NEW WILMINGTON – Anthony Stimac’s 11-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 with 2:11 left in the game lifted the Karns City Gremlins to a huge 22-21 non-conference win over state-ranked Wilmington Friday night.
Karns City (9-1) wound up knocking off a Greyhounds squad (9-1) that came into the game ranked sixth in Class AA by the Pennsylvania Football News and 12th in Pennsylvania (all classes) by MaxPreps.com. Wilmington had won eight of its nine games by the Mercy Rule.
But the Gremlins hung in with the District 10 perennial power despite falling behind 21-6 midway through the third quarter and committing four turnovers in the game.
Stimac completed 8 of 12 passes for 121 yards and threw a 27-yard TD pass to Cody Williams to start the game’s scoring, putting the Greyhounds behind for the first time all season.
The yardage battle was virtually even as Wilmington outgained Karns City, 237-229. Wilmington, averaging about nine yards per carry coming into the game, was held to 80 yards and 35 carries.
Karns City begins the Class AA playoffs next week as the second seed against
third-seeded Kane Friday at Clarion University.
DUBOIS – Hollidaysburg broke a 13-13 halftime tie with two second-half touchdowns in its 26-13 win over the DuBois Beavers Friday night at E.J. Mansell Stadium.
The Beavers (5-5) not only lost out on a chance to win the Mountain Athletic-Seven Mountains League title, but they also missed out on a home playoff game against McDowell. Now the third seed going into next week’s Region 6-8-9-10 playoffs, the Beavers will now visit McDowell in Erie.
Hollidaysburg (9-1) got a 1-yard run from Luke Rhodes in the third quarter and a 3-yard run from Justin Gildea in the fourth quarter.
DuBois scored twice in the first half on a 10-yard run by quarterback Kyle Bish and a 3-yard run by Garrett Malmgren in the second quarter to take a 13-7 lead. Malmgren rushed for 59 yards on 20 carries, pushing him over the 1,000-yard milestone for the season.
Hollidaysburg quarterback Brandyn Ott had a hand in both of the Golden Tigers’ two first-half scores. He threw a 21-yard pass to Justin Gildea and scored on a 37-yard run with just two seconds left before halftime.
BROCKWAY – In a rare contest featuring two 300-yard passers, the Brockway Rovers and Keystone Panthers lit up the scoreboard in the Rovers’ 63-32 win in a non-conference game Friday night.
Rovers sophomore quarterback Derek Buganza finished his rookie season with a 348-yard passing performance, completing 18 of 28 passes and throwing five touchdown passes. He finished the year with 2,923 yards passing and 28 touchdown passes. It is the second most yards passing in a season in District 9 history.
Not to be outdone on the stats sheet, Keystone (3-7) got a 342-yard passing effort from Dan Reed. He completed 28 of 45 yards and also threw five TD passes, but was intercepted four times. Four of Reed’s TD passes went to Ben Black, who also hauled in 18 passes for 272 yards. The 18 catches is believed to be a District 9 record and were just four shy of the state record.
Brockway (5-5) led 49-12 by halftime, enacting the PIAA Mercy Rule’s running clock to start the second half. Buganza threw three TD passes in the first half — two covering 52 and 49 yards to Zack Freemer and a 16-yarder to Aaron Shaffer.
Buganza and Freemer also scored on 3-yard runs and Shaffer returned an interception 46 yards for a touchdown. Freemer caught four balls for 141 yards.
In the second half, Buganza threw a 42-yard TD pass to Mark Shannon and another scoring strike to Shaffer from 20 yards out.
HYDE – In the first of two meetings in as many weeks, the Clearfield Bisons avenged last year’s semifinal playoff loss to St. Marys with a 29-6 win over the visiting Flying Dutchmen.
Or maybe revenge will come more effectively for the Bisons (8-2) in the postseason. Because of Bradford’s loss to Corry, St. Marys (6-4) clinched the second and final spot in the championship game next week against the Bisons, who clinched the Mountain Athletic Conference-Nittany Division title with the win.
Bisons quarterback Jarrin Campman ran for three short touchdowns of 3, 4 and 3 yards in the first half. A safety and Isiah Morgan’s 3-yard TD run in the third quarter put the Bisons up 29-0 before St. Marys got on the board late in the fourth quarter on Greg Simchick’s 10-yard pass to Michael Feldbauer.
Clearfield outgained St. Marys, 227-164. Campman ran for 68 yards on 20 carries while Morgan rushed for 72 yards on 22 attempts. Campman only attempted eight passes, completing five for 22 yards.
Mitchell Straub rushed for 40 yards on 12 carries to lead St. Marys.
CORRY – Corry scored two touchdowns in the last 3:10 to rally for a 28-27 win over visiting Bradford costing the two-time defending District 9 Class AAA champions a spot in the postseason.
St. Marys lost to Clearfield, allowing the Owls a chance at landing in next week’s championship game against the Bisons. But Corry quarterback Scott Frisina threw two touchdown passes in the game’s final minutes. He hit Jordan Mosher on an 89-yard TD pass with 3:10 remaining and then tossed a 16-yard scoring strike to Cory Owens with 58 seconds left in the game.
But that only put Corry within 27-26. The Beavers went for two points and Frisini struck again, completing the pass to Mosher to put them up for good.
Bradford (5-5) got a 75-yard touchdown run from Pat Pascarella in the second quarter and Mike Pascarella added a 7-yard run shortly after a Corry fumble deep in the Beavers’ territory.
Corry, however, returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown to tie the score at 14-14 when Craig Marti raced 78 yards to the end zone.
Answering right back, Bradford returned Corry’s kickoff for a touchdown. Pat Pascarella ran it back 82 yards to put the Owls up 21-14 just before halftime.
Bradford went 83 yards, chewing up nearly 9 ½ minutes of clock in scoring on its first drive of the second half to go up 27-14. Mark Havers scored on a 2-yard run.
The final two scores went to Corry, which finished 6-4 and won’t be going to the playoffs either.
