BROOKVILLE — The Karns City football team fell short when it mattered Friday.

The Gremlins blew three different leads, including one midway through the fourth quarter, to lose to Brookville 40-28 in a non-conference game at Brookville High School.

“We were physical early, backed off later, and we didn't finish,” said Karns City coach Ed Conto.

Karns City jumped ahead 28-26 on Mitchell Kelsea's 1-yard dive late in the third quarter.

The Gremlins (0-2) managed to hold onto the lead until the fourth quarter, when Brookville (2-0) took over at its own 35.

Freshman quarterback Jack Krug orchestrated a 9-play, 65-yard drive that was capped by a 10-yard touchdown pass to Bryan Dworek. The point-after attempt failed, but with 7:47 to play the Raiders led 32-28.

Karns City had a chance to regain the lead when a 44-yard run by Kelsea set up the Gremlins in Raiders territory.

The Gremlins managed to get into the red zone, but Brookville came up with a timely stop on 4th down and 2 at the 15.

Conto was upset by his team's failure to execute deep in Brookville territory.

“This team has a lot of work to do thinking about commitment and execution, and doing assignments,” he said.

Krug continued to thread the needle, completing every pass of what proved to be the game-sealing drive. He drove the Raiders 85 yards and capped the drive with a 15-yard strike to John Frank with 2:06 remaining.

The 2-point try worked, and the Raiders led 40-28. Karns City failed to get a first down on its last-ditch effort at a comeback, and Brookville kneeled its way to victory.

Brookville's win snapped a seven-game losing streak to Karns City. '

“It feels pretty good to keep going in the right direction that we've been trying to go the last couple years,” said Brookville coach Scott Park. “This is a big step for us.”

Karns City struck first with a 2-yard run by Kelsea early in the first. Brookeville responded with 20 unanswered points before Karns City fought back to make it 21-20 at halftime.

The lead changed again when Brookeville scored early in the third.

Krug finished 15-of-20 for 232 yards passing, while Brookville running back Brandon McGranor rushed for more than 220 yards.

“That's the key there; we balanced it out,” Park said.

Karns City tallied 10 penalties for 90 yards.

“Brookville executed better than us,” Conto said. “We had four holding calls. All were first down plays because we were being lazy doing stuff that we know how to do.”

Karns City 7 14 7 0— 28

Brookville 12 8 6 14 — 42

First Quarter

KC — Kelsea 2 run (Garing kick), 8:19

B — McGranor 49 run (kick failed), 7:11

B — McGranor 84 run (kick failed), 3:28

Second Quarter

B — Dworek 24 pass from Krug (McGranor run), 10:47

KC — Dalton Beham 9 run (Garing kick), 6:21

KC — Beham 11 run (Garing kick), 3:07

Third Quarter

B — Trenton Gilhousen 6 pass from Krug (kick failed), 7:41

KC — Kelsea 1 run (Garing kick), 4:09

Fourth Quarter

B — Dworek 10 pass from Krug (pass failed), 9:36

B — Frank 15 pass from Krug (Addison Singleton pass from Krug), 2:06

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Karns City, Beham 14-85, Kelsea 6-74, Garing 8-61, Hunter Rowe 3-44, Kepple 5-18, Josh Wimer 3-15, Kameski 5-9, Luke Rottman 1-(-4). Brookville, McGranor 18-220, Krug 2-22, Cabe Park 1-5.

Passing: Karns City, Anthony Kameski 4-10-41-0. Brookville, Krug 16-20-207-0.

Receiving: Karns City, Wimer 2-14, Brandon Hesidence 1-17, Rowe 1-10. Brookville, Dworek 6-94, McGranor 3-64, Gilhousen 3-25, Frank 1-15, Tyler Park 1-11, Singleton 1-7.