Union/A-C Valley drops Keystone @UHSACV_Football @KeystoneFootba2

Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News

PFN Staff | September 19, 2020

Special contribution d9and10sports.com Chris Rosetti

KNOX, Pa. – Caiden Rainey’s 10-yard touchdown run capped a 63-yard drive to open the second half for Union/A-C Valley and the Falcon Knights did the rest in a 14-7 win over rival Keystone Friday night in Knox.

Rainey had the big plays of the drive including an 18-yard catch and run on a third-and-17 play early in the drive and a 16-yard carry that set Union/A-C Valley up inside the 10-yard line later in the drive.

“It was huge to keep the drive going,” Dittman said. “We talk about converting plays like that. We didn’t execute (on offense) well at times, but to go out there in the second half and take what they gave us and convert there was big for us.”

The early touchdown was the only score of the second half for either team, as the game had gone to halftime tied at seven.

Both defenses came up big when they needed to after the Rainey score, and some Keystone miscues helped as well.

Down by the touchdown early in the fourth quarter, Keystone appeared to tie the game on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Bret Wingard to Logan Sell. But the Panthers were called for an illegal formation on the play.

That was the second costly mistake in a row by Keystone on the drive, as the Panthers were sitting at second-and-4 at the Union/A-C Valley 40-yard line when they got called for an illegal substitution.

Later in the quarter, Keystone tried a fake punt but Karter Vogle sniffed it out and stopped the play dead in its tracks.

Union/A-C Valley had a chance to put the game away facing third-and-1 inside the 30-yard line with just over two minutes to play but lost yards on third down and then lost a fumble on fourth down giving Keystone one last chance.

The Panthers moved into Falcon Knight territory but came up short with two incomplete passes on third-and-5 and fourth-and-5.

Keystone went up 7-0 when it used up 6:34 on the game-opening drive scoring on a 5-yard Wingard to Nick Weaver touchdown pass.

Early in the second quarter, the Panthers threatened to go ahead 14-0 driving to the Union/A-C Valley 25-yard line. But the game changed on a fourth-and-3 play when Kylar Culbertson stepped in front of a Wingard pass at the 24-yard line, picked it off and sprinted 76 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at seven.

Tanner Merwin led Union/A-C Valley with 104 combined yards of offense. He was 5 of 13 passing for 57 yards and ran nine times for 47 yards. Rainey added seven carries for 28 yards and caught two passes for 28 yards, while Culbertson had six totes for 41 yards.

Culbertson had seven tackles while Carter Terwint had nine and Karter Vogle six including at least four key stops.

As a team, Union/A-C Valley accounted for 193 yards of offense and was outgained by Keystone, which had 271.

Wingard was 15 of 28 for 157 yards, the touchdown and two interceptions with Weaver catching six passes for 74 yards. Weaver also ran 12 times for 34 yards.

Taylar Altman ran for a team-best 45 yards on eight carries.

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