KARNS CITY - Just 10 minutes into its season opener, the Karns City High School football team had no first downs, zero yards, three illegal procedure penalties, and a 14-0 deficit.

Not a good start to say the least.

But the finish was pretty good.

The Gremlins shook of their early doldrums against St. Marys, scoring the winning touchdown on a 1-yard plunge by Wayne Harris with 25 seconds left in the contest for a 19-14 win Friday night.

"Unbelievable," said Karns City coach Ed Conto. "We've been struggling with low numbers and injuries. In every scrimmage, we had a different offensive line."

Karns City is down to seven offensive linemen. Senior Chad Turner injured his ankle on the last play of the last scrimmage against Slippery Rock and was out and junior Josh Williams missed the game because of a heart ailment.

"Josh is a great football player," Conto said. "We won't know until (next) Friday what is wrong. He had a virus and he has some sort of heart murmur or irregular heartbeat."

Despite the thin line, Karns City was able to open up running lanes on two very important drives.

After falling behind by two touchdowns, the Gremlins launched a 13 play, 93-yard drive that culminated with a 1-yard scoring run by fullback Matt Stimac with just 27 seconds left in the second quarter.

For as badly as Karns City played in the first half, it was only down by a touchdown at the break.

"We did not respond in the manner we needed to respond," said St. Marys coach Joe Schlimm. "I think we played very well defensively. They had most of their yards on those two drives at the end of the half and at the end of the game."

Trailing by a point, Karns City marched 80 yards in 14 plays in the final five minutes of the contest for a dramatic comeback win.

"I'm so proud of this team," Conto said.

It looked like luck would be on St. Marys' side early.

After losing two yards on their first three plays of the game, the Dutchmen lined up for a punt, but the snap to Brad Steimbach was high. He leaped to grab it, then scrambled to his right and tossed a pass to a wide-open Adam Cornelio for a 20-yard gain and a first down.

That sent St. Marys on the way to Brian Tamburlin's 4-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.

Karns City fumbled on its second offensive play of its ensuing possession and St. Marys took advantage of it, scoring on a 14-yard run by Scott Schatz to take a 14-0 lead.

At that point, it looked like the Dutchmen were going to run Karns City out of its own stadium.

Instead, Karns City's defense stiffened and St. Marys' offense sputtered.

The Dutchmen had particular trouble in the passing game. Their three completions were on the broken punt play and two screen passes.

"We had some luck early in the game," Schlimm said. "This is very disappointing. We've put so much emphasis on defense that we're not at the level offensively we need to be. We need to be able to complete a pass. We can't have teams putting 10 guys in the box against us."

Karns City got a break in the third quarter when Roy Beham hit St. Marys' quarterback Lucas Wendal from behind, jarring the ball loose. Kory Kusick caught the fumble in mid-air and raced 18 yards for the touchdown.

On the extra point, the Gremlins lined up in a swinging gate formation and snapped the ball to quarterback Steve Black, who was tackled just shy of the goal line.

The trick play nearly cost Karns City.

"That was the kids' call," Conto said. "I told them if it is there, go for it. They waited too long. But they had the guts to call it."

It didn't matter, ultimately, because of the late scoring drive.

Black threw for 80 yards and also rushed for 43 yards as Karns City had three players gain more than 40 yards rushing, led by 54 yards from Harris.

Conto also showed some confidence in his kicker, Matt McConnell, sending him out on a 58-yard attempt at the end of the first half following a late interception.

McConnell also missed a 38-yard field goal in the third quarter.

"He made two 33-yarders last year," Conto said. "He's a good kicker."

Karns City will travel to Sharpsville next week. Conto is hopeful that the comeback win against St. Marys will be an impetus for his young team.

"It's got to help us," Conto said. "I've had teams in the past down by 14 early that would have quit. You could see at halftime that they weren't going to."