Wagner to Clouse Leads Redbank Valley to Win Over Punxsy

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Phil Myers | September 9, 2023

In a game where there were almost 1,000 yards of offense, Braylon Wagner accounted for all 7 Redbank touchdowns much to the delight of the home town fans in New Bethlehem, but much to the chagrin of the visiting Punxsutawney Chucks. Wagner connected on 21 of 23 passes for 391 yards and 6 touchdowns in leading his team to a 50-27 victory. He also rushed for the other Bulldog TD and ran in a two-point conversion. Mason Clouse caught four of those six touchdown passes and had 156 yards receiving. He also intercepted a pass on defense.

Mason Clouse of Redbank Valley.

Punsxy kept the game close and only trailed 35-27 entering the fourth quarter, but could not muster enough offense to score in the last twelve minutes of the game. The Chucks were led by QB Maddox Hetrick’s 219 yards passing and two TD tosses to Noah Weaver. Hetrick also scored a touchdown rushing. Beau Thomas completed both of his passes for the Chucks adding another 68 yards to the team passing stats. Weaver snagged 9 passes for 188 yards. Landon Martz showed the way on the ground with 146 yards rushing and a score on 22 carries.

Redbank scored on their initial three possessions and led 21-7 after one. Punxsy’s coach, Alan Nichol, believed a bad first quarter is what put his team behind the eight ball. “They’re a good football team. I don’t think we played well enough in the first quarter for whatever reason,” he said. On the other side, coach Blane Gold of Redbank says it is their philosophy to get and maintain a two-score lead on teams.

The Chucks made a game of it in the second stanza by scoring twice and holding the Bulldogs to one touchdown. Punxsy’s second TD of the quarter came with 27 seconds left to cut Redbank’s lead to 28-21 at the half. “They have sophomores all over the place,” said Gold, “seeing them in a couple of years is going to be a tough battle.”

Noah Weaver #12 in white scoring one of his two touchdowns for Punxsy.

The third quarter saw Redbank regain their two-score advantage, only to have Punxsy cut the margin to 35-27 by the end of the quarter. Redbank posted a couple of scores in the fourth to pull away thanks to Wagner’s consistent play. Coach Gold said, “Last year we had a brake on Braylon because we had no other quarterback. So, what you see this year with Braylon and the RPOs is what makes Braylon dangerous.” In honor of Mason Martin, the Karns City quarterback, who was critically hurt last week against Redbank, Wagner donned the #2 jersey which is Martin’s number.

Asked how the coaching staff dealt with that circumstance of Martin going down and the affect it had on the kids Coach Gold had this to say, “We respect everybody who puts a helmet on. Everybody who puts a helmet on knows there’s a risk involved. We took the time to talk about this, but we also told them they have to play the same way they’ve always played. Because when you start to slow down your play, that’s when you get hurt. Obviously, we continue to pray and think of Mason every single day. But we have to do our best to put that behind us because we didn’t want to affect the speed at which we play the game.”

Redbank is now 3-0 and will travel to winless Keystone next Saturday. Punxsutawney drops to 2-1 and faces another undefeated team on a roll next week as they host Central Clarion. Both bands were very good. See pictures below scoring summary.

Score by Quarters:

Punxsutawney – 7 14 6 0 – 27

Redbank Valley – 21 7 7 15 – 50

Scoring Summary:

First Quarter:

RV – Braylon Wagner 3-yard run, (Owen Closue PAT), 10:00

P – Landon Martz 6-yard run, (Griffin White PAT), 8:04

RV – Mason Clouse 53-yard pass from Wagner (O. Clouse PAT), 6:27

RV – M. Clouse 18-yard pass from Wagner (O. Clouse PAT), 4:13

Second Quarter:

P – Noah Weaver 47-yard pass from Maddox Hetrick, (White PAT), 8:30

RV– Ashton George, 62-yard pass from Wagner, (O. Clouse PAT), 6:13