DuBOIS — Offense was the story in the first half.

But in the final 40 minutes, the Karns City girls soccer team got defensive.

Leading Elk County Catholic 3-2 at the break, the Gremlins received six second-half saves from goalkeeper Brooke Miller to win the District 9 Class AA title by a score of 4-2 Thursday night.

It is the second straight district title for the Gremlins girls.

KC earned a split at the venue when the boys team fell 1-0 to Northern Potter in the Class A final.

Elk County's girls found themselves behind 3-0 with 20:30 remaining in the opening half.

But a penalty-kick goal by Emily Detsch, followed by a score from Megan Dornisch, cut the Gremlins' edge to one goal with less than two minutes left in the first half.

"We lost nine seniors from last year's team," said ECC coach Don Fabiano. "We had a lot of young players out there and to fall behind 3-0 and come back like we did, it says a lot about these girls."

But Miller, who recorded 10 saves, wouldn't allow another score.

"She was a forward last year," said KC coach Lisa Castiglione of the senior. "She made a huge sacrifice moving to keeper for us and she came up with some big saves to keep us in the lead tonight."

The Gremlins wasted no time getting the upper hand on the Crusaders (17-3-1) when Alyssa King's shot from 30 yards out beat ECC goalkeeper Laura Mohney just 1:57 into the game.

Nicole Harmon and Millie McKain added two more goals three minutes apart later in the half before ECC began its comeback attempt.

Clinging to its 3-2 lead in the second half, Karns City iced the contest with Harmon's second tally of the night with 3:05 left in the game.

"I scored over 10 goals during the season, but I'm usually not our top scorer," said Harmon, a senior midfielder. "To score twice to help us win the district title, it's awesome."

There have been KC girls teams with better records than the 2009 Gremlins (12-6-1), but winning a district title solidifies the squad's place in the program's rich tradition.

"We got off to a slow start this season, but we always show up in the playoffs," Castiglione said. "Our No. 4 seed was not an indication of how good we are."

Karns City starts the PIAA playoffs Tuesday against an opponent to be determined.

Boys Soccer Northern Potter 1, Karns City 0

A third District 9 title in five years was within the Gremlins' grasp, but their potent offense was a bit off-target.

Mired in a scoreless tie in the second half, it wasn't for lack of effort that the Gremlins failed to score that elusive goal.

After forcing Panthers goalkeeper Phil Lehman to make three saves in the first half, the Gremlins had a strong offensive push early in the second.

Evan McGarvey put his leg into a shot 20 yards from the goal, only to have it bounce off the head of a Northern Potter defender standing in front of the net.

Shortly after that, Ethan McGarvey had a scoring opportunity, and though the ball was swatted away by Lehman, KC was awarded a corner kick.

The Panthers (15-5-2) successfully cleared the ball and Dalton Grimes took possession near midfield.

A breakaway ensued, with Grimes' shot finding the net for a 1-0 lead with just over 32 minutes remaining in the game.

"I thought our stopper was in a good position to clear the ball, but it took a bad bounce," said KC coach Roy Parker. "I thought Bryce (Foreback) did a nice job of recovering to get back there, but their guy got a real good shot off."

As KC's Derek Sadowski dove to his left, Grimes' shot beat the keeper to his right for his 16th goal of the season and fourth of the playoffs.

"It was a great shot," said Panthers coach Jeff Barber. "It was hit hard and low."

The Gremlins (17-2-1) spent the rest of the game trying to score the equalizer, they but ran out of time.

Lehman managed several saves in the closing minutes, ending the night with seven stops. Sadowski had four saves.

"We threw the kitchen sink at them toward the end," said Parker. "But I really thought we weren't able to get a good quality shot. We just weren't sharp tonight."

"(Northern Potter) played a pack defense," added Parker. "They packed everyone in and it was a good strategy. It's what I would've done against us."