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Weapons Everywhere: Union/A-C Valley Has Dynamic Offense, Opportunistic Defense; Will Square Off Against Smethport in Semifinals Friday

RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Mikey Card. Dawson Camper. Caden Rainey. Skylar Roxbury. Ryan Cooper. Zac Cooper. Bailey Crissman. Brody Dittman.

To name a few.

(Photo by Shelly Atzeni)

The Union/A-C Valley football team has a lot of threats on offense. Each one of those names is capable of making a big play at any time for the Falcon Knights.

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Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.

At least that’s the hope when second-seeded Union/A-C Valley hosts No. 3 Smethport in the District 9 Class A semifinals Friday night.

“We have a lot of tools at our disposal,” said Union/A-C Valley coach Brad Dittman. “And, you know, we try to get everybody involved. That’s been our M.O. for years. This year is no different and this game is no different. We’ll spread the ball around. We’ll throw some things at them and see what happens.”

It’s a a sort of embarrassment of riches when it comes to play-making talent for the Falcon Knights on both sides of the ball.

Camper is a matchup nightmare for teams; The 6-foot-4 sophomore has 12 rushing touchdowns this season. Card is the leading rusher with 834 yards on just 104 carries. Rainey has been the specialty item taken off the shelf when a big play is needed on special teams as well as in the running and passing games. Rainey is averaging 23.8 yards per punt returns and also has 205 yards receiving and 167 yards rushing.

“They’re a nightmare personnel-wise to prepare for,” said Smethport coach Adam Jack. “Card is a tough runner and with the emergence of Camper, and both receivers on the outside who are quick, it’s tough. Then you have Rainey who’s a gamer. You can’t discount that kid.”

Union/A-C Valley (8-2) has been rotating quarterbacks Crissman and Dittman with some good results.

Crissman, a tall and lanky junior at 6-5, has thrown 13 touchdown passes this season. Dittman is a better runner, but has also thrown the ball well at times with three TD passes.

“They’ve embraced it,” Coach Dittman said of the QB rotation. “We kind of threw it at them at the end of the season. Like I said last week, they both have been doing some good things and they’ve both been doing some bad things, but having two guys, they push each other.”

There’s no quarterback rotation in Smethport (8-2).

Noah Lent is the guy.

Lent is having an eye-popping season. The senior, who missed the Hubbers final game of the regular season against Coudersport, has rushed for 1,553 yards and 24 touchdowns and passed for 868 and 17 more scores.

He had another big game in a 46-27 win over Curwensville in the first round of the playoffs last week with 171 yards rushing and two touchdowns and 117 yards passing and two more scores.

Lent, though, also had a lot of help. Ryan Pelchy rushed for 130 yards and Ryan Mason added another 117 yards as Smethport gained 432 yards on the ground against Curwensville.

“Noah Lent, he’s special,” Coach Dittman said. “We know about No. 9. Everybody in the league knows about No. 9. But you know, we can’t discredit anybody else on that team, either. They’re a good football team. They’re 8-2 for a reason. We have to be disciplined in what we do, and physical. We can’t make mistakes.”

Mistakes are something that has dogged the Falcon Knights at times this season.

Sharply cutting down on the miscues was a point of emphasis in the last few weeks and the work has shown. After an eight-turnover game against Redbank Valley, Union/A-C Valley has taken much better care of the football in the last two games.

“We’ve been talking about it for weeks,” Coach Dittman said. “The penalties and the turnovers have killed us at times this year. We keep preaching about it.”

The turnover battle may be even more important Friday night. Smethport doesn’t commit many — just 10 in 10 games.

But Union/A-C Valley has an opportunistic defense.

Roxbury has eight interceptions this season as the Falcon Knights have 20 as a team. Union/A-C Valley has also recovered nine fumbles.

“They’re very tough up front,” Jack said. “They’re ranked in the Top 10 in the state in points allowed this season. They’re stingy against the run and they have some real athletic guys in the secondary. They close in a hurry. They play a a 5-2 with a two-high safety. You don’t see a lot of teams playing that and they play it really well.”

It’s the second straight home playoff game for the Falcon Knights, who are coming off their first playoff win since Union and A-C Valley merged football programs in 2016.

“It’s huge,” Coach Dittman said. “We’ve traveled in the playoffs here over the past three years — two of them have been trips to Smethport. To have two home games, it’s a big deal.

“It was big for us to get that playoff win, get that monkey off our back after a couple of close playoff losses,” the coach added. “That’s a credit to our seniors because they’ve been getting after it for three, four years now. They’re a big part of what we’ve done and the wins we’ve put together. But they don’t want to settle. We don’t want to be done.”

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Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.