Union/A-C Valley Completes Best Regular Season In Program History

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Shane Lux | October 24, 2025

Rimersburg – The Union/A-C Valley Falcon-Knights finished their most successful regular season since the two programs merged in 2016.

Playing in their third Thursday night game of the season, the Falcon-Knights made it a perfect 3-3 with a hard-fought 22-14 victory over Reynolds Thursday night at Vidunas Stadium.

The victory sends Union/A-C Valley into the District 9 playoffs with a fair share of momentum, as they bounced back from a 35-7 defeat at the hands of fourth-ranked Port Allegany a week ago.

“We’re 3-0 on Thursday nights, and they’ve all been close, gutty wins,” said Union/A-C Valley head coach Dan Reed. “It’s nice to have now an extra day to prepare before the playoffs begin. We took a little bit of a beating out there. We have some injuries, so hopefully we can get those guys ready to go.”

It wasn’t pretty, but it doesn’t have to be. Union/A-C Valley rallied from a 6-0 second-quarter deficit to grab a 15-6 halftime lead, and never looked back.

Senior leaders Logan Skibinski and Max Gallagher each scored in the second stanza, as Skibinski’s 17-yard touchdown run capped a 4-play 65-yard drive, putting them in front 7-6.

Likewise, Gallagher’s touchdown came on a 24-yard reception from Andrew Kifer with 13 seconds to play in the half.

“It was a very gritty win,” Gallagher said. “We knew coming in, they were going to be a tough team. They came out hitting, and we responded. We faced a lot of adversity tonight. I knew coming in it wasn’t going to be another shootout like last year. We knew they had their whole team coming back. So we knew it was going to be more contested and low scoring. We caught them off guard running the ball. We got out of bonds, got some good yards. We set up a nice screen pass, and before you know it, we’re in the end zone.”

Union/A-C Valley had taken over at their 41-yard line with 55 seconds to play in the half. Aided by a pass interference penalty against the Raiders, they played beat the clock and took a two-possession lead into the locker room following Aidan Fox’s 2-point pass to Trent Fleming.

Reynolds had taken a 6-0 lead on a 33-yard touchdown run from Gabriel Minjarez early in the second quarter following a 5-play 50-yard drive.

Minjarez led the Raiders, rushing for a game-high 101 yards on 20 carries.

On a note of the imperfection, the Falcon-Knights took the second-half kickoff and drove inside the 10-yard line. On 4th-and-goal, a roughing the kicker penalty on the Raiders negated a missed field goal, but the result couldn’t have worked out better for Reynolds as Parker Nay intercepted Kifer and ran it back 90 yards for a touchdown, pulling them to within a point at 15-14.

Parker Nay had two interceptions in the game and also rushed for 50 yards on four carries.

Earlier in the contest, Union/A-C Valley had been turned away on downs inside the Raiders’ 10-yard line.

Reynolds had a chance to get themselves back into the game when Jacob Blackburn intercepted Kifer, their third of the night.

But the Falcon-Knights defense stepped up and forced a punt after surrendering only a single first down.

The Raiders got the football back for the second and final time in the second half with 10:31 to play, starting at their 1-yard line.

They moved the ball to midfield before being forced to punt, and a bad snap resulted in a 21-yard loss.

The Falcon-Knights took over at the Raiders’ 29-yard line with 4:37 to play. Faced with a 4th-and-14, Kifer rolled out to the far sideline and connected with fellow freshman Micah Kindel for a 21-yard completion to the 11-yard line.

Three plays later, Gallaher punched in the game’s final touchdown with a 3-yard run with 1:24 to play.

On the ensuing kickoff, which was from Reynolds’ 45-yard line following an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, Union/A-C Valley recovered the ball to seal the game.

Max Gallagher finished the night with 42 yards rushing, while catching three passes for 31 yards. Andrew Kifer completed 15 of 27 passes for 227 yards. Trent Fleming caught three passes for 86 yards, and Logan Skibinski chipped in with a team-high 56 rushing yards, and added six catches for 51 yards.

“This is a great feeling,” said Gallagher. “We had high expectations coming into the season. We wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than 9-1. Our hard work has paid off, but we’re zero and zero now heading to the playoffs.”

Both schools will enter the Class A postseason next week, with Union/A-C Valley in District 9 and Reynolds in District 10.

“We had three goals this season,” concluded Reed. “One was the region, which we did. The other was 10-0, and we fell short. The other was winning a District 9 title, which is still attainable. We’ve played some close and tough games this season, so it’s going to be tough to get back there. These guys, with our senior leadership, make it possible for us to have a shot at it.”

Game Highlights:

Union/ACV 22 Reynolds 14

Score by Quarters

Reynolds – 0 6 8 0 – 14

Union/ACV – 0 15 0 7 – 22

Scoring Summary

Second Quarter

R – Gabe Minjarez 33 yd run, (rush failed), 10:21 – 5-50

U – Logan Skibinski 17 yd run, (Stephen Hepler pat), 8:19 – 4-65

U – Max Gallagher 24 yd pass from Andrew Kifer, (Trent Fleming from Aidan Fox), 0:13 – 4-59

Third Quarter

R – Parker Nay 90 yd interception return, (Xavier Zachrich rush), 6:32

Fourth Quarter

U – Gallagher 3 yd run, (Hepler pat), 1:24 – 7-29

Individual Stats

Rushing: R – Minjarez 20-101, Zachrich 7-11, Parker Nay 4-50, Rocky Floch 1-7, Team 1-(-21). Totals: 19-101. U – Skibinski 14-56, Gallagher 14-42, Micah Kindel 2-(-1), Team 3-(-15). Totals: 33-82.

Receiving: R – Floch 1-55. U – Fox 2-38, Gallagher 3-31, Skibinski 6-51, Fleming 3-86, Kindel 1-21.

Passing: R – Zachrich 1-for-9, 55 yards. U – Kifer 15-for-27, 227, 1 TD, 3 INT.

Interceptions: R – Nay (2), Jacob Blackburn.

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