BIG PLAYS LIFT CLARION-LIMESTONE OVER KARNS CITY

STRATTANVILLE – Hayden Johnston’s 8-yard touchdown pass to Brendon Huwar with 7:05 left in the game lifted Clarion-Limestone (2-0 overall, 2-0 KSAC) to a 12-7 come-from-behind win over Karns City (1-1, 1-1) Friday night in a key early season Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference game at C-L.

"It’s a huge win," C-L first-year head coach Todd Smith said. "It was huge. That was a good football team we beat tonight. I have all the respect in the world for Ed Conto (Karns City’s coach) and his team. But now if we go and lose down the road it doesn’t mean anything. But I think right now it gives us confidence that we lost some key players (from last year’s team), we are still at the top. We just need to keep working hard every day and get better."

Huwar’s touchdown catch came at the end of a 93-yard drive for the Lions that actually featured two 50-yard passes from Johnston without the Lions scoring a touchdown.

The first one came with C-L facing a third-and-7 from its own 10-yard line. That is when Johnston hit Scott Davis with a 50-yard pass to the Karns City 40-yard line.

"The play to Scotty Davis opened it up," Smith said. "We were back up down there. That was a big play.

"We didn’t want to throw when we were backed up down there, but it got down to the point where we had to. We weren’t getting anything going running the ball up the middle."

But on the next play, Johnston was sacked for a 13-yard loss back to the C-L 47. Two plays latter, the Lions were looking at a third-and-23 from the 47. This time Johnston hit Tuffy Brooks with a wide receiver middle screen that ended up going for 50 yards to the Karns City 3-yard line.

"Give a lot of credit to the coaches," Johnston said. "They were great play calls. We pulled it through when we needed to. We pulled it through when we needed to."

After a failed run attempt, C-L was called for a delay game putting them back at the Karns City 8-yard line. But Johnston hit Huwar with a swing pass for a touchdown.

"That play was wide open," Smith said.

Before the 93-yard drive, the Lions offense sputtered picking up just 111 yards and four first downs in the first three quarters while Karns City grabbed a 7-6 lead.

"We had a tough time running the ball in there," Smith said. "They were playing excellent run defense. We had some people open (on passing plays), and we thought we should have scored a couple of more touchdowns in the first half. But we dropped a couple of passes."

But in the fourth quarter, C-L was able to come up with a few big plays to steal the win.

"What the game came down to was that we had five defensive breakdowns," Karns City head coach Ed Conto said. "They were things we worked on, but we just got overly aggressive and let the five plays happen. Two (plays) in the first half and three in the second half. We worked on those long passes, and we didn’t read our keys and let those plays happen. You have 50 plays a game, and you can be great on 45 of them. But if you blow five of them they get two scores."

Despite the Lions taking the five-point lead, the Gremlins weren’t quite finished driving to the C-L 39-yard line. Karns City then appeared to hit a pass play inside the Lions 30, but the play was called back on a holding penalty that moved the ball all the way back to the Karns City 46-yard line. The Lions defense then held on fourth-and-10 from the C-L 39 when Brad Beggs and Johnston stopped quarterback Mike Croyle five yards short of the sticks with 3:40 left to play.

At that point the Lions line, which had been beaten by Karns City most of the night, took over. C-L was able to pick up two key first downs allowing the Lions to run out the clock.

"When we got the ball back, I just looked at our ‘O’ line and said ‘Right now! Right now! This is when we take it and put it down their throats, and this is when we win the game,’" Smith said. "They stepped up the challenge."

In a first half that was owned by the two teams’ defenses, C-L got the lone touchdown of the half thanks in large part to special teams.

The Lions partially blocked a Croyle punt early in the second quarter resulting in a 16-yard boot that stopped at the Karns City 29-yard line. Erik White and Ron Frances both appeared to get a piece of the ball, C-L’s second blocked punt in as many weeks.

"We stress special teams," Smith said. "Jason Edmonds is our special teams coach, and we spend a lot of time on things. We tell them fourth down is the most important down in football. We work on it every day. It ends up that games can be changed on those type of plays."

Starting with the short field, Johnston hit Brooks for a 25-yard gain to the 2-yard line. Johnston then kept the ball himself on an option to put the Lions ahead 6-0 with 9:34 left in the first half. Johnston was sacked on the two-point conversion attempt.

The score remained 6-0 until the third quarter when Karns City was able to start winning the field position battle.

C-L’s problems started when Davis slipped on the opening kickoff return leaving the Lions back at their own 17-yard line. A penalty forced them back to the 13, and C-L had to punt.

Karns City began its first possession of the second half at the Lions 42-yard line and immediately moved down the field.

Croyle hit David Black with an 8-yard gain on first down, and then Sweeney rumbled for 11 yards on the next two plays.

But the Lions defense stiffened forcing Karns City into a fourth-and-5 play from the C-L 22-yard line. But Croyle ran the option to perfection pitching the ball to Mike Stitt who went 21 yards to the Lions 1-yard line.

"On the option that got them down there, we had it defended," Smith said. "We missed tackles. I didn’t think they did anything different in the second half. We were out of position on a couple of plays. My hat is off to them. They came out with the enthusiasm they needed to get back into the football game."

Two plays later, Stitt dove into the end zone tying the game at six with 5:34 left in the third quarter. Sweeney then tacked on the extra point giving Karns City the 7-6 lead.

"We made some adjustments at halftime," Conto said. "We were fine after that.

"The kids did a tremendous job fighting and coming back. Especially after the first half started slow. I give my kids all the credit in the world. I think they will grow from this, and I think they will be a pretty good football team."

Neither team was able to do anything on its next two drives, but C-L found itself backed up on its own 7-yard line and facing fourth down with just under two minutes left in the third quarter. That is when Johnston boomed a 50-yard punt that kept Karns City from getting great field position and possibly putting the game away.

"That was a nice kick," Smith said. "But I didn’t think it really played that much into things time. It could have ended up being a difference, but I really didn’t feel at the time it was."

After the Lions forced Karns City to punt, C-L took over once again at its own seven. That was when Johnston used the two 50-yard passes to get the Lions down the field for the winning score.

Johnston finished the game 7-for-16 passing for 159 yards and one touchdown. He also threw an interception. Brooks caught three passes for 93 yards, while Huwar had two catches for 16 yards and a score. Huwar also ran 16 times for 58 yards. As a team, the Lions ran 32 times for 69 yards.

Jake Sweeney led a balanced Karns City running attack with seven carries for 32 yards. Mike Stimac added seven totes for 27 yards, and Josh Fiscus carried seven times for 23 yards. As a team the Gremlins carried the ball 34 times for 81 yards.

Karns City quarterback Mike Croyle was 6-for-16 passing for 72 yards with David Black catching three passes for 37 yards.

Both teams’ punters got off long punts in the game as well. Croyle hit a 40-yarder for the Gremlins, while Johnston had the 50-yard boot for C-L.

C-L is back in action next week when it travels to St. Marys, a 31-28 loser at Clarion this week. Karns City, meanwhile, hosts Keystone, a 46-0 winner over Union.

CLARION-LIMESTONE 12, KARNS CITY 7

Score by Quarter

Karns City 0 0 7 0 – 7

C-L 0 6 0 6 – 12

Scoring Summary
Second Quarter

CL – Hayden Johnston 2 run (Run failed), 9:34

Third Quarter

K – Mike Stitt 1 run (Jake Sweeney), 5:34

Fourth Quarter

CL – Brendon Huwar 8 pass from Johnston (Run failed) 7:05
K C

First Downs 7 8
Rushes-Yards 34-81 32-69
Passing Yards 72 159
Passes: Comp-Att-Int 6-16-0 7-16-1
Total Yardage 153 228
Punts-Average 9-30.1 7-29.1
Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0
Penalties-Yards 4-32 4-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing – Karns City: Mike Stimac 5-8, Mike Croyle 7-(-7), Josh Fiscus 7-23, Mike Stitt 7-27, Jake Sweeney 7-32, Chris Pickett 1-(-2). Clarion-Limestone: Brendon Huwar 16-58, Hayden Johnston 9-6, Brad Beggs 1-(-1), Trevor Williams 1-2, Scott Davis 3-4, Team 2-(-2).

Passing – Karns City: Mike Croyle 6-for-16, 72 yards. Clarion-Limestone: Hayden Johnston 7-for-16, 159 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT.

Receiving – Karns City: Kyle Texter 1-7, David Black 3-37, Josh Fiscus 1-18, Mike Stitt 1-10. Clarion-Limestone: Tuffy Brooks 3-93, Brendon Huwar 3-16, Scott Davis 1-50.