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Union/A-C Valley’s Defense Shuts Down Lent, Smethport in 14-8 Triumph

RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Union/A-C Valley coach Brad Dittman hugged his assistant coaches, his smile wide and beaming.

Falcon Knight players thrusted their arms into the cold, November air. They embraced. They celebrated.

They had ample reason to be joyous. The defense, so stout all season long, was staunch again, limiting Smethport star Noah Lent to just 60 yards rushing and intercepting the senior quarterback three times — Lent had just two INTs in nine games coming in to the night — in a 14-8 home win in the District 9 Class A semifinals Friday night.

The win puts Union/A-C Valley in the District 9 Class A championship game. After failing to win a playoff game since the Union and A-C Valley High Schools merged football programs, the Falcon Knights have now won two postseason games in a row.

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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.

They want a third.

“I’m super proud of these kids,” Dittman said. “I told these guys at the beginning of the season that this is a team that could get us over the hump. They could get us to that championship game.”

Union/A-C Valley (9-2) got to that title game the way they got nine of their wins this season: defense.

Dawson Camper was all over the field from his defensive end position. He had the game-clinching interception as he picked off a scrambling Lent with a little more than a minute to play.

The Falcon Knights’ defensive front controlled the line of scrimmage and took away Lent’s running lanes inside the tackles — that’s where Lent had done most of his damage this season on the way to more than 1,500 yards on the ground.

“We wanted to jam it up inside,” Dittman said. “We worked hard on some of they read stuff they do this week and talked to our defensive tackles about being aggressive in there. Overall, I think our front-seven did a heck of a job.”

Lent had just 60 yards on 18 carries. His longest run of the night was 25 yards.

He did throw for 80 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown pass to Alex Ognen on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the Union/A-C Valley lead to six points, but he was also intercepted three times. One of those interceptions, by Ryan Cooper, came inside the Falcon Knights’ 5 in the first half.

“Our guys made plays,” Dittman said. “We wanted to be aggressive on the football. Our guys are athletes. We dropped a ton of interceptions this season, but I don’t think we dropped any tonight.”

Smethport’s defense played toe-to-toe with Union/A-C Valley’s for much of the night.

The Falcon Knights, though, were able to bust a few big plays: A 54-yard pass from Bailey Crissman to Cooper that got a 13-play, 96-yard drive started and finished off by a 5-yard run by Caden Rainey; A 25-yard touchdown run by Mikey Card in the third quarter; And a couple of big runs by Camper that moved the chains.

Union/A-C Valley did just enough on offense.

“Our only goal was to have more points,” Dittman said, grinning. “We still need to work on some things. We still need to connect on some plays. We had some plays there but a few of those penalties stalled drives. We have to work harder on that.”

Card finished with 92 yards on 16 carries. Camper added 73 yards on 13 attempts as Union/A-C Valley rushed for 196 yards as a team.

“We struggled at times to stop their run,” said Smethport coach Adam Jack. “When you have multiple backs like they do that can make plays, what can you say?”

Jack also lamented his team’s inability to sustain drives. The Hubbers (8-3) had just nine first downs and were only 1 for 8 on third down.

“You have to give Union/A-C Valley credit on defense,” Jack said. “I mean, they’ve played good defense all year as evidenced by their top-10 ranking in the state in points allowed. It was a battle tonight. We weren’t able to establish our ground game like we normally do.”

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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.