MONITEAU 26, CLARION 20

Aug. 29, 2008

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – After frustrating home losses to Clarion in two of the last three years, Moniteau finally turned the tables on the Bobcats beating Clarion 26-20 on a late touchdown run by quarterback Tyler Armagost Friday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

Armagost scored his second rushing touchdown of the game with 2:48 to play breaking a 20-all tie and finally getting Moniteau over its last-minute jinx against Clarion.

In 2005 at Moniteau the Warriors had four chances from inside the five-yard line in the closing moments to score a go-ahead touchdown but failed to do so in a 7-3 loss. Then last year, Moniteau had two separate cracks to put the ball into the end zone against Clarion in the last 30 seconds but twice came up short including the final play ending on a shoe-string tackle at the Bobcat 11-yard line.

But this year was different for Moniteau.

After failing to score on three of its first five possessions inside the Clarion 20-yard line, the Warriors made their final trip into the Red Zone count when Armagost broke a couple of tackles at the line of scrimmage and carried a few Bobcat defenders into the end zone with him.

“He’s a play maker,” Moniteau’s second-year head coach Jeff Campbell said. “When the chips are down, we want the ball in his hands.”

The Moniteau defense then sealed the victory by stopping Clarion on four straight plays.

“It (beating Clarion) feels pretty good actually,” Campbell said. “This is only the second time I have been on a team that has beaten Clarion. All the credit tonight goes to the kids. They played tighter as a team. We played a ton of kids tonight.”

Moniteau’s victory is only the Warriors sixth win against Clarion in 35 tries and just its second since 1995, although the last four or five games have mostly been good contests.

“We’ve had some great games with them the last three or four years,” Clarion head coach Larry Wiser said. “I have a lot of respect for their program. This was a good, hard-hitting game. There were just some small, little things we didn’t do that hurt us. But we showed some real character there in the second half.”

Clarion trailed 20-14, which was the halftime score, going to the fourth quarter but tied the game thanks to a dazzling 81-yard touchdown run by sophomore Kris Burkhart with 9:59 left in the game.

“He’s shown some bursts in practice versus our first-team defense,” Wiser said. “He just has that extra dimension, that extra speed.”

After the teams traded punts, Moniteau took over at its own 46 with 5:57 to play, and three passes from Armagost, who finished the night 13 of 32 passing for 220 yards and a touchdown while adding 21 yards rushing and two scored, that netted 43 yards including a scrambling throw to Tony Campbell for 24 yards to the Bobcat 19. A few players later, Armagost finally finished off a Warrior drive inside the 20-yard line with the scoring run.

“It (being inside the 20 so many times and not scoring) was very frustrating,” Campbell said. “I know Coach Wiser. He keeps chipping and chipping looking for that little crack. And then they find it and bust through with a big play like they did tonight.”

The game was a back-and-forth affair all night long.

Clarion scored first on an 8-yard run by Bubba Rue on its first possession after something broke down on a Moniteau punt and punter Mitch Czech was dropped for a 3-yard loss at the Moniteau 11 yard line on fourth down.

The Warriors answered back with a 9-yard scoring toss from Armagost to Clayton Casper and a 66-yard run by James Shope to take a 12-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Clarion looked like it would take the lead into halftime when sophomore Dan Walters hit Jarrod Carpin with a 16-yard touchdown pass, the first of Walters’ career, with 1:11 left in the half giving the Bobcats a 14-12 lead.

But Armagost quickly engineered a 5-play, 61-yard drive in just over 40 seconds to take a 20-14 halftime lead when Armagost scored on a 7-yard run and then hit Shope with the 2-point conversion pass.

 “I was worried at halftime,” Wiser said. “We were back on our heels. But we showed some real character there in the second half. I’m pleased with the way we played. If we keep growing from this, we have a shot at staying with the other Class A teams in the league. If we keep getting better, by the end of the season maybe we will get our chance to take some shots.”

Shope led Moniteau on the ground with 99 yards and the touchdown on 13 carries, while Casper had five grads for 81 yards and the touchdown.

Burkhart, thanks to the long run, had 99 yards on three carries, while Rue added 51 on eight totes.

“It was a war,” Campbell said. “I knew what they were coming to do. Larry is a smash-mouth football guy. He’s going to lineup and come right at you. We had to try to stop that. It’s been that way every year we have played Clarion since I’ve been at Moniteau.”

MONITEAU 26, CLARION 20

Score by Quarters

Moniteau 12 8 0 6 – 26

Clarion 7 7 0 6 – 20

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

C – Bubba Rue 8 run (Jon Kemmer kick), 9:28

M – Clayton Casper 9 pass from Tyler Armagost (Kick failed), 3:36

M – James Shope 66 run (Kick failed), 2:30

Second Quarter

C – Jarrod Carpin 16 pass from Dan Walters (Kemmer kick), 1:11

M – Armagost 7 pass run (Shope pass from Armagost), 25.2

Fourth Quarter

C – Kris Burkhart 81 run (Kick failed), 9:59

M – Armagost 4 run (Run failed), 2:48

       M         C

First Downs            16        9

Rushes-Yards         40-135 31-168

Passing Yards         220      31

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       13-32-0            4-12-0

Total Yardages       355      199

Fumbles-Lost         0-0       5-3

Penalties Yards      6-39     4-25

Punts-Avg. 4-27.5  5-33.8

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Moniteau: Tyler Armagost 12-21, Mitch Czech 2-8, Ricky Best 5-20, James Shope 13-99, Dakota Campbell 4-7, Austin Hogsett 1-(-9), Team 3-(-11). Clarion: Bubba Rue 8-51, Jon Kemmer 8-10, Erik Hartle 3-(-3), Kevin Grejda 3-22, Joel Matticks 2-2, Kris Burkhart 3-99, Dan Walters 2-(-8), Team 2-(-5).

Passing – Moniteau: Armagost 13-for-32, 220 yards, 1 touchdown. Clarion: Walters 4-for-12, 31 yards, 1 touchdown.

Receiving – Moniteau: James Shope 2-47, Austin Hogsett 2-42, Clayton Casper 5-81, Zach Sloan 1-7, Mitch Czech 1-11, Tony Campbell 2-32. Jarrod Carpin 2-22, Erik Hartle 1-0, Corbin Ragley 1-9.