Runaway victory
CHERRY TWP — It took Moniteau only two plays to find the end zone Friday night, which was all the Warriors needed to get off and running.
Moniteau (6-0) ran the football 42 times for 342 yards and totaled 557 yards overall in a 55-7 football victory over Keystone.
Running back James Shope led the charge with 163 yards and a touchdown.
"Shope is an outside guy, but we were able to run him inside tonight," Moniteau coach Jeff Campbell said.
Shope wasn't the only back to run down the throats of the Panthers defense. Justin Sanderson ran for 51 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Tyler Armagost scrambled for 50 as well.
The scoring began when Shope ran 65 yards for a touchdown on the Warriors' second play from scrimmage. Keystone then attempted to mirror Moniteau when Zach Smith ran around the outside of the Warriors defense for his own 65-yard touchdown run to even the score at seven.
But that would be it for the Panthers offense, as Moniteau held the visitors to 79 yards rushing.
"They were everything we thought they would be," said Campbell. "We knew coming in that Green and Black would throw the ball on us."
Keystone completed three passes of 15 yards or more for first downs, but that was all it could muster against Moniteau.
The Warriors started a touchdown extravaganza near the end of the first quarter when Armagost completed a 19-yard pass to Shope for the touchdown that put the Warriors up 13-7 after the PAT attempt failed.
Armagost then completed touchdown passes of 57 and 33 yards to Clayton Casper and Tony Campbell in the second quarter to give Moniteau a commanding 28-7 lead going into the half.
The Warriors already were rolling coming out of halftime and continued to put up points as they scored four more touchdowns in the second half.
Even a new face got into the action as senior linebacker Beau Eshenbaugh got his first career touchdown on a 2-yard run to post the first score of the second half.
Even though the Warriors were having fun, it wasn't as pretty as coach Jeff Campbell would have liked as his team was penalized 10 times for 80 yards.
"The penalties killed us again" said Campbell. "We figured out what it was, though. We are getting our guys off the field, but they are breaking the huddle before they can get off, so now that we know that was one of the things causing penalties, we can adjust that."
The Warriors can only hope that they reduce the number of penalties they take as they continue on the road toward the playoffs. Tough games against Redbank Valley and at rival Karns City are still to come.
Moniteau hosts Brookville next Friday
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