KARNS CITY — Moniteau never put the final nail in the coffin — because Karns City wouldn't die.

Senior quarterback Matt Endlish completed an 82-yard drive with no timeouts by tossing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Josh Callender with 24 seconds remaining Saturday night. The drive handed the Gremlins a 32-29 District 9 Class AAfootball playoff victory over Moniteau.

Karns City will face Brookville (10-1) — a 39-21winner over Brockway Saturday night — for the district title at 1 p.m. next Saturday at Clarion University.

Endlish, who threw for a career-high 269 yards Saturday night, shrugged off his team's last-ditch heroics.

"When you're in that situation, just move the ball ... Do whatever you have to do," he said.

Karns City refused to die in this game despite trailing by 12 points at halftime, losing a fumble near midfield with 4:25 left in the game and throwing an interception inside its own 20 with 2:34 remaining. The Gremlins trailed 29-26 at the time of those turnovers.

"It looked pretty good for us after that interception," Moniteau coach Steve Wilson admitted. "But then we started moving backwards."

Tyler Armagost's 9-yard touchdown pass to Cruz Eshenbaugh — on a fourth-and-5 play — gave the Warriors (6-5) their 29-26 lead with 6:25 left in the game.

Moniteau recovered an Endlish fumble at the Warriors' 43 to end Karns City's next possession. Gremlins defensive end Cameron Turner nailed Adam Cousins for a 4-yard loss on the next play, however, and the Warriors went three-and-out.

But on first down from the KC22, Endlish was intercepted by Cousins, who returned the ball 19 yards to the Gremlins' 11.

Jarrett LaVan and Brett Green got Cousins for a 1-yard loss on first down. A holding penalty and an incomplete pass followed and the Warriors faced third-and-22. A fourth-down pass was defensed by Stephon Conto in the end zone.

Moniteau had 305 yards of offense in the game — but only 83 in the second half.

"We lost our composure defensively in the first half,"Karns City coach Ed Conto said. "We have a bunch of young kids and that happens to us sometimes.

"Once we got into the locker room and settled them down, we were fine. We just had to play from behind, that's all."

Forced to use their timeouts on defense, the Gremlins had to play from behind with a first down on their own 18-yard line and 1:46 on the clock.

Consecutive penalties on Moniteau moved the ball to the 39. Green caught a pass for four yards. Matt McConnell caught one for 16, moving the ball to the Moniteau 41 as the Warriors used a timeout with 1:02 left.

Stephon Conto caught an 11-yard pass for a first down, but Moniteau nose guard Ricky Best hit Endlish on the next play and the quarterback flipped the ball to the turf. The intentional grounding penalty stuck the Gremlins with a second-and-25 from the Moniteau 45.

Endlish scrambled for six yards and got out of bounds with 37 seconds left. On third-and-19, he scrambled to the right and found Turner 10 yards downfield.

Turner was running toward the right sideline, stopped to avoid a tackle and tip-toed down the right sideline for a 22-yard gain and a first down before stepping out of bounds with 28 seconds left.

"Cameron Turner is a very talented player,"Coach Conto said. "He's only a junior and he's going to be playing college ball someday. You expect and need a kid like him to make a play like that in a game like this."

Moments later, Endlish connected with Callender on a timing pattern in the right corner of the end zone for the game-winning score.

Moniteau gained possession at its own 39 with 18 seconds on the clock after the kickoff. Turner sacked Armagost on first down, batted down his second-down pass and erupted in joy with his teammates as Callender intercepted a deep pass on the game's final play.

"We couldn't quit playing there,"Turner said of the final three plays. "All it takes is one play to beat you — and they would have been the ones celebrating instead of us."

Karns City drove 68 yards in 11 plays on the game's first possession to take a 7-0 lead. Moniteau responded with touchdowns on its next three possessions — including an 18-play, 90-yard drive that ate 8:26 off the clock.

A 28-yard pass to Adam Pry on a fourth-and-17 from the KC35 set up the Warriors' first score.

"We thought they were going to punt there and we got caught in the wrong defensive set,"Conto said. "That's when our kids lost composure and we gave up big pass plays the rest of the half."

Moniteau led 19-7 at intermission and 22-14 late in the third quarter when Stephon Conto pulled in a 78-yard scoring pass from Endlish. The conversion pass to tie the game failed, but the Gremlins took a 26-22 lead on Endlish's 30-yard touchdown pass to Justin Switzer with 9:51 left in the game.

Moniteau was able to put together a 53-yard scoring drive to grab the lead one last time on the Eshenbaugh touchdown catch.

"This game came down to who executed the plays at the end,"Wilson said. "They did and we didn't.

"We couldn't run the ball in the second half and that wound up up hurting us. We couldn't bang out a couple of first downs early in the third quarter and we couldn't hammer it in after the (Cousins) interception."

Including sacks, Moniteau netted 15 yards rushing on 16 carries in the final two quarters.

Armagost threw for 225 yards. The two quarterbacks combined for 494 yards passing.

Karns City 32, Moniteau 29

Moniteau 0 19 3 7—29Karns City 7 0 13 12—32M KC16 First Downs 1836-80 Rushes-Yards 35-89225 Passing Yards 26915-30-1 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 13-23-1305 Total Yards 3581-0 Fumbles/Lost 2-113-89 Penalties-Yards 6-44

First QuarterKC — Josh Callendar 5 run (Matt McConnell kick), 7:40

Second QuarterM — Tyler Armagost 1 run (kick blocked), 8:18M — Josh Loos 9 pass from Armagost (run failed), 5:36M — Armagost 9 run (Adam Cousins kick), :21

Third Quarter KC— Matt Endlish 1 run (McConnell kick), 4:03M — Cousins 19 field goal, 1:00KC— Stephon Conto 78 pass from Endlish (pass failed), :44

Fourth QuarterKC — Justin Switzer 30 pass from Endlish (run failed), 9:51M — Cruz Eshenbaugh 9 pass from Armagost (Cousins kick), 6:25KC— Callender 11 pass from Endlish (kick failed), :24

Individual Statistics

Passing: Moniteau, Tyler Armagost 15-30-225-1. Karns City, Matt Endlsh 13-23-269-1.

Rushing: Moniteau, Tyler Armagost 15-40, Adam Cousins 14-25, Ricky Best 5-12, Clay Drnek 1-1, Josh Loos 1-2. Karns City, Matt Endlish 9-(-18), Markus LaVan 10-43, Brett Green 6-26, Stephon Conto 1-7, Josh Callender 7-30, Chris Reeves 2-1.

Receiving: Moniteau, Cruz Eshenbaugh 5-69, Josh Loos 4-56, Adam Pry 4-92, Adam Cousins 2-8. Karns City, Cameron Turner 4-65, Mike McConnell 2-47, Stephon Conto 2-89, Brett Green 1-4, Justin Switzer 1-30, Matt McConnell 2-23, Josh Callender 1-11.