BREAKING NEWS: Union/A-C Valley Football Game Thursday at Bucktail Canceled

FOXBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Half of the Union/A-C Valley roster is comprised of players who attend A-C Valley High School.

With that school experiencing COVID-19 issues — more than 100 students and faculty in the district were in quarantine as of Monday — the Falcon Knights football game Thursday night at Bucktail has been canceled.

“Unfortunately, this week’s (junior high) game vs. Karns City and varsity game (at) Bucktail have been canceled,” read a post on Twitter from the Union/A-C Valley football account posted late Tuesday morning.

A-C Valley athletic director Dave Sherman said the football game was scuttled, in part, because of a lack of practice time leading into Thursday’s scheduled game. That game was already moved from Friday to Thursday because of a shortage of officials in District 9.

Sherman said the decision was made “due to an abundance of caution.”

The move to remote learning at A-C Valley and the quarantine situation has also pressed pause on all extracurricular activities in the district.

“We have no practices or competitions on Tuesday or Wednesday,” Sherman said.

The Falcons’ volleyball team was scheduled to host Venango Catholic Tuesday night. Next up on A-C Valley’s schedule is Union at home on Thursday.

“We’re still planning on playing our game on Thursday,” said Falcons’ volleyball coach Mike Meals.

A-C Valley hosted a tournament this weekend to gear up for the season and fared well, but Meals and the team were notified Monday about the two-day pause.

Meals said the team is taking it all in stride.

Unfortunately, he said, they have become accustomed to the COVID-19 scheduling chaos.

“Obviously, with this the third school year — the spring (in 2020), all of last year and now the fall this year — we’re getting used to it,” Meals said. “But, yeah, there’s a lot of disappointment surrounding it, too, but overall they have a positive attitude.

“I know it was a letdown today,” Meals added. “For us Thursday will be a restart to the season, I guess, to get ourselves going again.”