Karns City gets another shot at Brookville in playoffs
Don’t bother with the jack in the box.
In what will be the fourth meeting between the teams in the past two seasons, there won’t be any catching either side off guard in Friday night’s District 9 Class 2A semifinal between Karns City and Brookville.
“When we play Karns City, it’s, ‘Stop the run, stop the run, stop the run, stop the run — and if you forget — stop the run again.’” said Raiders coach Gabe Bowley, whose team has won eight straight. “More so, probably, this matchup than it’s been in the last three, in the sense of their issues that they’ve had with quarterback this year.
“The last two weeks, they’ve done a really good job of getting teams in different formations, trying to out-leverage them one direction or the other, and doing a good job in countering back and trying to create the big play.”
Brookville (8-2) took the first meeting between the teams this go-round, a 44-14 decision on Oct. 13. The rematch will take place at Kane High School at 7 p.m.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot of things that they run that we don’t really know about, and same for us,” Gremlins coach Joe Sherwin said. “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of surprise.”
Over the final two weeks of the regular season — both wins — the Gremlins (5-5) combined for 926 rushing yards and 15 ground scores on 92 carries. The most recent victory, over visiting non-conference opponent Mount Union, provided a confidence boost at the right time.
“I think that was important,” Sherwin said. “Offensively, we kind of were able to control the ball again — and I think that’s going to be important this game, as well. They have a pretty explosive offense, and our offense — the way it is right now — isn’t a quick-strike offense.
“We want to control the ball, control the clock, and just kind of shorten the game up a little bit.”
Sherwin said that Karns City will again be without quarterback Cole Johnston, who was injured in the visit to the Raiders’ place. The Gremlins have thrown just four passes in the two outings since then.
“It kind of tells our linemen, ‘Hey, we’re pretty much firing out every time and just attacking the defense,’” Sherwin said. “We’re not having to worry about pass-blocking a whole lot. ... It’s more of, like, an attack mentality.”
The recent numbers have shown that the one-dimensional plan of action isn’t necessarily a detriment. Senior Luke Cramer paces the ground game with 815 yards and 17 touchdowns on 122 totes.
“It’s what they do best,” Bowley said. “If there’s any team who’s going to come out and just run the ball on you and do it successfully and grind out the clock and grind out the yards, that’s the Karns City mindset.”
Brookville has put up 36.3 points per game this year. They’ve won all but one game in their eight-game surge by double-digits. Bowley doesn’t expect keeping that pace to be so easy.
“(It’s) harder to beat a time twice in one year, yeah, I agree,” he said. “But, I would say, probably harder to score on one, in that sense — just because the defenses become more familiar with one another.”
The Raiders boast a 1,600-yard passer in senior Charlie Krug, a 700-yard rusher in junior Anthony Ceriani, and three receivers with at least 400 receiving yards — senior Jack Pete and sophomores Sam Krug and Hayden Freeman.
Brookville ended the Gremlins’ season with a 31-7 playoff win last year, that following a 34-7 win three weeks prior.
