KARNS CITY — Football is simply the thing to do at Karns City.

The kids love to play it. When they grow up, they love to coach it.

That combination has led to a unique freshman football campaign for the Gremlins.

Undefeated as eighth-graders in football and basketball, the 23 players comprising KC’s freshman gridiron squad this season posted eight wins — all by shutout — and outscored the opposition 367-0. Their closest game was a 35-0 win over Punxsutawney in the season opener.

“Shutting out every opponent was not a goal of this team from the start,” KC freshman defensive coach T.J. McFarland said. “We happened to shut out the first two teams and then it was like, how long can we keep this going?

“What I’m most proud of is we did this with all of these kids seeing equal playing time. There really was no front-line unit.”

After the opening win over Punxsutawney, KC shut out St. Marys 51-0, Keystone 50-0, Brookville 47-0, Franklin 48-0, Shaler 48-0, Clarion 43-0 and Moniteau 45-0.

The Shaler game was a replacement for an originally scheduled game with Slippery Rock that wasn’t played due to a thunderstorm.

“Since Shaler is a Quad-A school, we decided to ask the kids if they wanted to play that game before we accepted it,” freshman offensive coach Todd Weibel said. “They were all over it.”

Weibel, an East Brady graduate, coached youth football in that area for a few years and is now in his 12th season at Karns City.

“Our 2005 freshman team allowed only 22 points,” Weibel recalled. “That’s the only other team I can recall that’s come close to this.”

McFarland, also in his 12th year on the Gremlins staff, is a 1998 KC graduate who started for four years as a wide receiver at Waynesburg. Upon graduating from college, he returned to Karns City as a coach.

McFarland is a teacher at the high school as well.

“I had been teaching at Valley, but still coached here,” he said. “I really like football and wanted to give something back to this program.”

Freshman line coach Alan Davis, a 2012 KC graduate, felt the same way.

“Every year, coming through this system, we were always good,” Davis said. “I wanted to still be a part of that.”

Other former Gremlin players helping to coach the team include Josh Williams, Joe Schumacher and Josh Stimac.

“We run the same offense, defense, special teams with the junior high and freshman teams as we do at the varsity level,” McFarland said. “Who knows that system better than our ex-players?”

This year’s achievement, though, was something beyond expectation.

“I give that credit to these kids,” Weibel said. “This was an especially hard-working group. They like to hit. They took pride in hitting.

“They just play the game hard.”

Members of the freshman team include Colton Corbett, Cullen Williams, Jacob King, Mitchell McDonald, Kaiden Powers, Eric Dodds, Aaron Hutchinson, Briggs Buck, Chandler Turner, Jimmy Thompson, Bryant Oddo, Antonio Rosario, Elijah Myers, Brayden Fedorek, Carter Dunmyre, Jesse Allen, Ricky Legrand, Edward Cheeseman, Alec Bard, Dylan Wiles, Dalton Jones, Trevor Scott and Ryan Baldoff.