Karns City football loses shootout to DuBois in battle of District 9 powers
KARNS CITY — One quarter does not decide a football game.
But this one came close.
Trailing 35-28 after a wild first half at Karns City, DuBois scored three touchdowns in the third quarter while limiting the Gremlins to four offensive plays. The Beavers (2-1) then held on for a 56-42 District 9 football victory at Karns City’s Diehl Stadium.
“We challenged our guys at halftime,” DuBois coach T.J. Wingard said. “We needed to be more physical up front. We just had to play tougher.”
Karns City (2-1) rushed for 191 yards in the first half and scored touchdowns on its first four possessions. Aided by an 87-yard kick return for a score by London Duncan, the Beavers wiped out a 14-point deficit, only to give up the lead late in the half.
Owen Heginbotham broke free on a screen pass for 40 yards and a score with 29 seconds left in the half, giving KC the seven-point advantage at intermission.
DuBois embarked upon a 13-play, 86-yard scoring drive to begin the second half. On fourth down from the KC 19, Trey Wingard connected with Thacher Hanzely in the end zone for the touchdown, knotting the game.
“They were able to come out and run the ball in the third quarter. That hurt us,” KC coach Joe Sherwin said. “They had a long drive to begin that quarter, and we never settled back in.”
The Gremlins went three-and-out, DuBois taking possession at the KC 44 following a short punt. Wingard found Jaxson Hanzely for a 4-yard TD strike seven plays later, and the Beavers had a lead they never lost.
A Duncan interception on the next play set up a quick 19-yard TD pass to Jaxson Hanzely and DuBois had a 49-35 edge with 29 seconds left in the quarter.
“The way the first half went with their passing, we figured they’d come out throwing again,” Sherwin said. “But their ability to run on us in the second half set them up.”
Coach Wingard agreed.
“If we can’t run the football, our play-action is not effective,” the DuBois coach said. “They (KC) backed out of the box defensively, and that helped our running game.”
Still, Karns City wasn’t done.
The Gremlins marched 71 yards on 12 plays, and quarterback Cole Johnston scored his third touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run to pull his team within 49-42 wth 7:15 remaining.
The Gremlins got the ball back with 3:35 to play. They drove from midfield to the DuBois 26 but turned the ball over on downs from there.
“We made a lot of plays tonight, played well, but we can play better,” Sherwin said. “We needed to finish that drive off. We had a chance to tie or go ahead, depending on what we would have decided to do with the extra point.”
Forced to try stripping the football loose, the Gremlin defensed allowed Duncan to break through the line and score on a 70-yard burst with 1:42 to play.
Wingard threw for 268 yards and five touchdowns for DuBois. He has thrown for 1,092 yards through three games this season. Duncan ran for 132 yards, 130 in the second half.
Karns City generated 23 first downs and 415 yards of offense. Johnston rushed for 110 yards and the three TDs while throwing for 139 yards.
The Gremlins travel to rival Moniteau (2-1) next Friday.
DuBois 14 14 21 7 — 56
Karns City 14 21 0 7 — 42
First quarter
D — London Duncan 12 pass from Trey Wingard (Maddox Barnes kick), 9:16
KC — Cole Johnston 27 run (Trevor Rumbaugh kick), 7:00
KC — Hunter Scherer 2 run (Rumbaugh kick), 6:17
D — Wingard 7 run (Barnes kick), 3:51
Second quarter
KC — Scherer 1 run (Rumbaugh kick), 11:50
KC — Johnston 24 run (Rumbaugh kick), 9:05
D — Duncan 87 kick return (Barnes kick), 8:43
D — Thacher Hanzely 4 pass from Wingard (Barnes kick), 4:04
KC — Owen Heginbotham 40 pass from Johnston (Rumbaugh kick), :29
Third quarter
D — Thacher Hanzely 19 pass froim Wingard (Barnes kick), 7:40
D — Jaxson Hanzely 4 pass from Wingard (Barnes kick), 1:35
D — Jaxson Hanzely 19 pass from Wingard (Barnes kick), :29
Fourth quarter
KC — Johnston 4 run (Rumbaugh kick), 7:15
D — Duncan 70 run (Barnes kick), 1:42
Individual Statistics
Passing: DuBois, Trey Wingard 19-31-268-0. Karns City, Cole Johnston 8-15-139-2, Trevor Geibel 0-1-0-0.
Rushing: DuBois, Trey Wingard 3-9, London Duncan 12-132, Walker Thomas 1-3, Dalton Reasinger 6-24. Karns City, Cole Johnston 16-110, Hunter Scherer 12-56, Owen Heginbotham 8-66, Nathan Hess 7-41, Riley Hamilton 2-(-1).
Receiving: DuBois, Thacher Hanzely 5-74, Jaxson Hanzely 10-150, London Duncan 1-12, Samson Deeb 2-10, Jonathan Reed 1-6. Karns City, Bryce Galan 3-42, Carter Farren 2-2, Owen Heginbotham 1-40, Hunter Scherer 1-22, Riley Hamilton 1-12.
