How Karns City football took historic loss ‘to heart,’ rebounded with record-setting two weeks
KARNS CITY — It was the lowest of lows, met soon with the complete opposite.
Karns City football’s turnaround has been nothing short of magnificent.
The Gremlins’ 65-0 loss to Central Clarion on Sept. 27 was the program’s worst-ever in terms of point differential. It marked the third-highest single-game output Karns City had ever allowed.
“We were all pretty upset, but we didn’t really hang our heads about it,” Gremlins senior Braden Slater said. “We knew we did not play good that night so we just kind let it go, came back during practice the next week and kind of just forgot about it. ... We didn’t (dwell) too much on it.”
The rapid refocus showed up plainly in winning results over the following two outings — a 67-7 road effort against Redbank Valley and a 65-6 showing the week after at Bradford. The former tied the third-best single-game point differential in Karns City football lore, while the latter is the fourth.
“To be able to bounce back in the next two weeks and do what we did, the guys took it to heart that they didn’t want that (Central Clarion loss) to be what people remembered,” Gremlins coach Joe Sherwin said.
The 132 combined points in the consecutive victories is the best ever by any Butler County program. (North Catholic has only been part of the Butler Eagle’s coverage area since 2014.)
The Gremlins (5-2) had scored 131 points twice over two-week spans in 2015 and 2000.
“We were getting excited,” Slater said of the feeling after rebounding against Redbank. “But we’re trying to stay humble at the same time, not get ahead of ourselves and keep playing our game.”
The importance of the mental aspect of the game was highlighted by Karns City’s reaction to tripping up early against Central Clarion.
“Honestly, a lot of us were just hanging our heads really quickly,” Slater said. “We tried to be very confident, go in there with a good attitude. I think after those first two touchdowns they scored on us, we just hung our heads for no reason. We could’ve still been in the game but we just got very upset with ourselves.”
“We knew they were a good team,” Sherwin said. “But we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds that I felt kind of inflated the score. ... I just didn’t feel like it was a good representation of the type of football team we are.”
The humbling result prompted a look in the mirror. Any demoralized feeling didn’t show in the players’ positive attitudes. Sherwin feels the response has been a testament to the Gremlins’ character.
“We just want to keep getting better,” Sherwin said. “We just had our meeting. That’s what we want to focus on. ... There’s still a lot of little things we’re working on that we want to keep improving.
“When we lost that game to Clarion and (had) that game against Redbank, (I said), ‘We don’t want to get too low with the lows, too high with the highs. We want to stay consistent week to week.’”
Karns City hosts non-conference opponent Keystone (3-4) Friday night.
Best single-game point differential
1. 63 points — 77-14 win at Union (Oct. 19, 2001)
2. 61 points — 74-13 win at Union (Oct. 24, 2003)
3. 60 points — twice, most recently in 67-7 win at Redbank Valley (Oct. 4, 2024)
4. 59 points — 65-6 win at Bradford (Oct. 11, 2024)
Highest single-game point total
1. 77 points — 77-14 win at Union (Oct. 19, 2001)
2. 74 points — 74-13 win at Union (Oct. 24, 2003)
3. 70 points — 70-21 win vs. Bradford (Oct. 20, 2023)
4. 69 points — two times, most recently in 69-28 win at DuBois (Nov. 6, 2015)
5. 67 points — 67-7 win at Redbank Valley (Oct. 4, 2024)
6. 66 points — 66-6 win vs. West Shamokin (Oct. 20, 2000)
7. 65 points — 65-6 win at Bradford (Oct. 11, 2024)
