KARNS CITY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Less than 12 hours before kickoff, the Karns City football team found out they would be without their head coach, Joe Sherwin, who was placed in COVID-19 quarantine.
The Gremlin coaching staff was in communication with Sherwin throughout the day, formulating a plan for Friday night’s final regular season game against DuBois at Diehl Stadium.
Offensive coordinator Zach Kepple and defensive coordinator Jeff Wagner were bandying about ideas when it was decided that longtime assistant Joe Schumacher would act as the head coach.
“That wau Jeff and I could both just focus on our job, calling the offense and calling the defense,” Kepple said. “We always tell the kids about how important it is to do your 1/11 and we didn’t want to do more than our 1/11.”
Despite the strange hours leading up to kickoff, Karns City went out and took care of business in a physical game, pulling away from DuBois in the fourth quarter for a 35-14 win.
Jayce Anderson rushed for 173 yards on 19 carries and Luke Garing added 73 yards and four touchdowns for the Gremlins.
“Jayce ran the ball really hard,” Kepple said. “You have to give credit to our guys up front. They blocked really well. They’ve done it pretty much all year.”
Garing got Karns City (9-1) on the board first with a 16-yard run with a little more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
But DuBois (5-5) answered with a 2-yard TD run by Austin Henery to tie the score at 7-7.
Garing scored two more times, from 5 and 8 yards out, to give the Gremlins a 21-7 lead late in the third quarter.
Again, DuBois answered. Derraick Burkett hauled in a 6-yard TD pass from Cam-Ron Hays with 11 minutes remaining in the game to cut the KC lead to 21-14.
Nate Garing put the lead back to two scores with a 5-yard run and then Luke Garing put the game away with a 7-yard TD run with 1:11 left.
“Give DuBois credit,” Kepple said. “They hit us hard and they played a super-physical football game tonight.”
Karns City will likely receive a bye in the first round of the District 9 Class 2A playoffs. It could come at a good time as Sherwin likely wouldn’t be released from quarantine by next week.
The game against DuBois also came at a good time for the Gremlins.
“I don’t think we could have asked for a better game before going into the playoffs,” Kepple said. “It’s always good to match up against another physical team and see where you stand.”
