CLARION — Karns City took the opening kickoff Friday night and marched 73 yards down the field in six plays for a touchdown.

Unfortunately, the score would be its only highlight of the game.

The Clarion Bobcats responded with six unanswered touchdowns while dominating both lines of scrimmage en route to a 42-7 home victory over the Gremlins at Memorial Stadium.

“We made mistakes, they didn't,” Karns City head coach Ed Conto said. “Their kids played very well. They were faster than us tonight. We made a lot of mistakes, we got our heads down, and then that train wreck gets rolling.”

After Gremlins running back Wyatt Everetts capped off the promising opening drive with a score from 3 yards out, Clarion wasted little time capturing the momentum.

A 20-yard strike to receiver Cody Hearst got the drive rolling, and after a personal foul on Karns City, Bobcat quarterback John Katis found Ian Corbett on a screen pass that turned into a 30-yard touchdown.

It would turn out to be one of their shorter touchdowns of the evening.

The Gremlins (1-1) managed only one first down on their next possession, and Corbett took Clarion's first play on the ensuing drive 60 yards to grab the lead for good.

“(The big plays) were huge,” Bobcat coach Larry Wiser said. “Some of the things we were trying to exploit, but I think there were some broken tackles and catches in great coverage.”

With the lead, Clarion (2-0) tried establishing the running game with bruising back Damien Slike.

After pounding his way into the end zone from 1 yard out to give the Bobcats a 21-7 lead, the senior showed he has some speed as well.

Backed up to their own 13 yard line after an illegal formation penalty, Katis handed the ball Slike, who made a mad dash down the sideline, distancing himself from the defenders with every stride until he reached paydirt 87 yards later.

“He seemed to take another second off his 40 here tonight,” Wiser joked after the game. “Ian (Corbett) is the speedster, but Damien is of course on the track team, too.”

Meanwhile, Karns City was failing to generate any push after the first drive, and only mustered two first downs the rest of the half. For the game, the Gremlins amassed only 246 yards of total offense, while allowing more than 600 to Clarion.

A good chunk of that yardage came on the legs of Slike, who followed up his 87-yard touchdown in the first half with an equally impressive 80-yard scamper in the third quarter.

Before the night was over, Slike would run for 262 yards on just 18 carries.

Despite the lopsided affair, Conto said sometimes it's a good thing to take a beating like this early in the season and learn from their mistakes.

“We just gotta coach better, we have to get the kids better prepared,” he said. “A lot of times in the first half and early in the third quarter it was not something they did, it was something we did wrong. We didn't do what we needed to do.”