BROCKWAY — The first time around, the Karns City Gremlins were routed. In the rematch, they did the booting.

Flipping a 44-0 loss in Week 3 into a 16-14 win Friday night on kicker Owen Colwell's 27-yard field goal with 4.7 seconds left, the win at Brockway's Varischetti Field claimed the District 9 Class 2A title, the team's first crown since 2017.

The 6-2 Gremlins stunned the unbeaten Raiders (7-1) and avenged their blowout loss to Brookville back on Sept. 25, which certainly seemed more than just over a month ago as they bottled up the Raiders' offense and rallied from a 14-7 first-half deficit.

“That last game was just an awful game and we knew that that wasn't our football team that night,” said Karns City head coach Joe Sherwin, whose team avenged a regular-season loss to Central Clarion in last week's semifinals. “We just had a lot to overcome.”

“(Brookville) is a great football team and to hold them to 14 points is an incredible defensive effort.”

It all came down to a game-winning field goal drive set up by another defensive stop. Zach Blair sacked Raiders quarterback Jack Krug for a 7-yard loss to give the Gremlins the ball at their own 42 with 5:48 left in the game.

It took 12 plays, all of them runs, to get the Gremlins to where Sherwin wanted to set up Colwell's field goal. The big play of the drive was Kaden Scherer's 10-yard run on fourth-and-three from the Raiders' 22.

“We had that fourth-down play with the ball at the 22, so I felt that was a little too deep for him,” Sherwin said. “I thought anything 15-yard line and in and he was good and, and he proved he was.”

Karns City meets either Wilmington or Farrell in next week's state playoff opener.

“All the credit goes to the kids and my coaching staff,” said Sherwin. “They did a great job and we're just looking to continue making our season longer.”

Brookville's season, meanwhile, ends at 7-1. Clearly, the team had to overcome an uncertain week at the very least and perhaps an emotional one.The program was twice involved with COVID-19 concerns.

A Ridgway player tested positive for COVID-19, and after contact tracing it was ruled the Raiders could continue without any players needing quarantining.

However, Friday afternoon, school officials were notified of two players — Brookville Athletic Director Dave Osborne noted that the two infected players were junior varsity — tested positive and then 10 other players were ruled out for the game.

While no names of course were released, a handful of starters were among the group not available to play in the final.

The Gremlins did a good job defensively, balancing good coverage in the secondary with pressure on Krug in the backfield with obviously one setting up the other.

Krug completed 20 of 31 passes for 170 yards with a touchdown and interception while getting sacked five times, by far the most in a game all year. The Gremlins limited him to 15 yards on 15 rushing attempts, which included the sack yardage.

Karns City threw just seven passes. The Gremlins marched off 243 yards on 48 carries with Scherer leading the group of runners with 86 yards on four carries.

Scherer's 65-yard TD run off a jet sweep play put the Gremlins up 7-6 in the second quarter. Also for the Gremlins, Cole Coon ran for 65 yards on 12 carries and Luke Garing went for 64 yards on 15 carries, scoring the Gremlins' other TD on a 1-yard run late in the third quarter.

After the Gremlins fumbled away their first possession at Raiders' 47, the Raiders turned it into points on their first drive of the game, 11 plays covering 53 yards. Krug hit Robert Keth for 12 yards on a fourth-and-nine play and then on fourth-and-17 at the 19, Krug hit Keth again for a touchdown. The point-after kick missed at the 4:39 mark of the opening quarter.

McNany sacked Krug and caused a fumbled that was recovered by Cole Hilliard at the Gremlins' 35. Two plays later, Scherer blasted down the Raiders sideline for the touchdown and Colwell's point-after kick gave the Gremlins a 7-6 lead with 8:52 left in the second quarter.

Brookville scored its final points on the next drive, going 87 yards on 11 plays with Keth plowing in from one yard out. Keth added a two-point conversion run and the Raiders led 14-7 at the 5:26 mark of the second.

From there, the Raiders managed just three first downs.

Garing's 1-yard run got the Gremlins to within 14-13 with 1:02 left in the third, but the Gremlins tried a trick play for a two-point conversion and it was snuffed out.

Karns City fought off a special teams disaster when it fumbled away a punt return to give the Raiders the ball at the Gremlins' 29 early in the fourth quarter, but the Gremlins stopped the Raiders on downs at the 23, stuffing Keth for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-three.

The Gremlins went nowhere on their next possession, but managed to hold the Raiders as well to set up the game-winning drive.

Karns City 0 7 6 3 — 16

Brookville 6 8 0 0 — 14

First Quarter

B — Robert Keth 19 pass from Jack Krug (kick failed), 4:39

Second Quarter

KC — Kaden Scherer 65 run (Owen Colwell kick), 8:52

B — Robert Keth 1 run (Keth run), 5:26

Third Quarter

KC — Luke Garing 1 run (conversion failed), 1:02

Fourth Quarter

KC — Colwell 27 field goal, 04.7

Individual Statistics

Rushing:Karns City, Kaden Scherer 4-86, Cole Coon 12-65, Luke Garing 15-64, Zach Blair 7-22, Jayce Anderson 3-6, Eric Booher 6-2. TEAM 1-(-2). Brookville, Tate Lindermuth 8-30, Jack Krug 15-15, Robert Keth 6-6, Kyle MacBeth 1-3, TEAM 1-(-10).

Passing:Karns City, Eric Booher 1-7-2-0. Brookville, Jack Krug 20-31-170-1-1.

Receiving:Karns City, Micah Rupp 1-2. Brookville, Robert Keth 8-68, Charlie Krug 4-57, Kyle Macbeth 3-35, Tate Lindermuth 3-9, Ryan Daisley 2-1.