REDBANK VALLEY 7, MONITEAU 6

Oct. 20, 2006

WEST SUNBURY – Jerrett Magagnotti’s touchdown catch and Justin Dunnivan’s extra point with 59 seconds left lifted Redbank Valley to a 7-6 win over Moniteau on a muddy, sloppy field at Moniteau Friday night.

Jake Smith found Magagnotti wide open in the middle of the end zone for the touchdown pass, and Cody Buchleitner made sure that score stood up when he intercepted a Tyler Armagost pass seconds later to seal the win.

"It was a play-action (pass) out of our old set that we use to run," Redbank Valley head coach Ed Wasilowski said about the scoring toss. "It’s been a good play for us. We knew they were going to be coming hard. We got exactly what we thought we’d get and the kids executed it to perfection."

The late touchdown saved Redbank Valley (6-2 overall, 5-1 KSAC) from having to ask itself what went wrong in the game. The Bulldogs had two touchdowns called back by penalties and had the football in Moniteau (6-2, 4-2) territory five times but came away with just seven points.

"It’s tough," Wasilowski said. "Twenty some years in the game, you get a lot of calls for you and a lot of calls against you. I have no problem with the referring. That’s just the game."

For Moniteau, it is a second consecutive heart-breaking loss. The Warriors led Karns City in the fourth quarter last week before dropping a 20-18 decision.

"It’s pretty frustrating," Moniteau head coach Steve Wilson said. "We’ve prided ourselves on being a second-half team, and we’ve been very good the last couple of years on it. In the past two weeks, we’ve come out in the second half and lost the games. It’s very frustrating from that point.

"Redbank Valley’s a good team. You have to put up more than six points on them to expect to win. They did a great job in the second half, and we didn’t."

Moniteau led 6-0 thanks to a 4-yard touchdown run by Kyle Mauthe with 2:24 left in the first half. The Warriors, playing without kicker and running back Adam Cousins (knee) tried for two points, but Ricky Best was ruled short of the end zone – although it appeared he was in for the 2-point conversion.

That 6-0 advantage looked like it might stand up when Moniteau held Redbank Valley to no gain on a fourth-and-2 play from the Warrior 3-yard line with 7:46 left to play.

Moniteau then proceeded to run over four minutes off the clock while moving the ball out to its own 40-yard line before being forced to punt.

Mitch Czech got off a 25-yard boot to the Redbank 35, but the Bulldogs Mike Booher returned it 16 yards to the Moniteau 49.

From there, Redbank Valley needed five plays to move to the Moniteau 15 where it faced a fourth-and-1.

After two consecutive Bulldog time-outs, Alex Bladel, who ran 25 times for a game-high 121 yards, picked up the first down with a 3-yard sweep to the right.

"It was just a pitch," Wasilowski said. "They were playing everything tight. We just figured we could run short-side pitches without motion out of our base set. If we got the blocks, we would get four or five yards. We just happened to get that first down."

On the first play after the first down, Smith found Magagnotti open and hit him with the scoring pass.

"I was just worried about getting the safety to suck up," Smith said. "I just threw it in the hole, and Jarrett caught it. I was just thinking get him the ball."

Wasilowski thought about going for two points but after a time-out decided to send Dunnivan out into the muddy field to try the extra point. The senior was able to somehow find good footing and booted the ball through the uprights for the lead.

"Dunnivan has kicked all year," Wasilowski said. "I told him to make sure he got a good spot. Boy he came through."

The game, though, wasn’t over by a long shot after Moniteau got the ball at its own 45 following a short kickoff.

But Buchleitner stepped in front of an Armagost pass at midfield and picked it off. Disaster almost struck for Redbank Valley on the return when Buchleitner fumbled the ball the Moniteau 34, but he was able to get it back allowing the Bulldogs to run out the clock.

"I was screaming at him to get down," Wasilowski said. "We know it, but (heck) if I was in that situation I would probably do the same thing. Then he did fumble, and I thought ‘oh my gosh here we go.’ But it worked out in the end."

Twice before Magagnotti’s touchdown it looked like Redbank had gotten into the end zone.

The first time came with 13 seconds left in the first half when Smith hit Dunnivan with an apparent 9-yard touchdown pass. But Dunnivan was called for offensive pass interference, and Redbank Valley was not able to score before the half.

Then early in the third quarter, Bladel broke off an apparent 53-yard scoring run. But the ball was called back because of an illegal block.

Later on the drive, Bladel fumbled the ball at the Moniteau 20 with the Warriors Donnie Keene recovering the loose football.

Moniteau had its own chances to score as well.

The Warriors weren’t able to capitalize on an early fumble on a punt return by Dunnivan that gave Moniteau the ball at the Redbank 15-yard line.

Moniteau was able to move the ball to the Bulldog 10, but a 4-yard loss on a keeper by Armagost and an incomplete pass thwarted the drive.

The Warriors, though, weren’t able to get the ball into Redbank Valley territory at any time during the second half and gained 121 yards for the game a week after getting over 400 against Karns City. In the second half, the Bulldogs limited Moniteau to 54 total yards of offense including 17 on the ground.

"I thought we controlled the second half," Wasilowski said. "I really did."

The game marked the end of a 4-game road trip for Redbank Valley, which returns home next week to host Clarion-Limestone. It was the final home game for Moniteau, which is on the road at Clarion next week and Wilmington in Week 10.

NOTES – With the 121 yards, Bladel, a sophomore, went over 1,000 yards for the season. He now has 1,068 yards on the year … One week after throwing for 332 yards, Armagost was limited to 48 yards passing, the lowest total of the sophomore’s young career … The field so messy that water was actually lying on top of it prior to the game. The mud was so thick by the end of the game that just walking on the field was difficult … Moniteau had the strangest penalty line the in game: one penalty for two yards. The only foul the Warriors were called on was an offside from the Moniteau 5-yard line that resulted in a half-the-distance mark off. Redbank was flagged six times for 55 yards.

REDBANK VALLEY 7, MONITEAU 6

Score by Quarters

Redbank Valley 0 0 0 7 – 7

Moniteau 0 6 0 0 – 6

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter

M – Kyle Mauthe 4 run (Ricky Best run failed), 2:24

Fourth Quarter

RV – Jerrett Magagnotti 12 pass from Jake Smith (Justin Dunnivan kick), :59

RV M

First Downs 13 8

Rushes-Yards 41-138 33-73

Passing Yards 100 48

Passing: Comp-Att-Int 5-12-0 4-9-1

Total Yardage 238 121

Fumbles-Lost 4-2 0-0

Penalties-Yards 6-55 1-2

RUSHING – Redbank Valley: Alex Bladel 25-121; Jake Smith 12-26; TEAM 4-minus 9. Moniteau: Tyler Armagost 14-25; Ricky Best 6-22; Kyle Mauthe 6-19; Clayton Drnek 5-7; Josh Loos 1-0; TEAM 1-0.

PASSING – Redbank Valley: Jake Smith 5-for-12, 100 yards, 1 touchdown. Moniteau: Tyler Armagost 4-for-9, 48 yards, 1 interception.

RECEIVING – Redbank Valley: Jerrett Magagnotti 4-58; Alex Bladel 1-42. Moniteau: Adam Pry 2-31; Clayton Drnek 1-11; Josh Loos 1-6.

INTERCEPTIONS – Redbank Valley: Cody Buchleitner 1

SACKS – Redbank Valley: Dan Jordan 2. Moniteau: Aaron Randall 1.