CLARION — A district semifinal is a bad time to struggle getting on the scoreboard.

Karns City's boys soccer team had no such difficulty against Elk County Catholic.

Sophomore forward Noah Pollock tallied a goal just over five minutes in, sparking the Gremlins to a 3-0 triumph on a soggy Tuesday night at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.

KC (17-2-1) will take on DuBois Central Catholic in the District 9 Class A title game at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the same venue.

“Noah seems to get that first goal for us a lot,” said Karns City coach Jim Grenninger. “We got the passing game going tonight and were pretty accurate.”

Senior midfielder Matt Yough added a goal in the 17th minute and senior forward Tyler Pollock scored in the 35th minute.

The latter had missed the last three games with a concussion suffered in a regular-season clash with Brookville. He was anxious to get back on the field with his teammates, three in particular.

“Me, my brother Noah, Conrad Snyder and Spenser Myers, we're the Fab Four,” Tyler Pollock said. “When we're connecting, there's no slowing us down. I was happy with our performance tonight.”

Gremlins' goalkeeper David Olszak made three saves to earn the shutout, but there were a few uneasy moments near KC's net.

Twice in the first half the Crusaders (14-4-2) rushed the net and came within a couple feet of scoring a goal. KC defender John Garing, standing just in front of the net, cleared the ball on both occasions.

“I don't know if it was the weather, but we didn't get a lot of great touches (on defense) tonight,” said Grenninger. “There were times when the ball skipped, but John bailed us out.”

ECC did manage three corner kicks in the opening minutes of the second half, but all were cleared by the Gremlins.

For Crusaders' coach T.J. Weaver, his team's scoring chances were few and far between.

“We didn't play quick enough,” he said. “Against a team like Karns City, you have to press, press, press.”

ECC goalkeeper Patrick Hoffman stopped 12 shots, six in both halves.

“He had a great game,” said Grenninger. “He stopped three or four shots that could easily have been goals for us.”