Karns City returned. Kane reloaded.

Now the top two football teams in District 9 Class AA are ready to decide who is king of the hill.

The second-seeded Gremlins (10-1) take on the top-seeded Wolves (11-0) in the district championship game at 7 p.m. Friday at Clarion University's Memorial Stadium in a rematch of last year's title contest. KC won that one, 33-27.

“I don't know if we should have won that game last year,” Karns City coach Ed Conto said. “We turned the ball over twice inside the 10-yard line, made mistakes, fell behind early ... You usually don't win when you do those things.”

Kane coach Todd Silfies remembers the game as highly competitive.

“It was two good teams playing each other,” he said. “We missed the chance to get off the field a couple of times on their final game-winning drive. I do remember that.”

The Gremlins have won all three playoff meetings between the teams in the past 10 years: 33-27 last year, 40-0 in 2009 and 42-14 in 2008. The teams do not face each other during the regular season.

“It's tough to simulate what they do in practice because we don't have anybody up here (near Bradford) that does what they do offensively,” Silfies said. “They run a different type of Wing-T and their tempo is quick.

“None of the teams we play during the season play Karns City, so we don't get a big report on them. But I do know they're another year older, another year faster and another year more experienced this time.”

Since losing a 42-7 decision to Clarion in Week 2, the Gremlins have reeled off nine straight wins, scoring at least 42 points in each. They scored more than 50 points in six of those wins, including triumphs of 52-14 over Marion Center and 55-6 over St. Marys in their last two contests.

Karns City has six running backs — Tristan Rhoades, Wyatt Everetts, Zach Moore, Adam Whited, Dakota Mohney and Logan Moroney — with between 371 and 597 yards rushing and five to seven touchdowns on the ground this year.

“We've just been blessed to have so many good backs come through here in recent years,” Conto said. “They all deserve their share of reps and that system has worked for us.

“The drawback is it takes a couple of games into the season before we sort all of that out and get clicking on all cylinders.”

Rhoades is the Gremlins' leading rusher, but did not play in the regular season finale and had just two carries for four yards last week. Conto said Rhoades should see significant action on both sides of the ball Friday.

“He should be ready to go,” the coach said. “He had a bruised bone in his foot, sprained ankle, a pulled muscle,. so we've been resting him.

“Defensively, we'll probably slide him from safety to corner because they (Kane) have some dangerous receivers.”

The Wolves graduated their starting quarterback, leading rusher and second-best receiver from a year ago. Kane returns five starters from 2012, including receiver Jeff Kocjancic (53 catches, 751 yards, 15 TDs), who had a big game against KC last season.

Andrew Pierson complements Kocjancic with 37 catches for 425 yards and five touchdowns.

“Andrew was a spot player for us last year and made some big plays,” Silfies said. “We've had our quarterback and running back, both first-time starters as seniors, step up and have big years for us.”

Kevin Cleer has completed 120 of 183 passes for 1,598 yards, 32 touchdowns and four interceptions. John English has carried 168 times for 1,069 yards and 12 scores.

The Wolves average 36 points per game. They've held eight of 11 opponents to 14 points or less.

Linebacker James Lingenfelter leads the team with 117 tackles while nose tackle Evan Delong had 84 tackles, 19 for loss.

“James is a nice physial linebacker and Delong finished second in the state at his weight class in wrestling last year,” Silfies said. “He'll probably wrestle at 155, so he's under-sized in there.”

Whited at defensive end, Cody Deal and Mike Olkowski at linebacker, Mohney and Tyler Dean at corner, Everetts and Ethan Conto at safety anchor the Gremlin defense.

“It's been a multitude if players doing the job for us there,” Conto said.

The Gremlins can throw the ball in their own right. Tyler Kepple has thrown for 1,410 yards and 25 touchdowns. Mohney has 30 catches for 495 yards and eight scores, Moroney 24 catches for 431 yards and seven TDs.

“You look at Kane on film and you don't see any mistakes,” Conto said. “They don't make mistakes. That's what undefeated teams do. We're going to have to match that.”

While Silfies said the team with the fewer mistakes will likely win, he pointed to special teams as well.

“We make imact plays there and so do they,” he said. “Both teams have the ability to block punts. A play like that could decide this thing.”