St. Marys is coming off one of its more successful teams in the past two decades, but repeating that could be a tough climb.

The Flying Dutchmen went 5-4 in the regular season (3-2 in the D9 League) for its first winning regular season in the past 20 years, but much of that team has graduated.

Junior fullback Brian Tamburlin rushed for a team-high 764 yards on 124 carries (6.2 yards per carry) and 10 touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 54 yards.

The Flying Dutchmen return none of their next four leading rushers and none of the other six who caught passes a year ago.

Last season St. Marys led Karns City 14-0 with less than one minute remaining in the first half last season before the Gremlins pulled out a 19-14 win.

"He's our best weapon," said St.Marys coach Joe Schlimm, whose team will host Karns City at 7 p.m. Friday. "We have a pretty good quarterback (Bryan Dempsey) who started as a sophomore so he has some experience."

Dempsey will replace Lucas Wendel, who passed completed 81 of 140 passes for 1,260 yards and 12 touchdowns. His top target was Shad Boschert (27 catches for 506 yards, eight TDs.) who also graduated.

"(Tamburlin) is a very good running back," said Karns City coach Ed Conto. "He scored on us last year and gave us fits. They have a real good quarterback who throws a nice ball."

Conti is also impressed with senior receiver Kurt Baumgratz.

"He's fast and runs great routes," said Conto. "They have a good running back and good receivers. They have weapons."

Still, Schlimm knows the team will be in a rebuilding mode.

"I'd say we're an inexperienced team but we're not young. I don't envision us playing one or two sophomores," said Schlimm. "We have seven or eight letterwinners back from last year.

"We've got four or five starters back on defense. We're not physically big, but we have good team speed. I have high hopes in terms of getting 20 to 22 kids involved in the game and play with some excitement and some intensity,"Schlimm added.

The Gremlins have been battling the injury bug and Conto can hope his team with be in sync sometime soon.

"We've had some injuries and we're not where we need to be," said Conto. "Our offensive line, nothing materialized where we have five starters all on the same page ... As a team, we hope with each game to get better and better."

Conto is upbeat with the skill position players, which should get a boost next week when junior running back Brett Green returns from a knee injury.

Senior quarterback Matt Endlish (3-of-11, 62 yards, 1 INT) replaces Steve Black, who led the Gremlins offense the previous two seasons.

Joey Everetts, Roy Beham and Green will highlight the backfield runners while Justin Switzer and Cameron Turner key a strong receiving corps.

"Karns City is a very successful team, a very successful program and I expect the same." said Schlimm. "They had a really good freshmen class last year, the only team to beat our freshmen team.

"Their running backs are good. Their tight end (Switzer) is good. I think it'll be a tough ballgame."

<B>7 p.m., Friday</B>• <B>Streak:</B> Last year, St. Marys had its first winning regular season in 20 years.• <B>Statistic:</B> Fullback Brian Tamburlin rushed for 10 touchdowns to lead the Flying Dutchmen last season.• <B>Speaking:</B> "I think last year we stirred a little excitement and built some interest. We attracted kids into the program that have not been part of the program. We're not going to win any more games because of what we did last year." — St. Marys coach Joe Schlimm