PREVIEW: Redbank Valley and Karns City Meet in Battle of Very Different Styles

NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Here’s what Redbank Valley football coach Blane Gold doesn’t want to see on Friday night at Karns City.

A bunch of 4-yard runs against his defense.

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

Here’s what Gold wants to see.

A double-digit lead.

It may come down to that in a battle of conflicting styles when the Bulldogs head west to take on Karns City.

Each team is dead set on doing what they do.

(Pictured above, Redbank Valley quarterback Braylon Wagner rolls out of the pocket during a game late last season/photo by Madison McFarland)

“The interesting matchup of the game is are we going to be able to stop their run and are they going to be able to stop our passing game?” Gold said. “We can’t give up four yards per carry because that will be a slow death of us. When we play football teams that live and die by the run, we always challenge our guys to find a way to get up two scores because we feel like that takes them out of their element. But, obviously, that’s an extremely difficult thing to do.”

Karns City’s first task will be to try to slow down Redbank Valley’s potent air attack, which is led by sophomore quarterback Braylon Wagner.

The Gremlins struggled against another strong-armed and poised sophomore QB last week in the season opener when DuBois’ Trey Wingard picked them apart for 340 yards and four touchdowns in a wild 41-36 loss.

It won’t get any easier this week against Redbank Valley, which also has a strong stable of pass catchers.

“It was a number of little factors last week,” said Karns City coach Joe Sherwin. “We need to get a little better pass rush. We need to get to our spots in zone coverage and if we’re playing some man coverage, we need to stay with the receivers a little better and have better communication. We had some communication issues and that’s kind of to be expected in the first game. Those are all things we are working on and hopefully improving this week.”

Despite the loss, Sherwin was encouraged by a lot of what he saw.

“We moved the ball offensively and defensively we did have some opportunities to make some plays,” Sherwin said. “We just didn’t capitalize on those opportunities. This week, like in any week, we have to be able to capitalize. You can’t miss those chances again.”

(Karns City coach Joe Sherwin talks with his team after a season-opening loss to DuBois)

Redbank Valley had no trouble with Smethport after a slow start, scoring 50 points in the second quarter alone on the way to a 71-7 win.

Gold, though, was dismayed by a lackluster first quarter that saw the first 12 minutes end in a 7-7 tie.

“We had an absolutely terrible first quarter,” Gold said. “No disrespect to Smethport, but that was a football team we were better than and we were in a situation, talent-wise, where we were able to weather that storm. Friday night will be a different story. If we come out and play that bad against Karns City in the beginning, there’s a chance that just playing three quarters of football will not be enough to be able to stay in the game against Karns City.”

Redbank Valley certainly responded after the first-quarter doldrums.

Wagner was 14 of 18 for 273 yards and four touchdowns. Mason Clouse caught five passes for 104 yards and two scores and Ashton George and Rylan Rupp also had TD receptions for the Bulldogs.

Clouse and Jaxon Huffman also added interception returns for touchdowns in the rout.

This week will be a different kind of test against Karns City, which rushed for 252 yards against DuBois.

Mason Martin led the way with 96 yards and Luke Cramer, in his first game back after tearing his ACL against Redbank Valley last season, scored three touchdowns.

“We remember Luke Cramer,” Gold said. “He ran over six guys before we tackled him late in that game last year. That has stuck with us and we obviously understand what he is capable of doing. We better rally to the football and we better work hard to make tackles. Because if we don’t, we’re gonna be in trouble.”

Martin also threw of 107 yards last week.

Hunter Scherer added 70 yards on the ground, including a 60-yard TD run, for Karns City.

Last year, Redbank Valley beat the Gremlins 25-15 in the first matchup between the two schools since 2017.

Karns City has fared well against the Bulldogs, going 9-4 against Redbank since 2004.

Gold is well aware of how dangerous the Gremlins are, especially staring at a potential 0-2 start again.

“We ran into the same situation last year,” Gold said. “They are going to be highly motivated to not drop to 0-2. You have a pretty good idea of what they’re going to try to do — play a physical brand of football. We have to be disciplined in our assignments and we have to play hard, physical football if we want any chance of coming out on top.”

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