CLARION, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Brookville reeled off 31 straight points after trailing 7-0 to defeat Karns City in the District 9 Class 2A semifinal game at Memorial Stadium on Friday evening.
(Pictured above, Noah Peterson looks for some running room in Brookville’s win over Karns City/photo by Madison McFarland)
The Gremlins took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter before the Raiders scored 21 points, including a pick-six late in the quarter, to give Brookville a 21-7 halftime lead. Brookville then scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to set the final score.
The Brookville defense suffocated Karns City in the second half, allowing just three first downs to the Gremlins while using a steady diet of their run game to chew time off the clock.
Karns City took the opening kickoff and marched down the field to the Brookville 14 before Noah Peterson intercepted an Eric Booher pass at the goal line. However, he fumbled the ball on the return, giving the ball back to the Gremlins at the Raider 38.
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Five plays later Booher would connect on a 22-yard touchdown pass to Nate Garing. The PAT gave Karns City a 7-0 lead with 5:22 remaining in the first quarter.
The lead would remain 7-0 until Peterson connected with Hayden Freeman on an 84-yard catch and run to knot the score at 7-7 with 5:00 to play in the first half.
Peterson and Freeman would connect again on an 11-yard touchdown with 38 seconds remaining to give Brookville a 14-7 lead.
“We had a talk this week as he’s been down because he hadn’t been getting the ball,” said Brookville head coach Scott Park of Freeman. “Nothing against Noah, but sometimes he doesn’t see that second and third option. I feel really happy that he was able to get those couple of catches.”
After the ensuing kickoff, Peterson intercepted a Booher pass and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown just 16 seconds after the previous score to give Brookville a 21-7 halftime lead.
“That was huge to go into the locker room up 21-7,” said Park. “We were down 7-0 and then to go up 14-7 and then to get that interception really changed things for us going to halftime. I believe that’s his eighth interception of the season.”
The teams combined for five punts in the third quarter as the Brookville lead remained 21-7 through three quarters.
Brookville would use an 11-play drive, all on the ground to take the ball from the Gremlins 38 to the three before the drive stalled and Brayden Kunselman connected on a 20-yard field goal to push the lead to 24-7 with 6:01 remaining in the contest.
Carson Weaver rushed nine times on the drive for 33 yards.
Tony Ceriani added an eight-yard touchdown run with 1:50 to play to set the final score of 31-7.
Jackson Zimmerman rushed 15 times for 59 yards while Weaver rushed 11 times for 42 yards and Peterson nine times for 33 yards.
Peterson completed 11-of-14 passes for 201 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Freeman caught two passes for 95 yards. Truman Sharp added three catches for 62 yards.
Levi Hawk paced Karns City with 72 yards rushing on 15 attempts. Nathan Hess added 31 yards on six carries.
Eric Booher completed just 3-of-12 passes for 36 yards.
Brookville held a 348-181 advantage in total yards.
The Raiders will play Central Clarion next Friday or Saturday for the Class AA championship.
“We played them in the first game of the season and I really haven’t seen too much film on Central Clarion,” said Park. “I know they handled us pretty well that first game. We had several injuries in that game which contributed to our early season struggles. We’ll just prepare as best as we can.”
Brookville Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
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