Tim Karrs, second from left, head coach of the 1978 Knoch High School football team, shows off the WPIAL championship hardware with, from left, tri-captains Peter Albert, Brian Dietz and Todd Tudor.

JEFFERSON TWP — Tim Karrs could see a WPIAL championship contender coming.

And Knoch's football coach wanted to build it through a strong running game and aggressive defense.

“We had a bunch of talented, hard-nosed football players, like Knoch usually has,” said Karrs, who coached the Knights from 1976-80. “We won eight games in 1976 and lost to Farrell in the first round of the playoffs.

“We had a bunch of injuries in 1977 and went 4-3-2. Our co-captains went down with injuries and our coaching staff made the decision to start four sophomores in the last couple of games. We beat our rival Mars — which won the conference — in our last game with a lot of those young kids.

“That's how I knew we had something,” Karrs added.

He was right.

The 1978 Knoch football team went 11-1 and won the WPIAL Class AA championship. The Knights became only the second Butler County school — joining the 1950 and 1977 Butler squads — to claim WPIAL football gold.

That team will be inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame during the organization's annual banquet April 28 at the Lyndora American Legion Hall.

“Our rushing yardage was pretty well divided that year and we had 34 interceptions on defense,” Karrs recalled.

Read more about the '78 Knoch Knights in Monday's Butler Eagle.