KARNS CITY — St. Marys started and ended its football season against Karns City last year.

The Gremlins began 2012 with a 38-25 win over the Flying Dutch, before disposing of St. Marys by a 34-14 margin in the District 9 semifinals.

The familiar foes will meet again at 7 p.m. Friday at KC’s Diehl Stadium with a major contrast in experience.

“It’s a whole new team from my side of it,” said St. Marys coach Joe Schlimm. “We have three or four starters back from last year. There’s an influx of young kids coming in.”

Karns City brings back its top eight rushers from last season, along with senior quarterback Tyler Kepple, who passed for 1,255 yards and 13 touchdowns despite the limitations of a shoulder injury.

“Karns City is a very experienced team. Their program is used to winning and they’re the defending district champions,” said Schlimm. “They’re going to give us everything we can possibly handle. We’re going to give it our best shot.”

Although St. Marys doesn’t return much depth, the Dutch still have standout running back Alex Feldbauer at their disposal. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior rushed for 1,711 yards and 25 touchdowns on 228 carries last year.

“He’s a tough, strong, straight-ahead runner,” said Karns City coach Ed Conto. “He lowers his shoulder and never quits. He takes it to you.”

Schlimm expects him to carry the rushing load once again this season.

“He’s a hard-nosed kind of kid and he has a lot of carries under his belt,” said Schlimm. “We’re going to lean on him to be a leader offensively.”

Wyatt Everetts is Karns City’s leading returning rusher with 713 yards and seven touchdowns. Kepple, Zach Moore, Tristan Rhoades and Dakota Mohney all racked up at least 450 yards on the ground last year.

Despite a plethora of weapons, Conto still has concerns after two scrimmages in the preseason.

“We need to start playing better as a team. We need to be more consistent,” said Conto. “We’re still trying to work out some of the kinks.”

One of the biggest keys for the Gremlins this year will be the performance from the offensive line.

Conto described the unit’s play as “inconsistent” during practice and scrimmages.

“They will look good and then have a bonehead breakdown,” Conto elaborated. “You can see there’s potential. There’s highs and lows. You see some good stuff and then you want to kick them in the rear.”

Christian Keller will likely present the biggest challenge for the KC offensive line. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound defensive end recorded 16 1/2 sacks as a junior. He will likely be surrounded by a rotation of inexperience, though.

“We are committed to playing more kids,” said Schlimm. “We’re going to give them a lot of opportunity to see what they’ve got early in the year.”

Conto wants to see a fundamentally sound performance from his Gremlins.

“We want to have a good, clean game. In the first game, sometimes there’s a lot of things that drive coaches crazy,” said Conto. “Hopefully, we don’t have a lot of them. It would be nice, but if not, we’ll be prepared to overcome the things we do wrong.

“It’s the first game of the year and we’ll go out and play as hard as we can.”