KARNS CITY — Run the football. Then run it some more.

Again and again and again.

Karns City’s varsity football program has been sustained by a powerful ground attack for years now, buoyed by numerous running backs and plenty of linemen.

“I take pride in it,” senior center and three-year starter Reese Barger said. “Not many teams like to run the ball anymore.

“We love it. It’s how you show dominance.”

Some towns produce quarterbacks and receivers. Karns City comes up with linemen and running backs.

“We never get that 6-foot-3 or 6-4, straight drop-back quarterback who can chuck it,” KC coach Ed Conto said. “We develop an effective passing game, but we’ve always been about running the ball because that’s the type of kids we have.”

Through eight games this season, the Gremlins have rushed for 2,551 yards and 43 touchdowns. The team is well on its way to a fifth consecutive year of producing well over 3,000 yards rushing.

Averaging 8.4 yards per carry as a team, no Karns City player has rushed for more than Collin Dunmyre’s 533 yards. And he’s attained that total on just 67 carries.

“It’s all about performing your role while you’re in there,” said Dunmyre, a three-year starter. “There is a history of that here. You look at the running backs who have come before us ... We want to live up to them.”

From 2011 through 2014, the Gremlins rushed for 14,924 yards and 194 touchdowns. That’s an average of 3,730 yards and 48 TDs per season. KC averaged 7.5 yards per rush during those years.

An average of 10 KC players scored rushing touchdowns during those four seasons. Ten Karns City players have already rushed for touchdowns this year.

Dunmyre is averaging 7.8 yards per carry. Maverick Kelsea has 488 yards rushing and a 9.2 yard average, Chandler Turner 484 yards and a 12.8 average.

Cullen Williams, who shares time with Jacob King at quarterback, has rushed for 424 yards and a 13.6 average.

“A few of us could be the featured back at some other schools and be studs there,” Kelsea said. “Any one of us could be the prime back here and get 1,300 or 1,400 yards.

“But I don’t even like to think like that. None of us do.”

Dunmyre agrees.

“I’d rather gain no yards rushing and win than get 150 yards and lose,” Dunmyre said. “We share the load, we stay fresh. The same goes for our line.”

That’s because Karns City doesn’t groom running backs. It grooms football players.

“I don’t care how skilled a kid might be ... Our kids learn at a young age that if you’re not going to block for us, you’re not going to play for us,” Conto said. “This is an unselfish group. They enjoy playing football together and hanging out together.

“There’s no macho attitudes, older kids picking on younger ones. We don’t do that here. We want the kids’ football experience at Karns City to be something they remember for the rest of their lives.”

Kelsea said he passes along tips to younger running backs on the team just like tips were passed down to him when he was an underclassmen.

“I remember Adam Whited working with me on getting low for leverage and how to use my hands,” Kelsea said of running and blocking. “We teach the younger players all the time.

“We want to win now. We want to take care of the future of the program, too.”

The Gremlins rotate in three tackles and three guards every game, sometimes for an entire series, sometimes every couple of plays. Barger is the constant at center.

“The same guys usually play together, so the cohesion is still there,” Barger said. “A ton of guys play every year, coming up through, so we’re always experienced up front.”

Conto believes Karns City’s ongoing success on the ground begins at the junior high level.

“We play a lot of backs and linemen there and the junior high and freshman teams use the same system we do,” Conto said. “From seventh grade on up, a lot of kids get a lot of playing time.

“By the time they get up here, we have a seasoned senior group and a good crop of juniors behind them.”

And the KC running game gets stronger as the year goes on. Conto is still working with his linemen on fundamentals.

“We’re not clean yet,” he said of the blocking schemes. “Part of that is the fact we use so many linemen. It slows the process down a little bit,.”

But they will catch up.

“I rushed for 400-some yards in the regular season last year,” Dunmyre said. “By the end of the playoffs, I was over 1,000. That’s the way it is around here.”