KARNS CITY — Zane Dudek rushed for 278 yards for the game and scored four touchdowns in the second half Friday night.

But it was his interception on defense that proved to be the biggest play of Armstrong’s 35-22 season opening football victory at Karns City.

Dudek scored his second touchdown — a 65-yard run — less than five minutes into the third period. The play opened up a 22-6 lead for the River Hawks, who took a 7-6 lead into halftime.

“That second touchdown was my first chance to let out a deep breath all night,” Armstrong coach Frank Fabian said.

He was holding it back in moments later.

Karns City answered with 55 and 56-yard TD drives, capped with scoring runs of 15 yards by Cullen Williams and 10 yards by Chandler Turner. The Gremlins were suddenly within 22-19 and Turner intercepted a Michael Lhote pass near midfield with six seconds left in the quarter.

On first down from the Armstrong 36, Gremlins quarterback Jake King was intercepted deep down the middle by Dudek, who returned the theft 20 yards. A 15-yard facemask penalty was tacked on to that.

Dudek scored on a 49-yard run on the next play and Armstrong was back in control.

“This game was about momentum changes,” KC coach Ed Conto said. “We didn’t respond well to that one. When a team makes a play on you, you have to make a few of your own.

“We had four or five guys hanging their heads (after the Dudek interception). You can’t have that. You just keep fighting. That’s part of the learning process.”

Trailing 29-19, Karns City still wasn’t done. A 12-play, 49-yard drive ate more than six minutes off the clock and resulted in a 33-yard Kaiden Powers field goal. The kick was Powers’ third field goal of the night.

“We’d rather have touchdowns there,” Conto said. “But we did get points. Kaiden just gives his heart and soul on the football field. The kid is a player.”

Powers made numerous physical tackles defensively and had an interception in the first half.

A 25-yard Dudek run set up his own 1-yard scoring run with 2:54 remaining to salt the game away.

“Zane’s interception probably was the key play,” Fabian said. “That turned into a 14-point swing pretty quickly.

“We knew what we were up against in Karns City. That’s a great program and they were going to keep coming. They kept hammering at us all night.”

King threw for 141 yards for the Gremlins, who were limited to 94 yards rushing.

“We unveiled a new pass offense tonight and we’ve got work to do there,” Conto admitted. “At the same time, we made some big plays.

“Mistakes hurt us tonight. We put the ball on the ground too many times. It was a typical first game for us, a lot of mistakes, partially because we play so many kids. You just can’t make mistakes against a back (Dudek) like that.

“We made mistakes, they didn’t. That was the difference. We did a lot of good things. We just hate to lose,” Conto added.

The Gremlins fumbled four times, losing one. Armstrong did not score on offense in the first half. The River Hawks’ only touchdown in the first two quarters came on a botched Karns City snap inside its 10-yard line that Armstrong recovered in the end zone.

“We were pretty gassed in the first half,” Fabian said. “I thought Zane was looking for the home run too much early. We challenged him and the offensive line to plow ahead and stay ahead of the chains in the second half.”

Notes: Karns City’s loss was its first home defeat since 2012 and snapped a 15-game home winning streak. ... Dudek had a 75-yard punt return for a touchdown wiped out by a penalty in the second quarter. He had 398 all-purpose yards. ... Longtime KC public address announcer Sam Swick received a Contribuition Award from d9sports.com before the game. Swick is in his 48th year at the microphone for home games.