Braylon Wagner Leads Redbank Valley to Fifth D9 Title Game in Six Years

Tagged under: District 9, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

Phil Myers | November 9, 2024

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Braylon Wagner accounted for all four of Redbank’s touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 31-13 victory over a determined and stubborn Union/A-C Valley football team. The D9 Class A semi-final was held in Brookville on their 2024 newly turfed field before a nice sized crowd.

Wagner received accolades from his own coach and the opposition coach after the game. “He’s a special talent,” said Wagner’s coach Blane Gold. UACV’s Coach Dan Reed stated, “What can you say about Braylon Wagner? Unbelievable! You have to tip your hat to him.”

File Photo of Braylon Wagner, Redbank Valley QB.

The junior quarterback threw for two touchdowns and scored two more running with the football. He also produced three yards shy of 300 all-purpose yards. To top it off, he played defense all night making some nice tackles. Coach Gold offered this statement about Wagner playing defense at this point of the year, “For us, we felt it wasn’t worth the risk in the regular season, but I think you even saw defensively not just in the pass game, but the kid can make tackles in the run game.”

Wagner led his team to the game’s first score after Redbank received the opening kickoff. The first play from scrimmage he ran for sixteen yards. He followed that with a 2-yard run and a 37-yard pass to Breckin Minich. After another completion, this time to Jaxon Huffman, Wagner scored on a 4-yard run. The two-point conversion was a thing of beauty as they shifted most of the offense to the left with Wagner taking the snap in the middle, faking a run and lobbing a pass to a wide-open Easton Magagnotti. At the 9:24 mark Redbank led 8-0.

After the ensuing kickoff, UACV turned the ball over on a second down pass that was intercepted by Brock George. This led to a 3-play thirty-yard drive that ended with a Wagner to Rylan Rupp touchdown pass that covered 15 yards. The extra point went astray and with 8 minutes left in the first quarter, the Bulldogs were looking like they were on their way to a route leading 14-0.

Redbank with ball in dark uniforms.

But Union/A-C Valley had other ideas. They are a hard-nosed team and they don’t quit. The Falcon-Knights embarked on a 15-play 63-yard drive that ate up over 7 minutes of clock time. That possession included two fourth down conversions to keep the drive going. Quarterback Owen Bish and running Back Max Gallagher did most of the damage, accounting for 49 yards running the rock. Bish scored Union’s first points when he ran 5 yards for the touchdown. Eduardo Gularte booted the point after and with less than a minute left in quarter one the Falcon-Knights now trailed 14-7.

For the rest of the first half, the teams exchanged punts in hopes of gaining field position, except when Union faked a punt using a man in motion, but Redbank stopped him a yard short to take possession. The Bulldogs had a couple of long pass plays called back due to penalties during one drive. Then Redbank took advantage of their timeouts and a bad play by Union/A-C Valley.

With 2:12 left in the half and the ball at their own 23 after a Redbank punt, UACV tried a short comeback pass that resulted in the receiver trying to reverse field and being chased down for a 10-yard loss. An incomplete pass, and a 10-yard pass forced Union to kick the ball away. Drew Byers returned the punt 18 yards to the Falcon-Knight 42 with 1:35 left on the clock.

On second down, after a sack. Wagner hit Byers with a 38-yard pass to the Union/A-C Valley 9-yard line. A two-yard pass and a six-yard run by Wagner put the ball at the one. With 21 seconds left and no timeouts remaining, Wagner tried to run it in but the UACV defense stuffed him inside the one. Trying to get off the fourth down play before the half ended, the ball was snapped to Wagner just as the clock hit zero. He proceeded to roll left and found his receiver in the end zone for a touchdown. But an illegal shift by RB Valley negated the score.

Here is what was interesting and actually benefitted the Bulldogs. Most people think the half is over when the offense commits a penalty with no time left as the defense simply refuses the penalty, the play stands and the half is over. However, in this case the play resulted in a touchdown, therefore Union had to accept the penalty which allowed Redbank to have another play. Kieran Fricko kicked a 23-yard field goal and Redbank Valley led 17-7 at the half.

Union/A-C Valley came out in the second half and drove 69 yards on 9 plays to cut the deficit to 17-13. A nice mix of runs and passes produced positive yards in all but one play. Bish’s 23-yard run on first down at the Redbank 30 set up his 7-yard scoring toss to Christian Salizzoni on the next play. Now it was a game again with under 8 minutes to go in the third quarter.

Union/A-C Valley with ball in white uniforms.

But that would be it for the Falcon-Knight offense. The Redbank Valley Bulldog defense would limit Union to 21 total yards in their last three possessions of the game. Meanwhile, Redbank would tally a score in the third and another in the fourth to secure their 31-13 victory.

Coach Gold’s team answered the bell with their precarious 17-13 lead. Wagner lobbed a 52-yard touchdown pass to Carson Gould to cap a 7-play 76-yard drive that put the Bulldogs back up by two scores 24-13. In the fourth Wagner ran 19 yards to score his second TD. It was a really nice run where he juked and made cuts leaving the Union defense scratching their heads. “He (Wagner) made some passes and their kids making plays on the receiving end of it, and he just made us look silly chasing him around back there,” said Reed, “That was really what was the difference in the game.” A hand full of times the UACV defense had Wagner hemmed in and he escaped running for positive yards or getting a pass off.

Wagner finished the game by passing for 231 yards and a pair of TD tosses. He also ran for 66 yards and two more touchdowns. Coach Gold said this of his junior signal caller, “there are times where we say, ‘hey if things break down, play backyard football.’ That’s what he does at times.”

Coach Gold (white jacket with red top) with his defense during a timeout.

Gold was also proud of his defense and rightly so as they limited UACV to a total of 180 yards for the game. Another factor that probably hurt the Falcon-Knight running game was OL/DL Cole Wiant going down with an injury late in the first quarter. “It was huge,” said Reed, “It’s a big deal whenever you lose somebody like that.” Wiant is 6’2” and weighs 290 pounds and is a force out there on the field.

Union/A-C Valley finishes the year with a respectable 8-4 record. Redbank Valley, now 9-3, advances to the D9 Class A championship game for the 5^th time in 6 years. They are the defending champs and have won a trio of titles in their previous 4 appearances under Coach Gold. Redbank will play undefeated and state ranked Port Allegany next week. “Port Allegany is a phenomenal football team. It’s the most physical team I’ve faced since Coudersport in 2019. It’s going to be a massive task,” was Gold’s comments about facing the Gators next week.

Score by Quarters:

Union/A-C Valley – 7 0 6 0 – 13

Redbank Valley – 14 3 7 7 – 31

Scoring Summary:

First Quarter:

RV – Braylon Wagner 4-yard run, (2-pt conversion Wagner to Magagnotti), 9:24

RV – Rylan Rupp 15-yard pass from Wagner, (PAT no good), 8:00

UACV – Owen Bish 5-yard run, (Eduardo Gularte PAT), 0:45

Second Quarter:

RV – Kieran Fricko 23-yard field goal, 0:00

Third Quarter:

UACV – Christian Salizzoni 7-yard pass from Bish, (PAT no good), 7:47