KARNS CITY — He zigged. He zagged. He avoided tacklers with his quickness and other times just ran through them with his strength.

Sometimes, he even dragged them.

And he found the end zone. A lot.

He's Dalton Beham and he carried the Karns City football team offensively to a wild 42-32 victory Friday night over Punxsutawney at Diehl Stadium.

“It's all instinct,” said Beham, who finished with 279 yards rushing on 19 carries and five touchdowns. “I'm not real fast, but I have a quick step.

“But the line was just so great tonight,” Beham added, smiling — and the senior had a lot to smile about. “I wasn't getting touched until I was seven or eight yards down field.”

Karns City (3-2) needed every one of those yards and touchdowns.

That's because Punxsutawney was matching the Gremlins virtually point for point with a different kind of attack.

An air attack.

Chucks' quarterback Dylan Ishman put up five touchdowns of his own, four through the air and one on the ground, and passed for 303 yards to keep Punxsutawney in the game.

“We anticipated it,” said Karns City coach Ed Conto, who was playing with an injury-depleted secondary. “We had a lot of young guys in the secondary. Hopefully they learned a lot tonight.”

Ishman hit Alex Gianvito with two first-half touchdown passes to offset two Beham touchdown runs.

He found Tyler Richardson for a 56-yard touchdown late in the first half to cut into the Karns City lead.

The Gremlins had an opportunity to add to their 21-19 advantage before the half, but lost one of the their three fumbles at the Chucks' 1 to end the threat.

Karns City turned the ball over four times.

“I was pleased with the way we moved the football,” Conto said, “but you can't have four turnovers. We never punted. We were giving them momentum. They were hungry for the win and we were giving them momentum.

“There was so many times we could have put the dagger in them, but we didn't,” Conto added.

Beham finally grabbed the knife and sunk it into the Chucks in the second half.

Beham scored three more touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters, his last a 5-yard scoring run a play after he dragged a handful of Punxsutawney tacklers for 10 yards at the end of a 34-yard carry, to put the Gremlins up 42-26.

But Punxsutawney had come back from 16 points down late already this season when they pulled off the feat against Moniteau.

The Chucks nearly did it again.

Ishman found a streaking Richardson for a 50-yard score with 41 seconds remaining. The 2-point conversion failed, but the Chucks recovered the ensuing onside kick.

Two sacks of Ishman ended that last gasp.

Beham was more happy to get a win than his biggest rushing day of his life.

“(When we were 0-2), we were selfish and playing selfish,” Beham said. “We came together as a team.”

Conto has seen Beham's development.

“He's stronger — that's what the weight room does for you,” Conto said. “He has a bunch of natural talent, but what gets you to the next level? Hard work and the weight room.”

Punxsutawney 6 13 7 6 — 32

Karns City 7 14 7 14 — 42

First Quarter

P — Alex Gianvito 32 pass from Dylan Ishman (kick failed), 8:08

KC — Dalton Beham 6 run (Clay garing kick), 6:11

Second Quarter

P — Gianvito 10 pass from Ishman (pass failed), 11:48

KC — Behan 10 run (Garing kick), 8:53

KC — Hunter Rowe 18 run (Garing kick), 4:51

P — Tyler Richardson 56 pass from Ishman (Alexander Neal kick), 3:23

Third Quarter

KC — Beham 40 run (Garing kick), 8:57

P — Ishman 12 run (Neal kick), :01

Fourth Quarter

KC — Beham 15 run (Garing kick), 10:28

KC — Beham 5 run (Garing kick), 1:14

P — Richardson 50 pass from Ishman (pass failed), :41

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Punxsutawney, Alex Gianvito 10-51, Stone Smith 14-25, Tyler Richardson 1-2, Dylan Ishman 12-(-3), TEAM 2-(-7); Karns City, Dalton Beham 19-279, Hunter Rowe 7-60, Clay Garing 5-33, Josh Wimer 3-33, Anthony Kamenski 5-19, Mitchell Kelsea 2-6, Sebastian Troutman 1-3

Passing: Punxsutawney, Dylan Ishman 16-25-303-0; Karns City, Anthony Kamenski 5-639-1

Receiving: Punxsutawney, Tyler Richardson 8-191, Alex Gianvito 4-87, Brent Huey 3-25, Stone Smith 1-0; Karns City, Clay Garing 1-19, Hunter Rowe 1-15, Sebastian Troutman 1-4, Nick Schill 1-2, Mitchell Kelsea 1-(-1)