Karns City coach Ed Conto should know a little about success at A-C Valley.

He spent 11 years guiding the Falcons' program, the last season in 1998. The following year, under former Conto assistant Scott Austin, the Falcons went 7-4 and won a playoff game.

In the next four years, however, the Falcons went 6-30, including 1-8 last season.

This year, the Falcons appear to have rebounded under first-year coach Randy Lemmon. The team had won three straight before falling to Redbank Valley 35-20 last week.

The Falcons will host the Gremlins Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

"I think they have some talent. They have some real good kids," said Conto, now in his fifth season at Karns City.

"My last five years there we had five, six, seven good kids, and you could play pretty good with that many. They have some players to build with," he added.

The Falcons (3-3, 1-3) have been bolstered by the play of running back Rocco Crapis, who has rushed for 500 yards on 62 carries and has scored nine touchdowns, but the play of fullback Colt Burk (165 yards rushing) and quarterback Luiz Goncalves has also paid dividends.

"You can't overlook the contribution of Colt Burk, who moved from halfback to fullback," said Conto. "He's blocked well and he's a big hitter. You can't isolate on Crapis.

"Goncalves is a threat to run anytime. You can't isolate on one of them. He can fake it and run on the option," he added.

Goncalves can throw and run, but also showed he could catch, too, hauling in a touchdown pass from Brian Rembold.

Rembold tossed two scoring passes in the loss to Redbank, giving Karns City another weapon to think about, perhaps.

The Gremlins (3-3, 2-3) are coming off a hard-fought 20-7 victory over Moniteau, which had been undefeated in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference.

Quarterback Steve Black completed 7-of-14 passes for 195 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one to Josh Fiscus on a perfectly executed screen pass, and the other to David Black.

Fiscus also scored a rushing touchdown, but gained just 66 yards on 20 carries. The Gremlins rushed for just 98 yards.

"On the offensive side, our passing game is coming around, but we have to run better," said Conto. "Our offensive line and our fullbacks' blocking has to improve."

Fiscus has rushed for 570 yards on 105 carries and eight touchdowns this season and Wayne Harris has added 244 yards on 45 carries.

Steve Black has completed 57-of-104 passes for 875 yards and seven touchdowns. His top three targets have been David Black (32 catches for 524 years, five TDs), Kyle Texter (16-198, one TD) and Fiscus (7-112, 1 TD).

"They're a team that can run the ball with Fiscus and pass with (quarterback Steve and wideout David Black," said Lemmon.

"The win (against Moniteau) is showing the hard work the kids have put in and shows the kids are learning," said Conto.

"That's what we want as coaches. If you keep stressing something and they keep working and keep working, it's very satisfying," he added.

Both the Class A Falcons and Class AA Gremlins need two wins in their last three games to meet their self-imposed standard to qualify for the District 9 playoffs.

Both the Class A and Class AA playoffs are open this season, but both schools have said it would take a winning season for them to enter the tournament.

Karns City's remaining schedule includes games against Union (0-6) and Bradford (4-2).

A-C Valley will follow up their game with the Gremlins by traveling to Keystone (1-5) and hosting Clarion (5-1).

"There's a sense of urgency with the kids," said Lemmon. "We need this game."