KARNS CITY — JustinSanderson raised his fist into the crisp fall air and smiled.

"We did it!" the Moniteau senior fullback bellowed.

His Warriors football teammates mobbed him at the 20 yard-line, jumping, yelling, celebrating a wild 35-34 win over Karns City Friday night.

The Warriors did do it, ending the Gremlins' 27-game Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference winning streak. But it wasn't easy and it didn't play out the way anyone expected.

Considered more of a finesse team than one that plays smash-mouth football, Moniteau (8-0) won this game with brute strength — and a little good fortune.

"What does this mean?" Sanderson said. "It means everything to us. This is the best feeling, well, ever."

Moniteau junior running back JamesShope rushed for 154 yards and scored on touchdown runs of 54 and 36.

Sanderson, a 6-foot, 225-pound bull of a runner, ground out 93 more yards on 16 carries as the Warriors had 302 yards on the ground.

"You have to run the ball," said Moniteau coach Jeff Campbell. "We proved to a lot of people we can run the ball."

When Shope didn't find running room behind a big and physical line, he made some on his own. The junior slithered through the Gremlins defense as if channeling Barry Sanders.

He reversed field, spun, twisted and contorted his body. He broke free of four tackles on his way to his 54-yard touchdown and weaved through the Karns City defense on his second long scoring run.

Shope began the season in a slump, but he has found his stride in the last two weeks.

"I had no confidence at the beginning of the season," Shope said. "Now I have my confidence back.

"The key? The line, the line, the line," Shope added. "They took over this game and won it for us."

Another key was Sanderson's hard running between the tackles and his lead blocking for Shope.

"They call me 'The Bull,'" Sanderson said, smiling. "They don't call me that for nothing."

What ultimately won the game for Moniteau, though, was a fumble recovery by its defense at the Karns City 5 and a missed extra point that clanked off the crossbar after the Gremlins' final touchdown of the game.

It was a rough way for Karns City (7-1) to lose a well-played, clean game between archrivals.

"We made one more mistake than they did," said Karns City coachEd Conto. "Both teams played great. I can't say enough about how Moniteau played. I was proud of the way my guys played, too. We had the one extra mistake and we lost by one point."

The mistake came in the fourth quarter after Karns City had rallied on the feet of quarterback Anthony Stimac to take a 34-28 lead.

Stimac scored on touchdown runs of 7 and 26 just two minutes apart to turn a seven-point deficit into a six-point lead.

After forcing Moniteau to punt, Karns City had a second down at its own 9, but a botched exchange between Stimac and his running back resulted in a fumble that the Warriors pounced on at the 5.

Shope was thrown for a 10-yard loss on first down, but Moniteau quarterback Tyler Armagost found TonyCampbell for a 15-yard scoring pass with a little more than six minutes remaining, and, with an extra point by Andrew Miller, Moniteau had a one-point lead that held up.

Earlier in the evening, the game looked more like arena football than high school football.

The teams traded scores and big plays, combining for six touchdowns in the first 17 minutes.

Armagost gave Moniteau a 28-21 lead at halftime on a 3-yard scoring run.

Armagost, who came into the game as the touchdown passing leader in Butler County, was more of a runner in this game.

He completed 4-of-11 passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns — all to Campbell.

Stimac, on the other hand, was a dual threat. He passed for 123 yards and two touchdowns, including a 60-yard touchdown pass to Cody Williams, and had 35 yards rushing and his two scores.

Markus LaVan, who caught a 19-yard scoring pass from Stimac, led the balanced Karns City rushing attack with 57 yards.

Both teams realized, in the grand scheme of things, this game meant little.

The Gremlins and Warriors appear destined to meet again in the District 9 Class AA playoffs in a few weeks with much more than a possible KSAC title on the line.

"It helps (cushion the loss) a little bit," Conto said. "If we take care of business, Moniteau will be No. 1 and we'll be No. 2."

"We're probably going to meet again," Campbell said. "We'll enjoy this one, but tomorrow, this one will be over and we'll be focused on (beatingRedbank Valley) and winning the KSAC on our home field. We don't want a share of the title. We want it all to ourselves."