KARNS CITY — Central Clarion came up with a big stop on a 2-point conversion Friday night that sealed its 43-41 victory over Karns City Friday night at Diehl Stadium.

“It looked like a whole pile of Wildcats,” said Central Clarion head coach Larry Wiser. “We just hit him and started driving.”

Central Clarion (4-1) quarterback Calvin German finished with four touchdown passes and 251 yards in the air. He went over 4,000 passing yards for his career.

“He's so elusive,” said Karns City coach Joe Sherwin. “With how athletic he is and how he extends plays, that's what was giving us the most trouble.”

Karns City maintained a 28-15 lead at halftime and padded it with a third-quarter score that milked the clock. But then came a play that seemed to pump energy into the Wildcats.

Still trailing early in the fourth quarter, German threw a pass to receiver Christian Simko, who caught the ball in the end zone while simultaneously receiving an impactful hit from a Karns City defender. Simko held tight to the ball, but stayed down on the field until he walked gingerly off the field.

“That seemed like the spark,” Wiser said. “It woke our guys up.”

Immediately following that touchdown, Karns City fumbled the football on back-to-back drives, both deep in their own territory and both leading to Central Clarion touchdowns.

The drive after that, Gremlins quarterback Eric Booher, who had 212 passing yards and two passing touchdowns, threw an interception into the hands of Central Clarion's Ethan Burford, who took it 46 yards for an 8-point lead with 1 minute, 28 seconds left in the game.

“We gotta protect the ball better than what we did,” Sherwin said. “It was a great high school football game. We fought back, and I was proud of them for that.”

Karns City responded by moving the ball 80 yards down the field, ending with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Booher to receiver Nathan Waltman with no time left on the board.

A Central Clarion 2-point conversion in the first half forced the Gremlins to do the same, but they could not cross the goal line.

“That play killed us all night,” Wiser said. “The kids stepped up. That's all it was. All the credit goes to those guys. We just kept fighting.”

Central Clarion 7 8 0 28 — 43

Karns City 14 14 7 6 — 41

First Quarter

KC — Kaden Scherer 40 run (Owen Collwell kick), 9:36

KC —Eric Booher 24 run (Collwell kick), 5:27

CC — Cutter Boggess 24 pass from Calvin German (Beau Verdill kick), 2:31

Second Quarter

KC — Jayce Anderson 8 run (Collwell kick), 11:54

CC — Christian Simko 40 pass from German (Breckin Rex pass from Simko), 8:14

KC — Anderson 32 pass from Booher (Collwell kick), 1:00

Third Quarter

KC — Anderson 16 run (Collwell kick), 3:44

Fourth Quarter

CC — Simko 13 pass from German (Verdill kick), 10:33

CC — Ethan Burford 23 pass from German (Verdill kick), 9:04

CC — Rex 36 run (Verdill kick), 6:05

CC — Burford 46 interception return (Verdill kick), 1:28

KC — Nathan Waltman 15 pass from Booher (run failed), :00

Individual Statistics

Rushing:Central Clarion, Breckin Rex 10-62, Calvin German 4-21, Cutter Boggess 5-6, Cooper Shall 1-1. Karns City, Jayce Anderson 8-64, Cole Coon 7-61, Kaden Scherer 4-56, Eric Booher 17-55, Luke Garing 5-15, Gage Cowoski 1-(-4)

Passing:Central Clarion, German 17-35-256-1. Karns City, Booher 12-21-212-1

Receiving:Central Clarion, Boggess 8-113, Simko 3-55, Burford 3-42, Jason Ganoe 3-35. Karns City, Scherer 3-64, Micah Rupp 5-60, Nathan Waltman 3-36, Anderson 1-32, Gage Cowoski 1-20