Moniteau Ends Skid, Tops Union City, 28-21

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Shane Lux | October 12, 2025

Union City – Moniteau snapped their 4-game losing streak with a 28-21 victory over Union City Saturday night at the Bears Den.

After starting the season 2-1, the Warriors encountered the “meat” of their schedule, including two games against state-ranked opponents, rival Karns City and Union/A-C Valley, both ranked as honorable mentions in Class AA and A, respectively, by PaFootballNews.com.

Though they were four consecutive losses by the mercy clock, Moniteau stayed the course, continued to work and improve, and earned their third victory of the season.

The Warriors made the hour-and-a-half trip up Route 8 (or maybe I-79) in what is believed to be the first-ever matchup between the schools.

As for the game itself, there was some uncertainty, as Union City was forced to forfeit last week’s contest against Mercyhurst Prep due to having only about 13 healthy players.

Fortunately for the Bears, they had more than enough ready to go Saturday night, and off we went.

Although Moniteau would’ve preferred a do-over to begin the contest, as they lost two fumbles on their first three plays of the game, allowing the Bears to take an early 7-0 lead.

Dallas Tristcuit capped a 7-play 30-yard drive with a 1-yard run. Union City then drove to the Warriors’ 10-yard line before turning the ball over on downs after recovering the second fumble.

“They were a lot more physical than we thought they were,” said Moniteau head coach Clay Kohlmeyer. “They smacked us in the mouth there in the first quarter. We told our kids to keep going, get over it, and we’d be fine. We only gave up seven points on the two fumbles, which was better than 14.”

At that point, Moniteau got things rolling and pulled even when Aiden Kern caught a 62-yard touchdown from Weston Cook.

The schools then went back and forth in the second stanza as Union City retook the lead, capping a 10-play 68-yard drive with Danny Smith’s 1-yard run near the quarter’s midway point.

Moniteau then took advantage of a muffed punt by Kane Gregor and scored on a 3-yard pass from Cook to Brendin Sankey. The Warriors then recovered a fumble and marched 35 yards, with Sankey scoring on a 3-yard run, putting them in front 21-14.

“It was a weird week because we had Friday off,” Sankey said. “But I think after that slow start, we had a good halftime talk, and we did what we needed to do to get the win. I was really upset with myself because I was the first one to fumble. That was my first fumble all year. That was tough, but all of us 11 guys out there on both sides of the ball stuck together and played like brothers to get the win.”

Brendin Sankey finished the night with a team-high 57 yards rushing and two receptions for 13 yards and two total touchdowns.

Turnabout is fair play, as they say, in the final minute of the first half. Moniteau was backed up at its own 15-yard line and elected to try for points on the board, but instead saw McGregor make a diving interception at the 20-yard line, immediately leading to Tristcuit’s 20-yard touchdown reception from Matt Eliason with 13 seconds left in the half.

“We had to keep fighting,” Sankey said. “Even the coach took fault for that, but we all make mistakes. We came out in the second half, stuck to the game plan, and followed what was said. It all worked out.”

In the second half, it was Moniteau’s defense that took over. They stopped all three of the Bears’ drives with interceptions, giving them four in the game and five takeaways altogether.

“Our defense is set up to let them drive down the field and eventually make a mistake,” Kohlmeyer said. “It’s bend but don’t break, and tonight it played perfectly into our hands.”

Aiden Kern’s interception ended a 10-play, nearly 7-minute drive to open the half at the Warriors’ 15-yard line, leading to Ian Ross’s 68-yard touchdown reception from Cook with 2:21 to play in the third quarter that turned out to be the winning score.

Weston Cook completed 5-of-12 passes, but made them count for 159 yards and three touchdowns. In Moniteau’s first seven games, they had only three scoring passes.

“We saw that they played a lot of man and tried running some crossing patterns early in the game, but our guys kept running into each other,” Kohlmeyer said. “So we started throwing deep, and things eventually worked out.”

From there, it was interceptions by Liam Allison and big man Braden Beachem, who looked pretty athletic with that one-handed snag, that sealed the game.

The Warriors took over with 4:34 to play and ran out the remaining clock to improve to 3-5 on the season. Moniteau’s three wins this year already triple their win totals from the previous two seasons.

“My main goal as a senior is to get this program up and running,” concluded Sankey. “I want the boys underneath me to have even more fun than I had in my four years.”

Meanwhile, Union City has dropped its seventh straight game since a 15-8 win over Maplewood to begin the season.

The Bears got 103 rushing yards from Danny Smith.

Game Highlights:

Moniteau 28 Union City 21

Score by Quarters

Moniteau – 7 14 7 0 – 28

Union City – 7 14 0 0 – 21

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

UC – Dallas Tristcuit 1 yd run, (Chase Whitmeyer pat), 7:58 – 7-30

M – Aiden Kern 62 yd pass from Weston Cook, (Kern pat), 0:16 – 8-90

Second Quarter

UC – Danny Smith 1 yd run, (Whitmeyer pat), 6:23 – 10-68

M – Brendin Sankey 3 yd pass from Cook, (Kern pat), 3:53 – 7-40

M – Sankey 3 yd run, (Kern pat), 2:35 – 3-35

UC – Tristcuit 20 yd pass from Matt Eliason, (Whitmeyer pat), 0:13 – 1-20

Third Quarter

M – Ian Ross 68 yd pass from Cook, (Kern pat), 2:21 – 5-85

Individual Stats

Rushing: M – Sankey 15-57, Aiden Shakley 6-26, Cook 4-5, Team 1-0. Totals: 26-88. UC – Smith 25-103, Tristcuit 9-49, Eliason 6-22, Jayden Betcher 2-8. Totals: 24-107.

Receiving: M – Sankey 2-13, Kern 1-62, Ian Ross 2-84. UC – Betcher 2-42, Tristcuit 2-18, Kane Gregor 1-16.

Passing: M – Cook 5-for-12, 159 yards, 2 TD. UC – Eliason 5-for-17, 76 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT.

Interceptions: M – Ross, Kern, Liam Allison, Braden Beachem. UC – Gregor.

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