CLARION — The barrage aimed at Elk County Catholic's net was unrelenting.

As she has done for much of this season, Emily LoPresti spearheaded Karns City's attack.

The senior forward scored five times to lead the Gremlins to a dominating 6-0 District 9 Class A girls soccer semifinal victory Tuesday evening at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium.

Karns City (18-1) will play DuBois Central Catholic in the championship at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Clarion.

It marks the seventh straight season that the Gremlins have advanced to the district title game.

“I felt we'd have another good team this year,” said LoPresti. “We're winning a lot of games. We have a lot of speed and that helps. We are pretty confident when we step on the field.”

LoPresti found the net twice in the first half and three more times in the second half, giving her a team-leading 58 goals on the season.

“She's a very smart player and is also unpredictable,” said first-year Karns City coach Tracy Dailey. “She'll run at (opposing) players, go to the corner and send a cross to a teammate. They (Crusaders) tried to man-mark her tonight and you saw how that turned out. She's very dangerous.”

LoPresti's first tally came in the 11th minute as she snuck a shot from 20 yards out in between ECC senior goalkeeper Hannah Onink and the left post.

The Crusaders' defense was unable to maintain the pace set by the Gremlins, evidenced by Onink's 11 saves in the first half. She ended the night with 14 stops.

All five of Karns City's corner kicks came in the first half.

Though LoPresti did most of the scoring Tuesday, Dailey points out that the goals are the product of a team effort.

“The girls have done a great job,” she said. “We've been switching positions early in games and that allows us to run at teams. Once we get up, we'll bring a player back and focus more on defense.”

Karns City's final two scores came on penalty kicks. LoPresti scored on one in the 57th minute and sophomore midfielder Megan McCartney followed in the 69th minute.

LeErin Jones stopped one shot from ECC (12-7-1). Alison Boltz manned KC's net for the final 13 minutes of the game and Jones moved to the field.