CLARION — One by air, the other by ground, Brockway and Moniteau moved the football Saturday afternoon.

The teams combined for 761 yards and 35 first downs in their District 9 Class AA football semifinal at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.

Ultimately, the Warriors suffered three turnovers and took 12 penalties as Brockway walked — actually, flew — away with a 37-20 victory.

Rovers junior quarterback Derek Buganza threw for 362 yards and five touchdowns. Junior receiver Mike Vervoort caught 12 passes for 227 yards and three of those scores.

"You can't make mistakes and fall behind a team like this," Moniteau coach Jeff Campbell said. "You can't allow them a three-touchdown lead and expect to come back, but that's what we tried to do.

"And we didn't do it."

The Rovers (8-3) took advantage of a botched handoff on the game's first possession, Joel Yahner recovering the Moniteau fumble at the Warriors 16-yard line.

Two plays later, Buganza found Vervoort in the end zone and Brockway had a 7-0 lead.

Aided by a roughing the punter penalty, Moniteau (6-5) answered with an 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Kyle Armagost found Zach Wheeler in the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown pass and the game was tied with 5:55 left in the opening quarter.

But not for long.

On the next offensive play, Buganza flipped a short pass to Vervoort in the right flat. The receiver got a block and raced untouched down the right sideline for an 83-yard play that put the Rovers ahead for good.

The final score of the half occurred with 10:27 left. After a would-be 19-yard touchdown pass to Zack Freemer was ruled out of bounds and a 1-yard scoring toss to Vervoort was nullified by an illegal substitution penalty, Buganza found Jake Shaffer for a 6-yard TD toss on fourth-and-goal.

The 7-play, 49-yard drive was set up by another fumble recovery by Yahner near midfield.

"The difference between our defense today and last week (56-40 loss to Keystone) was night and day," Brockway coach Frank Varischetti said. "We had a lot of penetration in their backfield."

Moniteau fell behind 34-7 with 2:06 left in the third quarter before making a late push.

James Shope scored on touchdown runs of 63 and 50 yards to cut the gap to 34-20 with 7:17 left in the game, but the Warriors couldn't excecute an onsides kick.

Shope had 25 carries for 267 yards on the day. He finished the season with 1,432 yards and 21 touchdowns rushing.

"James Shope never quit fighting out there," Campbell said. "He played a great game."

"With a big (34-7) lead, we went to our prevent defense to try to keep Shope in front of us," Varischetti said. "Obviously, that didn't work. We went back to our base defense and tried to bottle him up in the backfield. That kid is a great, great back."

Brockway iced the game with a 12-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a Phillip Esposito 18-yard field goal with 2:07 left in the contest.

Burganza now has 3,434 yards passing on the year, breaking the previous District 9 single-season record of 3,224, set by Clearfield's Chad Kroell in 1994. Kroell went on to play for Penn State.

"Derek is an intelligent kid and he puts the ball on the money," Varischetti said. "But he couldn't do this without all the quality receivers we have and the protection our line gives him."

Buganza threw 38 passes without an interception and was sacked just once, by Robert Moore. Moniteau entered the game with 28 sacks on the season.

"We had chances to pick him off three or four times and didn't make the play," Campbell said. "They made the plays to decide the game."

Brockway 37, Moniteau 20

Moniteau 7 0 7 6 — 20Brockway 13 7 14 3 — 37M B16 First Downs 1945-287 Rushes-Yards 22-4072 Passing Yards 3625-21-1 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 23-38-0359 Total Yards 4022-2 Fumbles-Lost 0-212-95 Penalties-Yards 6-60

First QuarterB — Mike Vervoort 11 pass from Derek Buganza (Phillip Esposito kick), 10:07M — Zach Wheeler 28 pass from Kyle Armagost (Tony Miller kick), 5:55B — Vervoort 83 pass from Buganza (kick failed), 5:34

Second QuarterB — Jake Shaffer 6 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 10:27

Third QuarterB — Shaffer 16 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 9:04B — Vervoort 13 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 2:06M — James Shope 63 run (Miller kick), 1:11

Fourth QuarterM — Shope 50 run (kick failed), 7:17B — Esposito 18 field goal, 2:07

Individual StatisticsPassing: Moniteau, Kyle Armagost 4-18-65-1, James Shope 1-2-7-0, Zach Wheeler 0-1-0-0. Brockway, Derek Buganza 23-38-362-0, Chris Marshall 0-1-0-0.

Rushing: Moniteau, Kyle Armagost 17-19, James Shope 25-267, David Campbell 1-3, Team 1-(-2). Brockway, Derek Buganza 6-19, Ryan Terwilliger 13-27, Tom Vervoort 2-(-1), Team 1-(-5).

Receiving: Moniteau, Zach Wheeler 4-58, Austin Hogsett 1-14. Brockway, Jake Shaffer 6-80, Mike Vervoort 12-227, Ryan Terwilliger 2-16, Chris Marshall 1-7, Zack Freemer 2-38.