CLARION-LIMESTONE TAKES KSAC TITLE OUTRIGHT; SETS KSAC RECORD FOR LONGEST REGULAR-SEASON WIN STREAK

Lions also wrap up top seed in D9 Class A Playoffs

WEST SUNBURY – Clarion-Limestone won its second straight outright KSAC championship while also setting the conference all-time regular-season winning streak with a 26-12 win over Moniteau Friday night at Moniteau.

The Lions (9-0 overall, 8-0 KSAC) have now won 26 straight regular-season games dating back to an Aug. 31, 2001, loss to Karns City. That is one game better than Redbank Valley’s streak of 25 games from 1994-95. The win also wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the District 9 Class A playoffs for the Lions, who will meet Ridgway at home next week. The Lions beat Ridgway 21-19 in the first round last year.

"I just told the group that undefeated (regular) seasons just don’t come easy," C-L first-year head coach Todd Smith said. "It is something very special, and it is something that you really have to cherish.

"Also, what we accomplished with 26 wins no body else (in the KSAC) has ever done. These guys need to feel a lot of pride with that. They have accomplished something pretty special."

The 26-game win streak not only belongs to this group of players and coaches, but also to long-time head coach Clyde Conti who over saw the first eight wins in 2001 and last year’s head coach John Kundick, who guided the Lions to a 9-0 regular-season. Smith was offensive coordinator both years. The streak also belongs to players such as J.J. Ferguson, Dan Alderton, Ryan Smith, Jordan Johnston, Ben Brooks, Harley Doane and a host of others that helped the Lions reach 26 straight.

No. 26 was probably one of the hardest of the wins, as Moniteau (6-3, 6-2) came out ready to play, and well they should have. With a win the Warriors would have claimed a share of the first conference title in school history. A program that has been down so long, has already enjoyed a lot of success this season under second-year head coach Steve Wilson who has guided the Warriors to their first winning season since 1986.

"We can remorse a little bit about this game," Wilson said. "But we get to go right back out next week (in the playoffs) and go at it again."

C-L is a good team," Wilson said. "They played well.

The Warriors actually outgained the Lions 244 yards to 215, had 10 first downs to nine for C-L and controlled the football for 29:45 to C-L’s 18:15.

"Our game plan was to stop the run and make them throw the ball," Wilson said. "We were able to do that to an extent, but C-L is a good team. They played well."

The Lions were also hurt by penalties in the game committing six for 79 yards while Moniteau was flagged twice for 20 yards.

"Some penalties took us out of some drives early," Smith said. "We can’t afford penalties in our offense. If that hadn’t happened, I thought we would have gotten in a couple more times."

While most of the statistics favored Moniteau, the big one that didn’t was turnovers. The Warriors turned the ball over five times – three fumbles and two interceptions – while C-L had just one interceptions with 30 seconds left in the game.

"If you are going to win games against good teams, you have to take advantage of turnovers and you have to take care of the ball yourself," Smith said. "I thought we did that tonight. I thought we played a pretty smart game."

Wilson believed the Warriors hurt themselves with the turnovers.

"The turnovers were very uncharacteristic," Wilson said. "We were late on a snap once and fumbled, and the first interception happened because our quarterback took a cheap shot on the second play of the game and later on couldn’t even get it out of bounds."

Clay Kohlmeyer, the Moniteau quarterback, getting injured on the game’s second play on what Wilson considered an illegal play, hurt the Warriors as he wasn’t able to throw the ball deep down the field.

"He played hurt all night," Wilson said. "We checked him over at halftime, and he said he couldn’t throw from a 5-yard drop. But that is football. I just thought their kid picked him up and drove him into the ground 15 yards behind the play. I just don’t like to see that. I thought the officials did a good job other than that. The referee later apologized for that."

Wilson’s view on the officiating probably wasn’t agreed upon on the C-L sideline, as the Lion coaches were visibly upset with calls most of the night and especially in the first half. But Smith didn’t want to talk about it after the game.

"I don’t really want to comment on that," Smith said.

The game was scoreless into the early moments of the second quarter when the Lions struck first on a 6-yard touchdown by Scott Davis seven seconds into quarter No. 2. Two nice Brendan Huwar runs including scampers of 48 and 14 yards set up the touchdown.

The score remained 7-0 C-L until late in the first half when the two teams combined to score 18 points in the final 1:03 of the first half.

C-L scored first on a 5-yard run by Huwar with 1:03 left to make it 13-0. The touchdown was setup by a highlight reel-type play by Lion quarterback Hayden Johnston.

On second-and-10 from the Warriors 32, it looked like Johnston was going to be sacked. But somehow he managed to break free from the tacklers, roll to his right and find Tuffy Brooks wide open down the field for a 27-yard gain to the Moniteau 5-yard line.

"That was a great play," Smith said. "It was suppose to be a screen, and when we run our screens we still run our patters down field in case it isn’t there. Hayden was able to avoid the sack, and the screen wasn’t there. But he found Tuffy down the sideline."

On the ensuing kickoff, the Lions tried to squib kick the ball. But Nate Totes kick barely went 10 yards setting Moniteau up with great field position at the Moniteau 44-yard line.

But two plays later, Brooks stepped in front of a Clay Kohlmeyer pass and intercepted it at the C-L 46-yard line. Fifty-four yards later the Lions had a 19-0 lead with 36 seconds left in the first half.

But another shot Lion kickoff set Moniteau up at its own 46-yard line, and two plays later Ryan Rumbaugh rumbled 49 yards for a touchdown with just six seconds left in the first half making it a 19-6 C-L halftime lead.

"We were in our prevent defense, and they ran like a toss sweep," Smith said. "He cut it back and our guys got pinned. But it should have never happened."

For most of the third quarter the two teams seemed to trade field position.

But a big play by Johnston, this time a 46-yard punt return, set the Lions up with great field position at the Moniteau 25-yard.

A 20-yard pass from Johnston to Davis then put C-L at the five, and Johnston did the rest on a 5-yard run giving the Lions a 26-6 lead with 3:26 left in the third quarter.

Moniteau got the game’s final score on the night’s nicest drive. The Warriors went 87 yards on 15 plays scoring on a 4-yard run by Rumbaugh with 6:13 left to play. But the drive also consumed 5:47 seconds, which was just fine by Smith.

"What we were saying is yeah they are chopping away at it a little bit, but they are running time off the clock," Smith said. "We thought we could get the ball back and eat up the clock and the game is over."

Wilson said the long drive helped the Warriors reestablish their offense.

"We were just trying to get back to what we do best," Wilson said.

Following a Lion recovery of an on-side kick, C-L went on a 12-play drive of its own that ate up 5:33 basically putting the game away.

Huwar led C-L with 93 yards on 14 carries, while Johnston had 60 on 13. But for the most, Moniteau shutdown the Lions offense, which entered the game averaging a District 9-leading 366.1, yards per game. Moniteau held C-L to just 215 for the game including only 89 in the second half.

But the Lion defense was equally as good holding Moniteau to 244 yards on the night including limiting the district’s second leading rusher Steve Saul to 24 carries for 51 yards. Twenty-six of Saul’s yards came on his first two carries, meaning he had 25 yards on his final 22 carries. Rumbaugh ended up leading the Warriors with six carries for 73 yards, while Kohlmeyer was 8-for-13 passing for 90 yards with 55 of those yards coming on two late passes to Saul.

Both teams return to action next week. C-L is the top seed in the Class A playoffs and will host Ridgway. Moniteau is the No. 4 seed in Class AA and will travel to either Brockway or Brookville. It will be Brockway if the Rovers won last night’s AML Title game or Brookville if the Rover’s lost the AML Title game.

CLARION-LIMESTONE 26, MONITEAU 12

CL – 0 19 7 0 – 26

M – 0 6 0 6 – 12

Score by Quarter

Second Quarter

CL – Scott Davis 6 run (Nate Tote kick), 11:53

CL – Brendan Huwar 5 run (Kick failed), 1:03

CL – Tuffy Brooks 54 interception return (Pass failed), :36

M – Ryan Rumbaugh 49 run (Run failed), :06

Third Quarter

CL – Hayden Johnston 5 run (Tote kick), 3:26

Fourth Quarter

M – Rumbaugh 4 run (Run failed), 6:13

Team Statistics

CL M

First Downs 9 10

Rushes-Yards 34-163 45-154

Passing Yards 52 90

Passes:Comp-Att-Int 3-9-1 8-14-2

Total Yards 215 244

Punts-Average 6-36.7 4-29.8

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 3-3

Penalties-Yards 6-79 2-20

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Clarion-Limestone: Brendan Huwar 14-93, Hayden Johnston 13-60, Scott Davis, 3-10, Brad Beggs 1-0, Tuffy Brooks 3-(-3). Moniteau: Ryan Rumbaugh 6-73, Steve Saul 24-51, Matt Schandelmeier 12-39, Matt Pry 1-2, Clay Kohlmeyer 2-(-11).

Passing – Clarion-Limestone: Hayden Johnston 3-for-9, 52 yards, 1 interception. Moniteau: Clay Kohlmeyer 8-for-13, 90 yards, 1 interception. Shawn Manuel 0-for-1, 1 interception.

Receiving – Clarion-Limestone: Tuffy Brooks 2-32, Scott Davis 1-20. Moniteau: Steve Saul 2-55, Greg Kepple 2-20, Ryan Rumbaugh 3-10, Eric Hilliard 1-5.

Punting – Clarion-Limestone: Hayden Johnston 6-220. Moniteau: Shawn Manuel 4-119.

Sacks – Clarion-Limestone: Kenny Rossey (½), Dan Jeannerat (½). Moniteau: Matt Schandelmeier.

Fumble Recoveries – Clarion-Limestone: Dave Eggleton, Dan Jeannerat, Brendan Huwar .

Interceptions – Clarion-Limestone: Tuffy Brooks (2). Moniteau: Steve Saul.