KARNS CITY — Karns City coach Ed Conto needed only two words to sum up his team's performance in Friday night's home opener: train wreck.

A week after a last- minute comeback win for the Gremlins, KC made numerous mistakes, fell behind early and never recovered in a 28-14 football loss to Redbank Valley.

Conto saw his team go three-and-out on its first possession before allowing the Bulldogs to storm down the field to take the early lead.

On the second play of the Gremlins' ensuing drive, quarterback Dylan Hipple found open space down the middle of the field. As Hipple was making a cut, a Redbank player got his fist on the ball and knocked it loose.

The Bulldogs recovered and scored a second touchdown just 56 seconds after the first.

"Basically, I think we were a train wreck tonight," Conto said. "As coaches, it's on us to go back and fix everything. We didn't execute anything tonight. There's not one kid you can blame because everyone had a part of it."

One of the biggest mistakes in the first half for Karns City was the exchange between the center and Hipple. Five times the snap hit the ground, and while none of them were recovered by Redbank, two stalled drives on third-and-short situations.

On the other side of the field, Redbank controlled both the offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage. Bulldogs defenders constantly disrupted Hipple and forced him to throw into coverage.

The Redbank offense used brothers Caleb and Keaton Delp to gain big chunks of yardage. Caleb Delp ended with 99 yards rushing on 12 carries while his brother, Keaton, finished with three receptions, two resulting in touchdowns.

Redbank Valley coach Frank Fabian made it clear that winning in Karns City is big for any team, considering the success the Gremlins have had in recent years, and it couldn't have been done without the Delps.

"As far as the Delp brothers, sometimes I get asked to describe them and the only word I can come up with is guts. Both those kids have guts," Fabian said

"They're not the fastest kids or strongest kids, but when they step between the lines, they give you everything they have."

Despite the play of the Delp brothers and the Gremlins' first-half miscues, an early fourth-quarter Glenn Toy touchdown got KC back within two scores.

After Redbank advanced to midfield, Karns City forced a punt and got the ball back with more than half the quarter remaining.

But more mistakes ended any comeback hopes, as a false-start penalty pushed the Gremlins inside their 10 before Hipple fired his second interception of the game.

Karns City ended the game with more total yards than the Bulldogs, but three turnovers and five other fumbles were too much to overcome.

"The turnovers, the missed opportunities and the missed tackles — three-quarters of the time I looked out there and can't recognize the defense," Conto said. "We just gotta go back and get to work."