KARNS CITY — Tyler Kepple tried to keep his banged up right shoulder loose on the sideline between possessions.

A hard tackle at the end of the first half made throwing the ball painful for the Karns City sophomore quarterback.

Luckily for him, the Gremlins were doing just fine running the ball in a 30-22 home win over Franklin Friday night.

“We've been stressing that we have to get back to Karns City football,” said Ed Conto of his offense, which in the past has meant grinding out yardage in the running game. “Tonight we finally did that.”

Karns City (3-2) had 65 rushing attempts against Franklin (1-4) and rolled up 341 yards on the ground.

Ironically, perhaps the biggest play for the Gremlins in the fourth quarter was a pass by Kepple to a wide open Matt Conto on a broken play for a 28-yard touchdown.

The score opened up a 30-14 lead with less than four minutes remaining in the game.

“We couldn't throw (in the second half),” Ed Conto said. “We were mixing the run with the pass in the first half, but in the second half running is all we could do. We didn't know if we could consistently do anything (in the passing game).”

Kepple, though, put just enough on his pass to Matt Conto, who streaked across the field uncovered.

Kepple was 8-of-14 passing for 116 yards in the game.

But it was the slew of Karns City ballcarriers that salted away the win.

Adam Whited rushed for 107 yards and Wyatt Everetts added 101 for the Gremlins, who had five backs gain more than 20 yards rushing in the game.

Franklin needed just 30 seconds after the Kepple touchdown pass to make it a one-score game.

Forrest Wested, who plagued Karns City all game whether he was lined up at quarterback or wide receiver, rumbled 51 yards to set up his 12-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Rutherford. Wested hit Dalton Matthews on a 2-point conversion pass and Franklin was within 8 points of the lead with 3:35 remaining in the game.

Franklin never got the ball back as the Gremlins picked up two first downs to run out the clock.

“That's tough. We knew what they were going to run,” said Franklin coach Dave Smith. “They didn't really do anything we haven't seen. They just ran their offense really well. We just didn't make the plays that we needed to make on defense.”

Karns City did, however.

Things didn't start out well for the Gremlins, though. On the first offensive play of the game, Wested — this time lined up at receiver — hauled in a 66-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Ritchey for a 7-0 lead just 17 seconds into the game.

Karns City responded, however, with a touchdown drive and then a 30-yard field goal by Zach Moore to take a 9-7 lead after the first quarter.

The Gremlins never trailed after that.

“The last couple of weeks, when bad things happened, we would be deflated,” Conto said. “We were really on them about that this week. We stressed that they had to finish the game, that it didn't matter what happens on the field. Just keep hitting and hitting and hitting. That makes a difference. And they did that tonight.”

Karns City forced a fumble and picked off three passes on four consecutive Franklin possessions in the second half to turn away potential scoring drives by the Knights.

All four turnovers came inside Karns City territory and two inside the Gremlins' 15.

“Turnovers killed us,” Davis said. “I thought we were good enough to be in this game and get a win. Karns City played tough on defense and they confused our quarterbacks.”

“They're a very talented team,” Conto said. “They are big and strong and faster than we are, and without (Tristan) Rhoades and (Glenn) Toy, our two fastest guys, we were at a big disadvantage.”

Wested had a big day for Franklin. He caught a touchdown pass, threw a touchdown pass and also rushed for a score.

But Karns City left the field feeling better, despite a slew of injuries.

“We played a lot of sophomores tonight,” Conto said. “We played a lot of guys. People get on us for that, but as banged up as we were, it has paid off. If we had played only a few guys (and they got hurt), we wouldn't have made it.”