Wagner’s Six TD Tosses Enables Redbank to Defeat #10 Keystone

Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News

Phil Myers | September 17, 2022

Alabama’s legendary coach, Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant once said, “offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.” If that in fact is true then teams around District 9 with Redbank Valley on their schedule do not have a lot to look forward to in playing these hungry Bulldogs, because right now Coach Gold has his team psyched and building momentum as each week goes by. Keystone found that out first-hand Friday night in New Bethlehem before a huge crowd at the Redbank Athletic Complex when the Bulldogs dismantled the Panthers 42-7.

On a picture-perfect night for football, Cam Wagner threw 6 touchdown passes, all in the first half. He had a 7^th TD pass nullified due to a penalty on the first drive of the second half. In playing just over two quarters, the Bulldog signal-caller connected on 14 of 17 passes for 376 yards and the 6 scores. Ashton Kahle caught 4 passes and 3 of them went for touchdowns. Aiden Ortz snared 3 passes for 160 yards and 2 scores. Mason Clouse pulled down the 6^th TD pass. This offense is fun to watch and will sell many tickets in 2022 for sure, both at home and on the road.

Cam Wagner.

This was supposed to be a hotly contested game that went right down to the wire, but Keystone was not able to slow down Redbank’s passing attack. “Our offense this year is better than last year’s offense, I really believe that,” stated Redbank’s head coach Blane Gold. (Redbank Valley lost to Bishop Guilfoyle in the PIAA Class A state championship game in 2021.) After Keystone’s Tyler Albright scored on a 4^th down 6-yard run to give the visiting Panthers a 7-0 lead, Redbank’s defense was able to stop Keystone’s offense and their potent running game the rest of the game.

Keystone draws first blood on Tyler Albright 4th down 6-yard run. Keystone 7 Redbank 0. @PaFootballNews @KeystoneFball @RVBulldogs pic.twitter.com/7lNHgym15z

— Phil Myers Sr. (@Protime_PFN) September 16, 2022

Asked about what happened on Keystone’s first drive and what changed after that, Coach Gold said, “I overthought it. That’s 1,000% my fault. I tried to get too fancy. After they scored, I just said let’s go back to how we’ve played the last 4 years. That’s what we did and they got nothing else after that.” Redbank allowed 182 yards rushing (76 on the scoring drive), but only 20 yards passing on 3 completions. The Bulldog defense forced and recovered a pair of fumbles, plus intercepted 3 passes too, with Kahle getting 2 and Ortz the other. “We believe, for teams that run the ball, if we can get a two-score lead, we’ll put our defensive backs against anybody in Single A in the state,” commented Coach Gold.

“Our O-line was one of the biggest questions coming into this year, but they have played really well the past 4 weeks. We knew our skill guys coming back were still going to be good,” stated Wagner. He continued by saying, “we have a lot of speed, a lot of good route runners, and if we can get the ball to them, they can make some plays. I felt we could score some points tonight.”

Trailing 7-0 after a little over four minutes, Redbank went 73 yards in two plays, when Wagner lofted a pass to Ortz for a 65-yard touchdown. He followed that up with two more TD tosses in the opening quarter. A 31-yarder to Kahle following Keystone’s fumble of the Redbank kickoff and a 5-yarder to Kahle. “Cam started the district championship game as a freshman. A lot of people don’t remember that. Cam was this close to starting last year,” said Coach Gold.

In the second quarter TD tosses to Kahle for 13 yards, Clouse for 16 yards, and Ortz for 86 yards accounted for the balance of the game’s scoring. The Mercy Rule went into effect for the second half due to Redbank’s 35-point lead at the half. “We just beat the #10 team in the state,” Gold told the kids after the game. Gold also stated that, “We have better players coming back than we lost. Fortunately for us nobody knew that our replacements are actually better than who we graduated.” Redbank accumulated 452 yards of offense, while Keystone was limited to 202 yards led by Kyle Nellis who rushed for 89 yards on 19 carries.

Wagner throws 5th TD pass in 1st half. Redbank 35 Keystone 7. @PaFootballNews @RVBulldogs @KeystoneFball pic.twitter.com/6XtkHeCyqk

— Phil Myers Sr. (@Protime_PFN) September 16, 2022

“Redbank’s athleticism showed tonight. I’m pretty sure we’ll meet them again in the playoffs. We have to fix a few things in the meantime,” said Keystone head coach Todd Smith. One of the keys to the game, according to Smith, was when his Panthers fumbled the kickoff after Redbank had tied the score at 7. The 5 turnovers didn’t help either as 4 of them led to Redbank scores.

Redbank is now 4-0 and will play 0-4 Ridgway at Ridgway next week. Keystone falls to 3-1 and travels to 1-3 Smethport next week.

Redbank Valley 42 Keystone 7

Score by Quarters:

Keystone – 7 0 0 0 – 7
Redbank – 21 21 0 0 – 42

First Quarter:

K – Tyler Albright 6 yd run, (Josh Beal PAT), 7:54

RBV – Aiden Ortz 65 yd pass from Cam Wagner, (Owen Clouse PAT), 6:58

RBV – Ashton Kahle 31 yd pass from Wagner, (Owen Clouse PAT), 5:44

RBV – Kahle 5 yd pass from Wagner, (Owen Clouse PAT), :14

Second Quarter:

RBV – Kahle 13 yd pass from Wagner, (Owen Clouse PAT), 10:11

RBV – Mason Clouse 16 yd pass from Wagner, (Owen Clouse PAT), 8:28