ANTHONY STIMAC LEADS KARNS CITY TO FIRST D9 TITLE SINCE 2001 WITH PASTING OF MONITEAU

KARNS CITY 50, MONITEAU 14

Nov. 24, 2007 at Clarion University (D9 Class AA Championship Game)

By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Anthony Stimac accounted for 206 yards and two touchdowns to lead Karns City to its first District 9 Class AA title since 2001 with a 50-14 win over Moniteau Saturday at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

“Our theme all year was to stay focused and not let down,” Karns City head coach Ed Conto said. “They did that.”

Stimac, who threw both of his touchdowns to Matt McConnell in the second half, was 10-for-14 passing for 206 yards while also rushing for 10 yards.

“He played an all-around great game,” Conto said. “He threw the ball well. He ran the offense well. He played good in the secondary. I don’t have any negatives.”

The game was marred by three Moniteau ejections in the second half with two coming following an on-side kick attempt by the Warriors (6-6) with 4:30 left in the third quarter when a scrum ensued and the other coming on the ensuing Karns City drive when a Moniteau player was flagged for a personal foul. The ejected Moniteau players were wide receiver John McFadden and linemen Zane Slater and Justin Sanderson. All three are underclassmen and will be suspended for Moniteau’s first game next season.

“I disappointed in all of our ejections,” Moniteau head coach Jeff Campbell said. “They need to keep their composure. McFadden didn’t really do something to warrant being ejected. It should have been another kid. They got the number wrong.”

While Campbell was disappointed in his players, he wasn’t surprised that the game got out of hand.

“I wasn’t surprised things got ugly,” Campbell said. “The officials let it get that way. There were a lot of things going on that if they would (have thrown the flag) earlier, things would have never gotten like they did. You saw it coming.”

Conto was also disappointed things turned ugly as well.

“Their coaches and our coaches are good friends, and it disappoints both of us,” Conto said.

Anthony Stimac had plenty of help from the Gremlins running-back by committee. Karns City amassed 231 yards rushing on 40 carries (5.78 per carry) on its way to 450 yards in the game.

“They controlled the line of scrimmage,” Campbell said. “It’s pretty hard to do anything when the other team is controlling the line of scrimmage. Hats off to them, they are a good football team. We didn’t get beat by a second-rate team. There is a reason they are undefeated. They have mowed everybody down this year.” 

While Karns City’s offense was moving the ball, the Gremlins defense was keeping Moniteau’s high-flying offense in check limiting the Warriors to 124 total yards of offense including 21 rushing. Moniteau had 83 of its yards on its opening drive that resulted in a Tyler Armagost 34-yard touchdown run giving it an early 8-0 lead. But the Warriors mustered 41 yards the rest of the game including 34 on its only other scoring drive.

“We came out a little flat and they did a couple of different things,” Conto said. “But we stayed patient, and once we put the smack down, it started to work for us.”

Karns City wasted little time answering Moniteau’s opening scoring drive scoring twice in just under three minutes to take a 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Josh Stimac, who rushed for 44 yards, scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 16-yard run that cut the Moniteau lead to 8-7 with 4:12 left in the quarter. Josh Stimac then put the Gremlins ahead when he hit Mike McConnell with a 13-yard scoring pass on a halfback option pass 2:56 later.

The Gremlins then opened the game up with two scores in the final 5:50 of the first half to take a 28-8 halftime lead.

First, Brett Green scored on a 7-yard run, and then Josh Stimac scored from three yards out.

Karns City then put the game away with 22 third-quarter points.

Anthony Stimac threw his first touchdown pass of the game on a 35-yard strike to Matt McConnell on the Gremlins first play of the second half making it 35-8.

“We didn’t want to let them back in the game,” Conto said. “Momentum is a thing in high school football that there is no cure for. If you loose momentum, you are in trouble.”

Then, after Moniteau scored on a 23-yard pass from Armagost to Dakota Campbell, Anthony Stimac found Matt McConnell with an 8-yard scoring toss and Stephon Conto found pay dirt with a 36-yard run with eight seconds left in the third quarter.

Conto’s touchdown run coupled with Anthony Stimac’s 2-point conversion pass to Josh Stimac after a high snap on the extra point attempt put the Mercy Rule into action. 

NOTES – The 36-point margin of victory is the second most all-time in a District 9 title game. Karns City holds the record with a 46-0 win over Brockway in 2001, which was the last time the Gremlins won a D9 title … The 50 points scored by the Gremlins are the most ever in a District 9 championship game regardless of classification … Karns City now has six District 9 Class AA titles, the most by any team in Class AA breaking a tie with Brookville, who has five … Moniteau is 0-2 in D9 championship games.

KARNS CITY 50, MONITEAU 14

Score by Quarters

Moniteau 8 0 6 0 – 14 

Karns City 14 14 22 0 – 50

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

M – Tyler Armagost 34 run (Armagost pass to John McFadden), 6:04

K – Josh Stimac 16 run (Matt McConnell kick), 4:12

K – Mike McConnell 13 pass from Josh Stimac (Run failed), 1:16

Second Quarter

K – Brett Green 7 run (Anthony Stimac run), 5:20

K – Josh Stimac 3 run (Matt McConnell kick), 1:55

Third Quarter

K – Matt McConnell 35 pass from Anthony Stimac (Matt McConnell kick), 9:35

M – Dakota Campbell 23 pass from Tyler Armagost (Run failed), 4:30

K – Matt McConnell 8 pass from Anthony Stimac (Matt McConnell kick), 3:34

K – Stephon Conto 36 run (Anthony Stimac pass to Josh Stimac), 0:08

TEAM STATISTICS

            M         K

First Downs      8 22

Rushes-Yards   26-21   40-231

Passing Yards   103      219

Passing: Comp-Att-Int  10-24-0           11-16-1

Total Yardage  124      450

Fumbles-Lost   1-0       3-1

Penalties-Yards            5-32     7-60

Punts-Avg.       8-29.0  1-40.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Moniteau: Dakota Campbell 2-13, James Shope 8-14, Joe Manuel 1-5, Tyler Armagost 15-negative 11. Karns City: Markus LaVan 6-47, Anthony Stimac 7-10, Brett Green 6-31, Josh Stimac 5-44, Ben Pyle 4-35, Stephon Conto 2-32, Aaron Markle 4-12, Craig Slomers 3-19, J.R. Yough 2-9, Chris Price 1-negative 8.  

Passing – Moniteau: Tyler Armagost 10-for-24, 103 yards, 1 touchdown. Karns City: Anthony Stimac 10-for-14, 206 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception. Josh Stimac 1-for-1, 13 yards, 1 touchdown. Team 0-for-1.

Interceptions - Moniteau: Josh Loos