Gremlins march past Lions
KARNS CITY — Karns City scored early and often in its 54-12 Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference football matchup with Clarion-Limestone Friday.
On KC's first drive, Gremlins fullback Levi Buck scored on a 1-yard run to cap a 64-yard march. Strong runs by Markus LaVan, Anthony Stimac and Josh Callender contributed to the scoring effort.
The Gremlins continued to show their depth and strong running game in the first quarter with touchdown runs by quarterback Stimac for 22 yards and wide receiver Josh Callender for 3 yards.
"Offensively, we went into the game prepared to use two units on offense, except for the quarterback and center," said Karns City coach Ed Conto.
"We were trying to evaluate our players and see who will step up and be our starters when we get into the meat of our schedule."
In the second quarter, the Gremlins turned a broken pass play into a score when Stimac, seeing all of his receivers were covered, scrambled right then changed direction and ran 50 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown.
Later in the quarter, Callender took a handoff on first down and ran 70 yards for another score. Josh Stimac added a 19-yard run to make the score 41-0 at halftime.
In the half, the Gremlins outgained the Lions 362-57 in total yards.
The third quarter began with more of the same. To open the period, Karns City put together a six-play, 59-yard drive, which was capped by a 24-yard run by junior running back Jake Wagner.
For the remainder of the third quarter, Karns City struggled to hang onto the ball, fumbling four times in the quarter.
The fourth one was recovered by Clarion-Limestone's Zac Roller, who ran for 40 yards to score the Lions' second touchdown of the game.
One bright spot in the Lions' offense was sophomore receiver Zack Kemmer, who caught four passes for 128 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown from Dan Miller.
The Gremlins rounded out the scoring when junior Craig Slomers broke a run for 24 yards in the fourth quarter.
"A lot of times our kids will come out and look sloppy in games like this, but I didn't think we did that tonight. We came out and played hard for most of the game." said Conto.
Notes: The Karns City defense held Clarion-Limestone to three yards rushing in the game, zero yards in the first half. ... The Gremlins had six different players reach the end zone.
