By Chris Rossetti

CLARION – Kepple to Mohney will go down in Karns City football lure after the duo hooked up for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left that gave the Gremlins the District 9 Class AA title with a 33-27 win over Kane Friday night.

Facing second-and-goal at the Kane 9-yard line, junior quarterback Tyler Kepple rolled out and hit fellow junior Dakota Mohney with the scoring pass that set off a celebration so wild on the Karns City sideline that head coach Ed Conto didn’t see the play.

“I didn’t see much of it,” Conto, who won his fifth title in 13 years at the Butler County school, said. “It must have been a hell of a play because everyone was jumping up and down in front of me. I wish I could have seen more. One of the PIAA officials said it was a hell of a play.”

According to Kepple, the play was designed so that if he didn’t have an open receiver he could throw the ball away setting up a potential game-winning field-goal try by Zach Moore.

“We wanted to roll out and see what we could get outside the pocket,” Kepple said. “We ran some combination routes to see if someone was open. If nothing was there, I was going to throw it incomplete and try to kick the field goal. When I rolled out, I saw Dakota Mohney coming back to the goal line. I fired it in, and he made a great catch on it.”

The touchdown ended an epic 15-play, 65-yard drive for Karns City (9-3) that came immediately following the go-ahead touchdown by Kane’s Sean Jordan that put the Wolves ahead 27-26 with 3:29 to play.

“I told (the guys) this is what we have been dreaming about since we were little kids, the game-winning drive of a championship football game. We just have to live it” Kepple said.

And live it Karns City did. The Gremlins got a pair of fourth-down conversion runs on the drive from Adam Whited as well as three key Kepple passes.

“We had to do something,” Conto said. “We were on our last gasp. There wasn’t a lot of time. We just had to go.”

Karns City’s game-winning drive took away what had the chance to be a story-book ending for Kane after Jordan’s 1-yard plunge gave the Wolves the lead.

Kane (7-4), which led 14-0 in the first quarter and 20-12 at halftime, saw itself go behind for the first time, 26-20, with 6:06 left on a 42-yard Moore touchdown run.

But playing without 1,000-yard runner Jonah Smith, who injured an ankle early in the second half, the Wolves wasted little time answering the Gremlin score going 73 yards in five plays.

The big plays of the drive were a 55-yard Jordan to Jeff Kocjancic pass to the Karns City 20 and a 15-yard pass from Jordan to Sean Rolick to the 5-yard line.

“Our guys have been part of these kinds of games all year,” first-year Kane head coach Todd Silfies said. “They always believe they can come back. They are a talented bunch of kids who believe in themselves. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop them on the final drive.”

Kane had control early in the game thanks to the running of Smith, who had 84 of his team-high 99 yards rushing in the first quarter.

The Wolves scored on a pair of 1-yard touchdowns, as Jamie Lingenfelter plowed in from a yard out and Jordan hit Rolick with a 1-yard pass.

But Karns City scored the next two touchdowns – a 3-yard Moore run and a 5-yard Tristan Rhoades carry – to close within two, 14-12, with 1:29 left in the second quarter.

The Wolves answered with a quick 4-play, 70-yard drive aided by a 15-yard Gremlin penalty to go up 20-12 with 42 seconds to go before halftime on a 17-yard Jordan to Rolick hookup.

Karns City tried a 45-yard field goal from Moore as time expired in the half, but it was short by about five yards.

The Gremlins, though, got back within two midway through the third quarter on a 50-yard Rhoades run.

Karns City then appeared to take the lead late in the third only to have a 37-yard Kepple touchdown run called back by a late flag. That really hurt a couple of plays later when Kocjancic intercepted Kepple at the 3-yard line ending the threat.

The Gremlins then had the ball inside the Kane 10-yard line early in the fourth quarter only to see the drive ended at the 5-yard line on a Moore fumble.

“It would have been easy for us to hang our heads,” Conto said.

Big games abounded for both teams, as the game featured 926 yards of total offense including 509 by Karns City and 417 by Kane.

Jordan was 21 of 27 for 290 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. It was the fourth-most passing yards in a District 9 title game since records started being kept in 2000 and the third most in a Class AA games.

Rolick was on the receiving end of 11 of those completions for 159 yards, the second-most in a D9 title game since 2000 and the most in Class AA, while Kocjancic had eight grabs for 126 yards, tied for the eighth-most receiving yards in a D9 title game and the third most in Class AA since 2000. Rolick and Kocjancic also became just the second pair of teammates in District 9 history to each have at least 125 yards receiving in a championship game.

For Karns City, Rhoades had 141 yards rushing and two touchdowns on just 11 carries, while Moore scored a pair of touchdowns and gained 65 yards on six carries. Kepple was 13 of 24 passing for 143 yards, one touchdown and one interception while running eight times for 46 yards.

Karns City will face Chestnut Ridge in the PIAA Class AA first round at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23, at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.

NOTES – It’s Karns City’s first title since beating Brockway 42-40 in 2009. That game featured 915 yards of total offense … The 60 combined points are the third-most in a District 9 Class AA title game behind the 2009 Karns City-Brockway game and Karns City’s 50-14 win over Moniteau in the 2007 championship game … The last-minute touchdown marked the first time since 2002 that a team, regardless of classification, won a District 9 title with a touchdown in the final minute. In 2002, Brockway scored with 43 seconds left to break a 7-all tie and get a 14-7 win over Karns City at Redbank Valley High School … Karns City has now won eight District 9 Class AA titles while appearing in 13 of the 25 District 9 Class AA title games.  

KARNS CITY 33, KANE 27

Score by Quarters

Kane 14 6 0 7 – 27

Karns City 6 6 6 15 – 33

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

KA – Jamie Lingenfelter 1 run (Sean Rolick kick), 6:20

KA – Rolick 1 pass from Sean Jordan (Rolick kick), 2:09

KC – Zach Moore 3 run (Kick failed), 0:32

Second Quarter

KC – Tristan Rhoades 5 run (Pass failed), 1:29

KA – Rolick 17 pass from Jordan (Kick failed), 0:42

Third Quarter

KC – Rhoades 50 run (Rush failed), 6:28

Fourth Quarter

KC – Moore 42 run (Tyler Kepple rush), 6:06

KA – Jordan 1 run (Rolick kick), 3:29

KC – Dakota Mohney 9 pass from Kepple (Moore kick), 0:12

KA                  KC

 First Downs                           20                    27

Rushes-Yards                          30-127             48-366

Passing Yards                         290                  143

Passing: Comp-Att-Int            21-27-1            13-25-1

Total Yardage                         417                  509

Fumbles-Lost                          1-1                   2-2

Penalties-Yards                       2-20                 7-55

Punts-Avg.                              3-29.0              1-28.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – Kane: Jonah Smith 12-99, Jamie Lingenfelter 7-16, Sean Rolick 6-13, Sean Jordan 4-1, Tyler Burdick 1-(-2). Karns City: Tristan Rhoades 11-141, Zach Moore 6-65, Adam Whited 12-65, Tyler Kepple 8-46, Wyatt Everetts 9-45, Dakota Mohney 2-4.

Passing – Kane: Sean Jordan 21-for-27, 290 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception. Karns City: Tyler Kepple 13-for-24, 143 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception. Team 0-for-1.

Receiving – Kane: Sean Rolick 11-159, Jeff Kocjancic 8-126, Andrew Pierson 1-5, Jamie Lingenfelter 1-0. Karns City: Matt Conto 5-44, Wyatt Everetts 2-31, Dakota Mohney 2-29, Tristan Rhoades 2-23, Adam Whited 1-9, Zach Moore 1-7.

Interceptions – Kane: Jeff Kocjancic. Karns City: Matt Conto.