KARNS CITY — This Friday marks an important game on Karns City's football schedule.

Then again, so does the next month.

“We're going to determine where we wind up in the (KSAC) standings over the next month or so,” Gremlins coach Joe Sherwin said.

Karns City plays host to Brookville at 7 p.m. Friday at Diehl Stadium. Both teams are 3-1 thus far, losing only to unbeaten Clarion.

Both teams are also dealing with key injuries.

The Raiders lost quarterback Jack Krug to an ankle injury in the second quarter of last week's 29-12 loss to Clarion. Krug has well over 600 yards running and passing this season.

“His status for this week is still unknown,” first-year Brookville coach Scott Park said. “Jack is an outstanding player, but so is Robert Keth.

“Robert replaced him at quarterback when Jack went down with a broken collarbone for five weeks last year and we rolled along just fine.”

Keth is Brookville's leading receiver with 11 catches this season. Kyle Macbeth has 10 receptions on the year.

“If Jack can't go, it's just a matter of shuffling some people around,” Park said. “But, obviously, we'd like to have him out there.”

While Austin Brown, a sophomore offensive lineman-defensive end, will return to full-time action for KC, three two-way starters will be missing.

Senior running back-defensive end Mitchell Kelsea and sophomore linebacker-offensive lineman Mason McNany are both out for the year with knee injuries. Two-way lineman John Elmadollar is out this week as well.

“We don't have a lot of depth to begin with, so, yeah, those are major blows,” Sherwin said.

Karns City does have a solid one-two rushing punch in quarterback Anthony Kamenski and running back Hunter Rowe. Kamenski has 403 yards rushing on the year and has thrown only one interception in four games.

Rowe has rushed for 227 yards, including a pair of touchdowns in last week's 21-6 win over Moniteau.

“We had some blocking issues in the first half last week that we got corrected,” Sherwin said. “I think that made a big difference in the second half.”

Park knows what his team is in for when he ventures to Karns City.

“It's typical Karns City,” he said. “They are always physical, always hard-nosed. We know we're in for a challenge.”

Sherwin said linebackers Nathan Waltman and Luke Garing had strong games defensively last week.

“Nathan had well into double figures in tackles and Luke had a great game at inside backer,” the coach said.

“Brookville has a lot of speed at the receiver position. We're emphasizing to our defensive backs to wrap receivers up after the catch or they could be gone. We're working on proper angles of pursuit this week.

“We faced similar speed at Clarion a couple of weeks ago. This will be a lot of the same thing,” Sherwin added.

Karns City leads the series between these teams 23-10-2. Brookville has defeated the Gremlins the past two years, 40-28 in 2017 and 35-28 last year.