Glory for Gremlins
CLARION — The members of the Karns City football team converged at midfield and hoisted the District 9 Class AA championship trophy.
The Gremlins have won this piece of hardware before, but this one was treasured a bit more.
"It does feel great," said Karns City quarterback Anthony Stimac, who beat rival Moniteau in the air and on the ground. "It feels so much better than last year."
And it should. Karns City dominated Moniteau, played virtually mistake-free and walloped the Warriors 42-9 to win the district title at Clarion University Friday night.
The Gremlins (11-1) won the district crown last season over Moniteau in another lopsided outcome. But this one came nearly a month after Karns City suffered a 35-34 home loss to the Warriors.
Moniteau (10-2) won the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference in large part because of that victory.
But, Karns City was determined to avoid a Moniteau encore Friday.
"That game against Moniteau galvanized us," said Karns City coach Ed Conto. "It was a wake-up call. That game gave us the focus we needed to step it up. We needed to get our butt kicked at that time because you have a false sense of where you're at and your head gets too big."
The Karns City lead was the only big thing in this one.
The Gremlins took advantage of Moniteau miscues — a 4-yard punt and an interception by JoshCallender to end Warriors possessions in the first quarter — and turned them into short touchdown drives to take a 14-0 lead.
"Honestly, we didn't come to play," said Moniteau coach Jeff Campbell. "It was one mistake after another. You cannot make that many mistakes against a good football team."
Karns City made Moniteau pay for every last one, and Stimac in particular vexed the Warriors.
He tossed touchdown passes of 9 and 22 yards to Callender in the first quarter and hooked up with Callender again on a perfectly conceived screen pass for a 51-yard touchdown that gave Karns City a 21-9 lead after Moniteau had closed the gap.
Stimac added a 3-yard score just before halftime to send Moniteau into panic mode.
It didn't get much better for the Warriors.
By the time the third quarter ended, the Gremlins' Josh Stimac broke five tackles on a 29-yard scoring run and then Anthony Stimac slithered through the Moniteau defense and outran Moniteau's James Shope into the end zone for a 77-yard score to give the Gremlins a 33-point lead.
That more than erased what little momentum Moniteau had procured after a 29-yard field goal by Anthony Miller and a 2-yard plunge by fullback Justin Sanderson narrowed the gap to 14-9 in the second quarter.
"I'm not surprised. They are a good football team," Campbell said. "They only scored one more touchdown than they did the last time we played them. We knew we were going to have to score to win. The bottom line was we didn't get it done."
Karns City's defense did get it done.
The Gremlins pressured Moniteau quarterback Tyler Armagost throughout the game. The senior missed his first six passes and finished just 10-of-23 for 115 yards and two interceptions.Karns City turned both picks into points.When Armagost did settle down in the second half, he and the Warriors were plagued by drops."We didn't execute offensively or defensively," Campbell said. "Tyler was a little off. He had open receivers and he missed them. When he did see them, (the passes) were dropped."Karns City's defense also contained Shope, who gashed the Gremlins for 156 yards last time the two teams played but was held to 80 in this one.Moniteau gained 302 yards rushing in October against Karns City, but only 95 in this meeting."We didn't do anything different," Conto said. "We just played our defense right. The last time, our linebackers overpursued Shope. That kid is the best running back in the league."Karns City will move on to play either NorthStar or Langley in the first round of the PIAA playoffs next week.Getting there was certainly worth it for the Gremlins, especially since it came against Moniteau."We had more to prove this year since they beat us last time," Callender said. "It's the best feeling in the world."<B>Karns City 42, Moniteau 9Karns City 14 14 14 0—42Moniteau 0 9 0 0— 9KC M</B>12 First Downs 1440-264 Rushes-Yards 36-9582 Passing Yards 1153-6-0 Passes (Comp.-Att.-Int.) 10-23-2346 Total Yards 2100-0 Fumbles/Lost 1-06-70 Penalties-Yards 5-55<B>First Quarter</B>KC — JoshCallender 9 pass from Anthony Stimac (J.J. Grenninger kick), 9:50KC — Callender 22 pass fromStimac (Grenninger kick), 2:55<B>Second Quarter</B>M — Anthony Miller 29 field goal, 11:07M — JustinSanderson 2 run (kick failed), 5:09KC — Callender 51 pass fromStimac (Grenninger kick), 2:37KC — Stimac 3 run (Grenninger kick), :33<B>Third Quarter</B>KC — JoshStimac 29 run (Grenninger kick), 6:22KC — Anthony Stimac 77 run (Grenninger kick), 1:27<B>Individual Statistics</B><B>Passing:</B> Karns City, AnthonyStimac 3-6-82-0. Moniteau, Tyler Armagost 10-23-115-2.<B>Rushing:</B> Karns City, AnthonyStimac 9-89, Markus LaVan 8-65, Josh Stimac 7-70, Levi Buck 5-18, AaronMarkle 4-11, Tyler Slagle 1-6, Josh Callender 3-3, Dylan Hipple 1-2, Nick Reed 1-1, Jake Wagner 1-0, CraigSlomer 1-(-1). Moniteau, James Shope 18-80, JustinSanderson 9-23, Dakota Campbell 1-4, Tyler Armagost 5-(-8), Team 3-(-4).<B>Receiving:</B> Karns City, Josh Callender 3-82. Moniteau, Tony Campbell 5-91, James Shope 3-33, JustinSanderson 2-(-9).
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