CLARION — Trickery worked. Straight power did not.

That proved to be the difference in Brockway's 22-20 District 9 Class AA football championship victory over Moniteau Saturday afternoon at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.

The win marked Brockway's third District 9 title in four years.

Both teams scored three touchdowns. But Brockway took the lead it never relinquished on a fake PAT attempt. The Rovers converted a pair of two-point attempts.

The Warriors came up a yard short on their lone two-point try — a Matt Schandelmeier dive up the middle.

"This was an even championship football; game," Moniteau coach Steve Wilson said. "Those two-point plays were the difference."

After Adam Cousins gave Moniteau (6-6) a 7-0 lead with a 42-yard scoring run and PAT, the Rovers (8-3) struck back quickly. Quarterback Anthony Varsischetti's 54-yard bomb to Joe Antonuccio set up fullback Ben Donlin's 1-yard plunge with 4:49 left in the opening quarter.

Varischetti holds on Brockway kicks from placement. Instead of Matt Ehrgott kicking the ball, however, Varischetti took the snap from his holder's position, rolled right and found Matthew Taylor in the end zone for the go-ahead two points.

"We had a PAT blocked against Redbank Valley (last week) and I'm sure Moniteau saw that on film," Brockway coach Ray Reckner said. "We figured they'd be charging hard to block the kick and we guessed right."

The Rovers burned the Warriors on pass plays throughout the first half. During a 69-yard scoring drive in the second quarter, Dillon Park caught a 14-yard pass on third-and-13 and a 25-yarder on third-and-6.

The touchdown came on a 15-yard pass to Donlin on a second-and-8 play. Donlin ran for two points and Brockway had a 16-7 lead with 9:19 left in the half.

All told, the Rovers threw for 228 yards

"Ouch … They hurt us through the air, but I didn't know it was that much," Wilson said. "We have some young corners and they took advantage of it."

Moniteau responded with some key passes of its own. Garth Kohlmeyer found Josh Loos for an 18-yard completion on a fourth-and-14 play from the Brockway 36. That set up Kohlmeyer's 11-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Protzman to pull the Warriors within 16-14.

The Warriors forced a three-and-out and regained possession near midfield, only to stall themselves. A punt gave Brockway possession at its 21 with 2:47 left in the half.Keyed by another gimmick play — tight end Antonuccio lofting a 36-yard pass to Donlin — the Rovers drove 79 yards in 11 plays to take a 22-14 lead into halftime.Moniteau marched 62 yards in 13 plays with its first possession of the second half. Kohlmeyer found David Rumbaugh for an 8-yard touchdown pass to cut the gap to 22-20 with 5:52 left in the third quarter.The scoring toss was the Warriors' first to a wide receiver all season."I was surprised by how well they threw the ball," Reckner said. "They hit us with some big plays that way."Even though they ran for some yardage, we didn't let them break off any huge chunks after that first touchdown."Moniteau ran for 211 yards, but of its 42 carries, only three went for 10 yards or more.Looking for the tying points after Rumbaugh's touchdown, Schandelmeier was stopped short of the goal line."I stumbled when I took the handoff," he said. "I never did recover and couldn't get any momentum going toward the goal line."Brockway ate up the first six minutes of the final quarter by driving 64 yards to the Warriors' 8-yard line.Facing fourth-and-1 from there, the Rovers threw for the end zone, but Andy Fremer dropped the pass in traffic with 5:49 remaining.A 15-yard pass to Protzman helped the Warriors move to midfield. But on fourth-and-2 from the Brockway 42, Cousins was stopped a yard short of a first down with 1:16 left."Hindsight's always easy, but I'm beginning to think I should have gone with a dive with the big guy (Schandelmeier)," Wilson said. "But, hey, we called our play and they stopped us."Neither team had a turnover in the game."This was a well-played, crisp, physical football game," Wilson said. "It's the way a championship game is supposed to be played."I feel like our program made some major strides this year. More importantly, the kids feel the same way. Our younger kids are hurt by this loss as much as the seniors."Give them a few days … They'll be back, ready to go to work on next year," Wilson added.