End of the line
PINE TWP — The main reason for Aliquippa's success this season has been its ability to run the football.
On Friday against Karns City, the Quips incorporated an aerial attack to help open a 35-0 lead just 22 seconds into the second quarter en route to a 42-14 victory over the Gremlins in a PIAA Class quarterfinal game at Pine-Richland High.
Quarterback Rasheem Jones connected with Rashad Kenney on scoring passes of 49 and 72 yards, the latter with 5:38 left in the first quarter, to stake the Quips to a 14-0 lead.
"Obviously, we played well. We have guys who can throw it, guys who can catch it,"Aliquippa coach Mike Zmijanac said.
"I figured they'd throw it up," said Karns City coach Ed Conto. "I just didn't think they'd be as accurate. They blew us off the ball. They tackled better. They blocked better. They did everything better"
On the second score, Gremlins defensive back Markus LaVan made a diving attempt at the ball, but it deflected off his hands and into the waiting arms of Kenney, who ran the final 35 yards for the score.
"That broke our back," said Conto. "Josh Callender jammed the guy at the line, but he got by him and Markus hit that ball, but they caught it."
On the Gremlins' first play of the ensuing drive, quarterback Anthony Stimac's short pass was intercepted by Juantez Hollins, all 6-feet-4, 265 pounds of him.
"Hollins didn't catch it," Zmijanac said with a smile. "It hit him in the chest and it stuck."
With the ball on the KC 34, it took the Quips (12-2) just five plays to punch it in, this time on a 2-yard run by Terry Patrick.
The Gremlins fumbled the kickoff, which was recovered by Aliquippa's Byron Leverette. Four plays later, Donte Williams scored from five yards out to make it 28-0 with 1:43 left in the first quarter.At this point, the Gremlins had run only five offensive plays from scrimmage."Right then and there, we were out of it mentally," said Conto. "We just had to try and regroup."Karns City ran three plays, then punted to open the second quarter. On the first play from scrimmage, the Quips' Maurice Carter broke a tackle, reversed field and ran down the right sideline for a 52-yard touchdown to give Aliquippa a 34-0 advantage.The Gremlins got a break when the defense made a stand and forced the Quips to punt at their own 36. A bad snap forced Kenney to scramble before he was brought down at the 17.On a fourth-and-5 from the 12, Stimac rolled out and hit LaVan to his left with a screen. LaVan weaved his way to the end zone with 6:13 left before halftime.Aliquippa ran off 10 plays on its next drive, but turned the ball over on downs at the KC 12 with 29.5 seconds left before halftime.Stimac's first pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage and was picked off by Dominique Walker at the KC 16.After an incomplete pass from Jones, he scored on the next play to make it 42-7 with 7.3 seconds left in the half.The score enacted the mercy rule clock to start the second half.Karns City scored the only points of the half in the fourth quarter when, on a third-and-5 from the KC 20, Stimac scampered 58 yards to the Aliquippa 22. On the next play, Stimac found Josh Callender in the end zone."That's what we expected to play like," said Conto. "It wasn't enough, but we didn't put our heads down.""Karns City is not a big team, but feisty," said Zmijanac. You get to the (PIAA) quarterfinals, there are no dogs left."The Gremlins finished the season at 12-2, but earned their first PIAAplayoff victory to cement their place in the program's history."They've played for a couple of years and they're interesting characters," said Conto. "They're good, hard-nosed football players.""There are a lot of friendships," said Stimac. "We've played together since the seventh grade and a majority of us since midgets. I hope the younger guys have the friendships and the mentality to play like we did."<BR><a href="http://video.butlereagle.com/gridiron/gridiron.html" target="_blank">Check out video highlights of this Game of the Week on our GRIDIRON site!</a><BR><B>Aliquippa 42, Karns City 14</B><B>Karns City 0 7 0 7—14Aliquippa 28 14 0 0—42KC A</B>7 First Downs 2022-112 Rushes-Yards 56-31447 Passing Yards 1533-9-3 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 3-5-0159 Total Yards 4671-1 Fumbles/Lost 0-02-7 Penalties-Yards 5-27<B>First Quarter</B>A — Rashad Kenney 49 pass from Rasheem Jones (Jones run), 10:00A — Kenney 72 pass from Jones (pass failed), 5:38A — Terry Patrick 2 run (Jones run), 3:35A — Donte Williams 5 run (kick failed), 1:43<B>Second Quarter</B>A — Maurice Carter 52 (run failed), 11:34KC — Markus LaVan 12 pass from Anthony Stimac (J.J. Grenninger kick), 6:13A — Jones 16 run (Carter run): 07.3<B>Fourth Quarter</B>KC — Josh Callender 22 pass from Stimac (Grenninger kick), 11:20<B>Individual Statistics</B><B>Passing:</B> Karns City, Anthony Stimac 3-9-47-3. Rasheem Jones 3-5-153-0, Mikal Hall 0-0-0-0.<B>Rushing:</B> Karns City, Anthony Stimac 11-66, Josh Callender 4-17, Josh Stimac 3-16, Markus LaVan 1-5, Levi Buck 2-5, Aaron Markle 1-3. Aliquippa, Maurice Carter 12-123, Terry Patrick 14-81, Richard Lowe 6-43, Donte Williams 8-37, Rasheem Jones 1-16, Darious Walker 2-13, Robert Hall 7-13, Rashad Kenney 1-5, Donald McKenzie 2-2, Team 3-(-19).<B>Receiving:</B> Karns City, Josh Callender 2-35, Markus LaVan 1-12. Aliquippa, Rashad Kenney 2-121, Devin Polzot 1-32.
