Warriors meet their match
CLARION — Moniteau knew it couldn't afford any miscues Friday night.
There were multiple mistakes, though, and the Warriors finally met their match.
Aliquippa jumped out to a 19-0 lead over Moniteau and earned a 32-7 victory in the PIAA Class AA football quarterfinals at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.
“The kids played hard. They fought, they battled until the end,” said Moniteau coach Jeff Campbell. “They gave everything.”
Moniteau's offense occasionally broke off big plays, but never found a consistent rhythm and the WPIAL champion Quips intercepted five passes.
Aliquippa shut down the Warriors' rushing attack and harassed quarterback Kyle Armagost nearly every time he dropped back to pass.
“They're a good football team, there's no doubt about it,” said Campbell of Aliquippa. “I would have really liked to get the first win for a (District 9) Double-A team against a WPIAL team. It just wasn't in the cards tonight.”
Despite trailing 19-0 less than a minute into the second quarter, Moniteau turned the tables and showed it belonged with Aliquippa the rest of the way.
Ethan Pry — who finished with three catches for 109 yards — hauled in a 59-yard touchdown pass from Armagost with 7:41 to go in the first half, which cut the deficit to 19-7.
Pry managed to get behind the defense, then shook off a would-be tackler at the 5-yard line to find the end zone.
Moniteau's defense settled in and forced the Quips to punt on five out of six possessions in the second and third quarters.
However, the Warriors failed to get in a groove offensively and never threatened Aliquippa's advantage.
Although Armagost was intercepted five times, twice the Quips corralled a pass that deflected off a Moniteau receiver and another pick came on a fourth down with 3 seconds to go in the half.
The turnovers weren't the only costly miscues.
Moniteau committed seven penalties and a missed assignment on defense led to the Quips' third touchdown — a 49-yard run up the middle from Dravon Henry, one of three scores on the night for the sophomore.
“We shot ourselves in the foot so many times. It was penalties, missed assignments and dropped balls,” said Campbell. “Against a team like that, you cannot make those mistakes — you can't make them. We said coming in that we had to play mistake-free football to beat them and we didn't do that.
“Honestly, I thought that was the difference in the game,” Campbell added. “You make a mistake and it's going to be a touchdown and that's what they did. Every mistake we made, they capitalized on, and the good football teams do that.”
With the game under control, Aliquippa took the ball with 9:22 to play and never gave possession back, running off the rest of the clock with 15 plays to punch its ticket to the PIAA semifinals.
“We've done that before,” said Aliquippa coach Mike Zmijanac. “That's kind of our style.”
The Quips pounded the ball on the ground 55 times for 286 yards — Henry accounting for a game-high 105 yards on 12 carries.Aliquippa was also effective through the air, especially early, as quarterback Mikal Hall completed four of his first five passes for 80 yards.“That was the game plan, said Zmijanac. “It's always in the game plan to run the ball and pass the ball. They had some good schemes against us defensively, but we broke a couple of big plays.”Moniteau tried to crack the Aliquippa defense through the air, but constant pressure made life difficult on Armagost.When the ball was up for grabs, Aliquippa took advantage.“They were well coached. They were ready for us,” said Campbell. “We thought we could throw the ball and hit some stuff on them. To throw the ball, you have to have time, and we just could not get the time.”“They were throwing the ball all over the place,” said Zmijanac. “You send out five receivers and it's tough to cover, unless you get pressure on the quarterback.”The Warriors also struggled to gain yards on the ground. Senior fullback David Campbell led Moniteau in rushing with 43 yards on four carries. Armagost was limited to 36 yards on eight tries, while Dustin Geagan mustered just 11 yards on eight totes.Geagan and Armagost have been big-play threats all season, but neither recorded a run over 9 yards on Friday.On the other hand, the Quips featured multiple threats on the ground. Terry Swanson rushed for 98 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries — one of six Quips to receive at least three rushing attempts.“We need all of those guys,” said Zmijanac.Aliquippa scored its first touchdown on the opening possession on a 3-yard run from Henry. Following Armagost's first interception, Swanson cashed in a 4-yard run to give the Quips a 12-0 lead with two minutes to go in the first quarter.Moniteau got on track in the second frame, but couldn't get over the hump.“I thought we proved we could play with them. I told the kids we deserved to be here,” said Campbell. “Too many breakdowns, too many mistakes.”Henry's third TD came on a 30-yard dash in the third quarter and Desmond Hardy capped the scoring with a 5-yard jaunt in the fourth.It ended a historic season for the Warriors.“It's a been a wonderful run. The kids played great,” said Campbell. “We broke all kinds of records. We won a District 9 championship. We won a state playoff game.“I guess it's kind of hard to be upset about the season,” Campbell added. “We're two games away from the state championship.”Aliquippa 32, Moniteau 7<B>Moniteau 0 7 0 0 — 7Aliquippa 12 7 7 6 — 32M A</B>6 First Downs 1321-88 Rushes-Yards 55-286139 Passing Yards 924-20-5 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 5-9-0227 Total Yards 3781-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-07-37 Penalties-Yards 10-70<B>First Quarter</B>A — Dravon Henry 3 run (kick failed), 8:01A — Terry Swanson 4 run (pass failed), 2:00<B>Second Quarter</B>A — Henry 49 run (Robert Kish kick), 11:29M — Ethan Pry 59 pass from Kyle Armagost (Armagost kick), 7:41<B>Third Quarter</B>A — Henry 30 run (Kish kick), 8:03<B>Fourth Quarter</B>A — Desmond Hardy 5 run (kick failed), 10:22<B>Individual StatisticsPassing:</B> Moniteau, Kyle Armagost 4-20-139-5. Aliquippa, Mikal Hall 5-9-92-0.<B>Rushing:</B> Moniteau, David Campbell 4-43, Kyle Armagost 8-36, Dustin Geagan 8-11, Team 1-(-2). Aliquippa, Dravon Henry 12-105, Terry Swanson 17-98, Tyrik Hayes 8-37, Kaylan Kenney 3-29, Desmond Hardy 5-19, Devon Walker 4-13, Mikal Hall 6-(-17).<B>Receiving:</B> Moniteau, Ethan Pry 3-106, Dustin Geagan 1-33. Aliquippa, Kaylan Kenney 2-33, Hassahn Thompson 1-44, Donovan Cobb 1-12, Terry Swanson 1-3.
