Ridgway Survives Shootout with Karns City

Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News

Phil Myers | November 10, 2019

The Ridgway Elkers survived an old-fashioned shootout with the Karns City Gremlins in a District 9 Class 2A semi-final contest held at DuBois’ Mansell Stadium Saturday afternoon.  The final score was 34-27 with the victor not being a sure thing until the game ending whistle.  Elker head coach, Mark Heindl, had this to say after the game, “My credit to Karns City as they came to play today.  They’re a physical football team and we got away with one here today.  They made us a better football team today.”

The game began like a typical fight with each team feeling one another out for the first quarter which ended with no one putting any points on the board.  But that would change.  The second stanza saw both teams score twice in the last nine minutes and Ridgway threatening to score again when time ran out before they could.

The Elkers struck first when Matt Dush hit a hole on the left side of the line and galloped 25 yards to paydirt to cap an eighty-yard drive.  During that drive, Dush caught three straight passes for 42 yards.  Paul Gresco’s PAT made it 7-0 Ridgway with just under nine minutes left in quarter two.  Like a good fighter, the Gremlins answered with a punch of their own.  Going 67 yards in eight plays, Karns City’s Luke Garing scored from a yard out.  Owen Collwell tied the game at 7 with his point after.

Ridgway countered the KC score by throwing and mixing in some short runs to travel 62 yards.  Jake Wickett went the last 7 yards to give Ridgway the lead back with 2:02 remaining in the half.  Once again, Karns City matched Ridgway’s tally.  Starting from their 29 with under two minutes to go, Anthony Kamenski hit Kaden Scherer for 27 yards.  Four plays later Kamenski found Scherer again for a 28-yard touchdown to tie the game 14-14 with forty-one seconds left.

With 34 ticks remaining and no timeouts in hand, Gresco completed 3 passes for the Elkers in getting them to the KC four-yard line as time ran out to end the first half with the score tied.

Ridgway received the second half kick and set up shop at their 45.  Wickett scored his second touchdown of the game six plays later when he found the end zone on his nine-yard run with 9:04 on the third period clock.  Gresco made his third PAT and the Elkers regained a touchdown lead of 21-14.

The Gremlins bounced back by sailing 75 yards on ten plays, two of which went for 20 plus yards.  Kamenski did the honors from 2 yards out.  A bad snap on the point after attempt caused Kamenski, who is the holder, to improvise by darting for the near side pylon.  It appeared Robert Briggs and Wickett knocked him out of bounds just before Kamenski could cross the goal line.  That effort left the Elkers still in the lead, although it was now a precarious one at 21-20.

Ridgway score with 1:21 remaining in the third when Gresco threw a nice pass to Dush and Matt made a nice move to fake out a defender before racing to the house for a 52-yard touchdown.  Gresco made it 28-20.

The Gremlins answered the bell driving 60 yards to score early in the last stanza, only to have Kamenski’s fantastic 22-yard run where he broke a few tackles on the way, get called back due to holding.  This is where Ridgway’s defense, who played well all year, came up big and stopped KC on downs.  From there, Ridgway increased its lead to 34-20 on an eight-play possession topped off by a 14-yard Gresco to Alex Bon TD toss.  The extra point was blocked by the interior of the Gremlin line.

Karns City fought back by scoring with 1:37 left in the game.  Garing earned touchdown number two by powering in from the six.  Collwell’s kick decreased the deficit to 34-27.  The ensuing onside kick appeared to be recovered by Karns City, but the referees said Ridgway had possession on the ground before the ball was knocked out of Elker control.  The Gremlins had a couple of timeouts and actually forced Ridgway to punt.  Karns City got the ball at its 28 with 34 seconds on the clock, but could get no farther than their 40 when the game ended.

Gremlin coach, Joe Sherwin said, “I can’t fault our effort whatsoever.  I told the kids the fought right to the end and that’s all I can ask for.”  He got emotional as he continued, “We had some kids get hurt on Thursday and they still played every play today plus we had nine kids not suit up today because of injuries.”  Sherwin also added that Coach Heindl is a great coach and he wishes the Elkers luck next week.

Heindl had praise for Hunter Wall who got his first varsity start at center when the regular Elker center got hurt in practice Thursday.  He also said, “We’re excited and we’ve earned the right to be in the finals.  No one gave us a chance after we lost to Kane.”

Ridgway outgained Karns City 442 to 359 in yardage.  Gresco was the offensive star for the Elkers and Kamenski was the star offensively for the Gremlins.  Gresco threw 23 passes and completed 19 of them for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns.  “Paul did a great job today.  He had great protection up front and the receivers ran some great routes,” commented Coach Heindl.  Dush chipped in receiving wise with 8 grabs for 165 yards and a touchdown.  He also ran for 45 yards and a score.  “Number 2 (Kamenski) is a man among boys,” Heindl declared.  Kamenski rushed 27 times for 156 yards and completed 6 of 12 passes for 104 yards and a score.  Scherer caught all 6 of the passes.

Ridgway is now 10-1 and will meet 10-1 Clarion in the finals next week in DuBois.  They beat Clarion 42-0 during the year, but no one expects that lopsided of a game this time around.  Karns City finishes the year at 8-4.

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