FOXBURG - The Moniteau football team ruined A-C Valley's homecoming celebration.

The Warriors' powerful rushing attack was too strong for the Falcons as Moniteau collected more than 300 yards on the ground in a 48-7 win Friday night.

Moniteau senior running back Matt Schandelmeier, who ran for 202 yards on 36 carries through the first two games of the season, put up a strong performance once again for the Warriors.

Schandelmeier rushed for 245 yards and three touchdowns in the winning effort.

The win was Moniteau's first of the season in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference and was A-C Valley's third straight defeat.

After watching his team drop two close games to Clarion (8-7) and St. Mary's (20-14) to open the season, Moniteau coach Steve Wilson said he told his team it was going to play its kind of game against the Falcons.

"We came in here saying we're going to run the football no matter what," Wilson said.

Moniteau started the scoring with 9:32 left in the first quarter when junior running back Adam Cousins rushed into the end zone from six yards out.

On the kickoff return, A-C Valley pulled off something it hasn't done to this point in the season. The team scored its first touchdown of 2005 when receiver Mark Hart returned the Cousins kickoff 98 yards for a score.

In the second quarter, starting the drive on its his own 2 yard line, A-C Valley quarterback Brad Rembold was picked off by Moniteau's Travis Shaffer, who returned the ball 17 yards for a touchdown.

Schandelmeier scored his first touchdown of the night from 13 yards away with seven minutes left in the second quarter.

Cousins earned his second touchdown of the game when he scampered into the end zone from six yards away with less then two minutes to go in the half.

In the third quarter, Schandelmeier added touchdown runs of 30 and 35 yards.

"He thought he had to have a breakout game," Wilson said. "He was a wrecking ball out there."

Senior running back Ryan Protzman completed the scoring for the Warriors with a 12-yard touchdown run with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

A-C Valley's Rocco Crapis rushed for 70 yards on 16 carries and receiver Hank Heeter caught four passes for 57 yards in the loss.

A-C Valley coach Randy Lemmon said the players have been hit hard by several key injuries, not to mention the team's struggles to get into the win column.

"I've told them right along, these first three games I don't really expect to win any of them," Lemmon said.

Lemmon is referring to two key loses to Clarion and Clarion-Limestone that resulted in the Falcons being shut out for two consecutive weeks.

Lemmon said he is very upset with the schedule the team has been dealt.

"We've had just about the most horrible schedule of anyone in Pennsylvania," Lemmon said.

An A-C Valley roster that is made up of only 27 players is hurting even more after Friday. Junior Brandon Eiler suffered a neck injury.

Hart suffered a stinger and had numbness in his left arm for part of the game.

On top of that, freshman junior varsity quarterback Luke Walker was taken from the field by ambulance with a leg injury following the game.

Lemmon said he has decided to cancel the JV portion of the season due to the lack of depth on the roster.

Wilson said A-C Valley played hard, but his team was ready for the challenge and will look to build off the victory.

Wilson also said one of his players said it best when describing his team's performance on Friday.

"We just got a spark going here, and we got to keep putting logs on the fire," Wilson said. "We just needed to execute and make sure everybody was doing their assignments."