CHERRY TWP - The Karns City football team doesn't live on paper.

On paper, the Gremlins aren't supposed to hold a team like Moniteau to 96 total yards of offense.

On paper, Karns City isn't supposed to control the football and the tempo of the game for four quarters.

And on paper, the Gremlins aren't supposed to beat rival Moniteau 10-0 on the Warriors' home field.

"You don't play the games on paper," said Karns City coach Ed Conto. "You play the game on the field, and on the field, these guys just don't give up."

Karns City (5-2 overall, 4-1 in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference) used a small but quick and athletic defensive line to shoot through Moniteau's bigger front and get to the ball carrier - most times before he reached the line of scrimmage.

Warriors running back Matt Schandelmeier, who came into the game with more than 800 yards rushing this season, was held to 74 yards on 17 carries. Most of the yards the 6-foot-3, 212-pound senior got were by his own bullish effort.

Moniteau didn't crack 100 yards of offense in the game.

What did Karns City do differently defensively?

"Nothing," Conto said. "We just played our regular defense. Just each week, we're getting better at it."

It helped that the offense played a perfect game of keep-away, particularly in the first half.

Moniteau (4-3, 3-2) ran just three offensive plays in the first quarter and just 19 by halftime. Meanwhile, Karns City had snapped the ball 32 times on offense by the break.

A bulk of the time consumed by the Gremlins came on a 15-play, 65-yard drive that started on their own 11 and culminated with a 40-yard field goal by Matt McConnell early in the second quarter.

The drive used up almost eight minutes and kept Moniteau's offense chilled on the sideline.

"It's frustrating," said Moniteau coach Steve Wilson. "We practiced against the defense we saw tonight. We just needed to assert ourselves no matter what they were running, and we weren't able to do that.

"They were flying to the football and had a good game plan stuffing the run."

Karns City put nine players in the box and dared Moniteau to throw the ball.

The Warriors tried, but were unsuccessful, as quarterback Garth Kohlmeyer was just 3-of-14 for 23 yards and an interception on the final play of the first half.

"They were playing their corners up on our receivers," Wilson said. "We needed to hit those passes."

Moniteau's defense was up to the challenge, though, keeping it a 3-0 game until the fourth quarter.

The Warriors had their opportunities, however.

Moniteau forced two Karns City fumbles deep in Gremlins territory late in the game, but were unable to convert them into points.

Adam Cousins missed a 36-yard field goal wide right and a 35-yard attempt wide left to end two potential scoring drives.

The Warriors' final drive ended when Kohlmeyer was sacked on a fourth-and-10 play at the Gremlins' 11 with less than a minute remaining.

"At 3-0, we still felt good," Wilson said. "We were just one block away, or a little breakdown here or there, and we stall."

Those good feelings evaporated quickly when Karns City quarterback Steve Black faked a handoff to the fullback and sprinted through a huge hole to his left untouched for a 36-yard scoring run with a little more than nine minutes remaining in the game.

The score came on the same play the Gremlins ran a play earlier, which resulted in a 1-yard run by fullback Joey Everetts.

"A couple of times we ran it earlier and we got a couple of yards out of it," Conto said. "It's a play that you hang with and you'll eventually break it."

Wayne Harris also had a big game for Karns City, rushing for 108 yards on 16 carries. It was the first time this season KC had a rusher eclipse the century mark.

The Gremlins had just two first downs in the second half - on a 43-yard run by Harris and the 36-yard touchdown run by Black.

"Our kids have been in a lot of tough games this season, and I think that helped us," Conto said.