A Win is a Win: Union/A-C Valley Does What it Needs to Do in Season-Opening Victory Over Cameron County

RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Union/A-C Valley football coach Brad Dittman stood in the middle of his football team. Some players stood. Some knelt on one knee. Some chewed on their mouth guards and some stared at the dewey grass in the end zone near the scoreboard.

They looked somber.

Dittman grinned and threw his arms in the air.

“Can I get a smile,” he said loudly. “We won the game.”

Union/A-C Valley did win, beating Cameron County 27-14. But it wasn’t always pretty and this Falcon Knights team certainly wanted to play better. They want more this season than winning sloppy.

“We’re glad to get the win out of it,” Dittman said. “A win’s a win — any way we can get it. With the schedule we have, we’ll take it.”

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Early on, it looked as though Union/A-C Valley was going to roll.

Cameron County turned the ball over on a fumble on its first offense play and the Falcon Knights capitalized with a 6-yard TD pass from Brad Dittman to Ryan Cooper on a bubble screen on a fourth-and-goal play.

Later in the first quarter, Union/A-C Valley scored a touchdown again on fourth down when Zach Cooper found his way into the end zone on an 11-yard run to make it 14-0.

Yards became hard to come by after that for the Falcon Knights.

Cameron County, which lost to Union/A-C Valley, 20-6, in the regular season and again, 31-6, in the District 9 Class A playoffs last season, was staunch on defense, especially up front.

The Falcon Knights managed just 34 yards rushing in the game and were out-gained by the Red Raiders, 215-157.

“Did we really?” asked Cameron County coach Ryan Neyman of gaining more yards on his foe. “We held them to under 160 yards? I’ll take that every week. Our defense stepped up. Union/A-C Valley is one of the favorites this year and we competed with them. It was a battle.”

Cameron County cut the lead to 14-6 on a 4-yard TD run by quarterback Maddox Baughman, one play after a sack and fumble set the Red Raiders up.

But on the ensuing kickoff, Dawson Camper sprinted 73 yards for a touchdown to put the lead back up to 21-6.

The backbreaker for Cameron County came at the end of the first half.

Another turnover with a little more than a minute remaining in the second quarter gave Union/A-C Valley the ball at the Raider 26. Three plays later, Mikey Card caught a pass in the flat and outran everyone to the pylon for a 16-yard touchdown reception with five seconds on the clock.

Neyman bemoaned the early miscues — and especially that late first-half score.

“That 100% killed us,” Neyman said. “First game jitters, you know? We had three main, big mistakes. We don’t make those and it’s a little tighter.”

Union/A-C Valley had just one first down in the second half. The Falcon Knights also had a long touchdown run by freshman Logan Skibinski called back by penalty in the fourth quarter.

“In the second half, we couldn’t get out of our own way,” Coach Dittman said. “I’m not sure what happened there. We couldn’t move the ball and we had a bunch of penalties. We have to play 48 minutes of football and that’s on me. I have to figure out a way to make sure we’re doing that.”

Still, Union/A-C Valley got a victory against a strong opponent. And there were some certainly some positives.

Brody Dittman finished 10 of 15 for 123 yards and two touchdowns; Skyler Roxbury had four receptions for 42 yards and Union/A-C Valley’s defense sacked Baughman four times and forced four turnovers.

There were also some bright spots for Cameron County.

Baughman threw for 130 yards and was precise with his deep ball. He had a long touchdown pass called back by penalty.

Brevin Lewis caught four passes for 76 yards and Lathan Reed rushed for 41 yards on nine attempts.

That made the win, even though it was not a perfect one, welcome for Dittman.

“Cameron County is a good football team,” the coach said. “I’ve been saying that since last year. To get the win tonight as bad as we played in the second half tonight is a good thing.”

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