KARNS CITY, Pa. (EYT) — Zane Dudek, who ran for over 2,000 yards last year, ran for 274 yards and four touchdowns to lead Armstrong to a 35-22 win over Karns City, the top-ranked team in the preseason Allegheny Grille of Foxburg D9sports.com District 9 Rankings.
(Photo by Mike Schnelle. Check out more of Schnelle’s work here)
Dudek, whose kickoff returns also gave the River Hawks excellent field position throughout the night, scored on runs of 4, 65 and 1 yards. His 1-yard run with 2:54 left in the game put the finishes touches on the victory for Armstrong, who is coached by former Redbank Valley coach Frank Fabian.
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Karns City trailed 7-6 at halftime with the Gremlins points coming on a pair of Kaiden Powers’ field goals including a 40-yard boot and a 24-yard kick late in the half. Armstrong had taken a 7-0 lead when Zach Aretz recovered a fumble in the end zone.
Armstrong quickly moved the lead to 22-6 early in the second half on a pair of Dudek touchdown runs before Cullen Williams (15-yard run) and Chandler Turner (10-yard run) got Karns City back into the game making the score 22-19.
The Gremlins defense then came up with a stop, but Jacob King threw an interception, and Dudek scored on a 49-yard run to make it 29-19.
Powers then kicked his third field goal of the game, this time from 33 yards to get Karns City back within seven, 29-22, with 10:36 to play, but Dudek put the finishing touches on an outstanding game with his 1-yard score.
King was 15 of 26 passing for 136 yards and the interception with Eric Dodd catching five passes for 56 yards and Williams four for 43. Dodd also ran nine times for 43 yards with Williams picking up 17 on six carries. But Karns City was held to just 97 yards rushing on 32 carries.
