KNOX, Pa. (EYT/D9) — If it could go wrong for the Union/A-C Valley football team in the first half, it did.
Right from the opening kickoff.
(Photos by Shelly Atzeni)
Breakdowns. Turnovers. Mental and physical mistakes. What resulted was an early 18-0 hole in on the road against Keystone Thursday night.
Yet — somehow — Union/A-C Valley found a way to overcome that deficit for a 26-24 win.
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
“Our kids really responded in the second half. We challenged them,” said Union/A-C Valley coach Brad Dittman. “It wasn’t pretty — it never is against Keystone — but we got it done and we’ll take it.”
It was downright ugly at times for the Falcon Knights (5-1).
Quite pretty to Keystone (5-1), though.
Kyle Nellis bobbled the opening kickoff at the 20, gathered it at the 25, made a move, cut to the sideline and out-ran everyone to the end zone to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead before the fans that packed Keystone High School’s stadium had a chance to get comfortable in their seats.
Then things continued to unravel for Union/A-C Valley. Suddenly the Falcon Knights were buried in an avalanche of miscues and big Keystone plays.
Nellis again scored, this time on a 47-yard interception return after catching a batted ball at the line of scrimmage to give the Panthers a 12-0 advantage.
A blocked punt set Keystone up at the Union/A-C Valley 1 early in the second quarter and quarterback Bret Wingard plowed in from there for an 18-0 Panther lead.
While Keystone was piling up the points, the Falcon Knights were piling up the turnovers.
During one stretch, Union/A-C Valley drives resulted in: interception for a touchdown, fumble, blocked punt, fumble, fumble.
“Anybody’s tough to beat turning the ball over like that,” Dittman said.
A turning point came at the end of the first half when Union/A-C Valley finally mounted a semblance of a drive, moving from their own 40 to the Keystone 12 with less than a minute before halftime.
With quarterback Bailey Crissman on the sideline after taking a hit to the stomach on the previous play, Trey Fleming came in and hit Ryan Cooper in stride on a slant for a 12-yard score to send the Falcon Knights into the half down 18-6 and with some momentum.
Dittman said he could tell during halftime that his team was going to be OK.
“They kind of loosened up,” Dittman said. “We were kind of tight there at the beginning of the game. When they’re loose like that, I know they’re gonna play ball.”
And keep digging.
“We’ve been in that spot a couple of times this year and we fought back,” Dittman said. “We came up a little short against Brockway (after falling behind 28-6 in a 28-20 loss in Week 1). We were down at the half against Port Allegany last week and we had a good second half, so I think that gave our guys some confidence to know that we can get ourselves back in these ballgames.”
Keystone coach Ryan Smith lamented not being able to deliver the knockout blow with Union/A-C Valley on the ropes for much of the first half.
“I think we got complacent,” he said. “We stopped playing hard. We started giving up big plays. We made too many mental mistakes. We have not made this many mental mistakes all year. I told the guys a good team will respond in two ways: either they’ll cower down or respond and take care of business. We’ll respond next week.”
Union/A-C Valley responded with staunch defense.
Even when Keystone was building an 18-0 lead, the Panthers weren’t moving the ball well. Keystone had just 72 yards of offense in the first half.
It didn’t get much better in the second half.
That gave Union/A-C Valley the time to regroup and chip away at the lead.
Caden Rainey gave the Falcon Knights another big momentum swing when he caught a screen pass from Crissman, broke a tackle in the backfield and sprinted 53 yards for a touchdown early in the third quarter.
A 2-point conversion pass from Crissman to Cooper cut the lead to 18-14.
Keystone’s defense also played well for the most part. The Panthers turned Union/A-C Valley away at the 7 to end a 10-play, 58-yard drive in the fourth quarter.
But Skyler Roxbury intercepted a pass at the 20 on Keystone’s ensuing drive with 8:02 left in the game to give Union/A-C Valley a 20-18 lead.
Mikey Card scored on a 4-yard run just three minutes later after a botched punt attempt by Keystone to extend the lead to 26-18.
The Panthers, though, had a rally in them, too.
Wingard found a streaking Tyler Albright down the right sideline for an 80-yard touchdown with 4:40 left. The 2-point conversion play failed, however, and Keystone was still staring at a two-point deficit.
Union/A-C Valley was able to burn most of the clock on its drive, which was kept alive by a pass interference call.
Smith, of course, thought it was a bad call. Dittman, of course, didn’t.
“I mean, we don’t agree with the calls that go against us,” Dittman said. “That’s football, you know.”
Keystone got the ball back at its own 41 with less than a minute on the clock, but didn’t gain a yard.
Crissman was 9 of 22 for 154 yards passing for Union/A-C Valley. Mikey Card led the ground game with 97 yards on 14 carries and Roxbury caught four passes for 68 yards.
Keystone struggled offensively. Wingard was was 7 of 25 for 142 yards — 80 of that coming on one play. Nellis was held to just 15 yards on 14 attempts. Albright had a big night, though, with four catches for 120 yards. Keystone had just 23 yards rushing.
Now, the Panthers will have to get back to work to rebound from their first loss.
Keystone is still in first place in the muddled Small School South division. The Panthers, Redbank Valley and Union/A-C Valley all have one loss now.
“Let’s be honest. No one ever thought we would be in this situation. Everyone picked us to finish behind these guys,” Smith said. “We set goals for the year. First was beat Redbank. The kids accomplished that. The next was clinch a playoff berth. We did that last week. Third was win the South Division and we’re still in line to do that because of tiebreakers. We’re still in the driver’s seat.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
Fall Sports
Rocky Grove and Lakeview Team Up for Mason
