Karns City’s Hunter Scherer (23), seen here in a September game against Central Clarion, scored three times in Friday’s win over Punxsutawney. Ralph LoVuolo/Special to the Eagle

Two unbeaten teams were felled Friday night in two different ways.

Karns City avenged a September home loss to Punxsutawney, this time going into the Chucks’ home territory and leaving with a 35-23 victory. And Union/A-C Valley’s historic undefeated run ended against another unbeaten District 9 team, Port Allegany, 35-7.

All four teams will be major players in the District 9 tournaments that start on Halloween. Here’s how the games played out:

Karns City 35, Punxsutawney 23 — Hunter Scherer scored three times, and the Gremlins (7-2, 3-2 District 9, Region 1) this time held onto a first-half lead for the entirety of the second half to split a season series with the previously unbeaten Chucks.

Scherer’s final score, a 1-yard plunge, gave KC a 12-point lead in the final minutes. Then the defense held after Punxsutawney (8-1, 4-1) was called for a controversial intentional grounding penalty that forced a fourth-and-long, and Karns City came away with a game-sealing interception on the next play.

Port Allegany 35, Union/A-C Valley 7 — Logan Skibinski split the defense for a 21-yard score to kick things off, but the Gators (9-0) responded to the Falcon Knights’ opening salvo with 35 unanswered points to win a highly anticipated clash of District 9’s unbeaten teams. U/ACV fell to 8-1.

Skibinski was held in check after that, finishing with just 66 yards on 18 carries. Backfield mate Max Gallagher was more productive but didn’t score, running 20 times for 150 yards. He also recorded 17 tackles (five for loss) on defense.

Port’s Aiden Bliss scored on two red-zone runs, and Kellen Veilleux took a punt 47 yards to the house and scored on a 13-yard rush.

Freeport 49, East Allegheny 19 — The Yellowjackets (7-2, 4-1 Allegheny 7) clinched a WPIAL Class 3A playoff berth with another blowout victory.

Amos Glenn scored early and often, and quarterback/defensive back Drew Ross, banged up with an ankle injury the past few weeks, recorded an interception on defense and ran for a 13-yard TD in the first half. He added another 14-yard TD run later in the game.

Glenn scored on runs of 17, 25 and 55 yards less than 20 minutes into the game, then he scored for the eighth time on special teams — a 73-yard kick return to open the second half. He finished with more than 200 yards, coach John Gaillot said.

Central Catholic 48, Seneca Valley 6 — Cayden Park dived in from 3 yards out to briefly lock the Raiders in a 6-6 tie with the Vikings in the second quarter, but that was the best they could do as Central Catholic (8-1) scored 42 unanswered to win easily.

Parker finished with 24 carries for 74 yards and the score for SV (3-6, 1-4 WPIAL Section 1-6A). Andrew Loebig completed 10 of 21 passes for just 42 yards, 37 of them to tight end Adam Gehm. Parker added a sack on defense, as did Kyle Mancing and Tommy Wuycheck.

Hickory 42, Slippery Rock 14 — The Rockets (3-6) trailed by only 14-7 at halftime, but could not sustain any offensive momentum in the second half.

“Our offensive line did extremely well in the first half and we were controlling the clock with our running game,” Slippery Rock coach Larry Wendereusz said on the phone. “We got the ball to start the second half, but couldn’t put a drive together. They piled a couple of scores on us and it got away.”

Cole Scott scored Slippery Rock’s touchdown on a 1-yard run in the first half. Owen Long returned a kickoff 75 yards for the Rockets’ second-half touchdown.

Hickory improved to 8-1 with the victory.