year,” Conto said, smiling.

Karns City extended its lead to 13-0 with 18 seconds left in the second quarter on Moroney's reverse run.

King made the block on the edge that got Moroney into the end zone.

Clarion cut into the Gremlins' lead in the third quarter with its only sustained drive of the game, marching 57 yards on six plays that ended with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Brendan Miller to Ethan Staffin.

Moroney, who changed into his black kicking shoe during a timeout, banged through a 27-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter for a 10-point Karns City lead that held up.

The Gremlins' defense limited Clarion (3-1) to just five first downs. Corbett had half of the Bobcats' total yards on one play.

“They're doing a lot of good things, but there's always things you can improve,” Conto said. “The big thing is I thought we were out-hitting them.”

“They're solid defensively,” said Clarion coach Larry Wiser. “We got some cracks every once in awhile, but we just weren't consistent.”

Wiser said this was a valuable game to evaluate where his team was.

“I said before, this is kind of a measuring stick to find out what kind of football team we are,” Wiser said. “I think we're a pretty good football team. We'll see how we respond to this.”

For Karns City, it found out it could grind out a win.

“I'm so proud,” Moroney said. “Clarion beat us the last two years and I really wanted to come out and beat them in my last year. We had to come out and finish strong, and we did that.”