Another area where a player is filling in is on the line. Senior Zach Sherman is currently sidelined, but junior Tanner Urbanick has stepped in to play without a hitch.

“All the skill players have been stepping up,” Gould added.

The offense is led by the usual suspects. Quarterback Trevor Litwiler is 20-for-28 for 414 yards with five pass TDs, zero picks, 161 rush yards and another four TDs.

Doug Farley has 58 carries for 458 yards and five scores. And Matt Laird leads the team with nine catches for 199 yards and two scores.

But freshman Kearns and sophomore Stephen Gaetano have also added a combined 167 yards on 34 carries (4.9 yards per carry).

Linesville is currently outscoring opponents 163-40 with one shutout. The Lions average 326 yards of offense per contest while allowing just 125.

The numbers just go to show the program is producing strong players ready to jump into the fire regardless of age.

Linesville has another tough test this week, facing an experienced Farrell team (2-2, 1-1) on the road.

“As long as the kids can relax a little bit, we’ll be fine,” Gould said. “We’ve got to slow Farrell down. They can make a play at any time, so we’ve got to slow them down.”

From there, Gould believes good things can continue to happen if the kids are ready to go on game day.

“It’s up to the kids on how they are going to perform on Friday night,” he said. “They showed up last Friday. They played hard from beginning to end. Hopefully we can do the same thing this Friday.

“Our goal has been to get into the playoffs all year and be one of the top teams in our region.”