By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Aaron Markle ran for 156 yards and three touchdowns to lead two-time defending champion Karns City into its third straight District 9 Class AA championship game with a 40-0 win over Kane in the semifinals Saturday night at Clarion University’s Memorial Stadium.

 “I thought offensively we did a pretty good job tonight,” Karns City head coach Ed Conto said. “Defensively, we are not 100 percent where I want us to be for a KC defense.”

Behind Markle, Karns City (9-2) ran for 323 yards and six touchdowns while racking up 404 yards of total offense. Meanwhile, the Gremlins defense limited Kane (5-5) to 14 yards rushing and 230 total yards of offense. It was Karns City’s first shutout in District 9 playoff action since beating Brockway 46-0 in the 2001 District 9 Class AA title game.  

 “There are still things we can work on to get better,” Conto said. “I’m still not happy. You are always going to find something to look at. Tonight, we did a pretty good job on their inside run game. But they were hitting us with some pass stuff that we have to fix for next week.”

Kane had some opportunities to score, but a couple of turnovers and a couple of turnovers on downs in Karns City territory hurt the Wolves.

“We had multiple opportunities at different times, but we didn’t capitalize,” Kane head coach Jason Barner said. “We are young, with only five seniors, so we are going to make mistakes. That’s just part of the game.”

Two of Kane’s costly mistakes happened early in the game with the contest scoreless.

First, on the Wolves opening drive Alex Anderson, who was 14 of 27 passing for 216 yards and two interceptions, hit Zach Holt with a pass down to the Karns City 24-yard line. But Craig Slomers stripped the ball from Holt, and Ethan Williams recovered the fumble at the Karns City 22-yard line.

Two drives later, Kane took over at the Karns City 49-yard line after a short punt, and Anderson appeared to hit Arie Paup, who had eight catches for 109 yards, with a pass inside the 35-yard line. But a holding penalty brought back the first down, and Anderson was sacked by Jake Wagner on the next play for a 9-yard loss allowing Karns City to take over after a punt at the Kane 45-yard line.

Markle then scored his first touchdown of the game on a 45-yard run on the first play after the punt giving the Gremlins a 7-0 lead.

Another Kane mistake set up Karns City’s next touchdown.

Anderson was picked off by Jesse Garing around midfield.

That led to a 13-yard Markle touchdown run and a 14-0 Karns City lead.

Jake Wagner then made it 21-0 at halftime with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Markle got the second-half scoring going with a 65-yard scoring run in the third quarter before scoring runs of 8 yards by Ethan Beale and 2 yards by J.R. Yough finished off the scoring.

Yough’s touchdown came one play after Anderson was picked off at the Karns City 10-yard line by Brandon Collier, who returned the interception all the way back to the Kane 4-yard line.

Karns City will now face Brockway in the District 9 title game either Friday or Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

KARNS CITY 40, KANE 0

Score by Quarters

Kane 0 0 0 0 – 0

Karns City 7 14 7 12 – 40  

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

KC – Aaron Markle 45 run (Zach Kepple kick), 0:58.3

Second Quarter

KC – Markle 13 run (Kepple kick), 5:34

KC – Jake Wagner 1 run (Kepple kick), 4:42

Third Quarter

KC – Markle 65 run (Kepple kick), 5:32

Fourth Quarter

KC – Ethan Beale 8 run (Kick failed), 9:19

KC – J.R. Yough 2 run (PAT failed), 8:07

K         KC

First Downs            11        14

Rushes-Yards         29-14   36-323

Passing Yards         216      79

Passing: Comp-Att-Int       14-27-2            9-12-0

Total Yards            230      402

Fumbles-Lost         3-2       1-0

Penalties-Yards      4-35     8-57

Punts-Avg. 5-30.4  5-30.6

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Kane: Arie Paup 10-36, Evan Depto 5-7, Alex Anderson 6-negative 50, Logan Depto 3-6, Simon Gadley 2-negative 1, Robert Leonard 1-8, Ricky Harp 2-8. Karns City: Aaron Markle 11-156, Dylan Hipple 9-68, Ethan Beale 4-22, Jake Wagner 6-50, Jesse Garing 1-7, J.R. Yough 1-2, Cody Coyle 1-6, Tyler Slagle 1-2, Ethan Williams 2-10.

Passing – Kane: Alex Anderson 14-for-27, 216 yards, 2 interceptions. Karns City: Dylan Hipple 9-for-12, 79 yards.

Receiving – Kane: Arie Paul 8-109, Logan Depto 2-65, Evan Depto 2-3, Bruce Walters 1-10, Zach Holt 1-29. Karns City: Brandon Collier 3-44, Joe Fallecker 4-26, Brad Francis 1-3, Ethan Beale 1-6.

Interceptions – Karns City: Jesse Garing, Brandon Collier.