CLARION — Matt Schandelmeier was stopped a yard short Saturday afternoon.

In retrospect, he helped the Moniteau football program gain miles.

The 6-foot-3, 216-pound running back ended his career with 2,875 yards rushing and 32 touchdowns, including back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

"He was a major contributor to this program as a sophomore and went on to become our stud player the next two years," Moniteau coach Steve Wilson said.

During Schandelmeier's sophomore year, Steve Saul rushed for 1,273 yards and 12 touchdowns while catching 26 passes for 496 yards and three scores. Saul led the Warriors to their first winning season since 1986.

"Steve was a hard runner and a great player," Schandelmeier said. "When he left, I heard people talk like I should be the guy to pick it up.

"I felt like that was my job and I did it the best I could. But so did everybody else. We had a lot of good players on this team."

As well as Schandelmeier played offensively, his football future may be on defense. He recorded 12 quarterback sacks as a defensive end last season.

Playing mostly outside linebacker this year, he only had 3½ sacks during the regular season, but tied for third on the team with 39 solo tackles.

"And that was with opposing teams running away from him," Wilson said. "Even today, they (Brockway) had two or three blockers on Matt, trying to keep him away from their quarterback.

"He was an impact player in the sense that other teams had to adjust and account for him on both sides of the ball."

Schandelmeier is being recruited by lower level Division I schools along with I-AA and Division II squads. He said he will likely wind up at either Youngstown State, Edinboro or Slippery Rock.

"I'll probably play defense," he said. "I prefer defense. Defensive end or linebacker, it doesn't matter. I'm comfortable with both."

In what may have been his final football game on offense, Schandelmeier had 21 carries for 93 yards. Teammate Adam Cousins had 16 carries for 103.

If he could change anything about his high school career, Schandelmeier said it'd be the two-point conversion run on which he was stopped Saturday.

"If I had scored, we might be playing overtime," he said. "That might have been a better way to go out.

"There's enough talent coming back next year for them to make another run at this. This senior class … All we wanted to do was get the program in this position. At least we accomplished that."