EMPORIUM — Union/A-C Valley won 20-6 at Cameron County after a strong second half.
The story of the first half for both teams was an inability to finish drives. Good looking drives stalled out once they crossed midfield. Cameron County twice got into the red zone and came away with zero points from both trips.
CC marched down the field on the first drive of the game. It started with an excellent return off a squib kick by Dylan Rieder. Lathan Reed showed speed when they got him a lane, especially on the edge, and he did damage.
The drive ended at the nine-yard line, however. Three straight runs were unsuccessful, leading to a fourth down pass play near the goal line. The Red Raiders lined up two receivers on the left, the outside one went in, the inside one shot out and right as he turned around, the QB threw a dart that was dropped.
U/A-C struggled to get past the opposing 30-yard line until their final drive of the half. With the score tied 0-0, U/A-C punted to CC. Rieder caught the ball at his own 35-yard line, ran up, angled right, cut back to the left, made two defenders miss and then shot back towards the right side of the field, out-running the punter for a 65-yard punt return touchdown that electrified the crowd on senior night.
Needing an answer, U/A-C got just that. After CC kicked the ball out of bounds, the re-kick was short, giving the Falcon Knights great field position.
At the 35-yard line, it looked like the same old story as U/A-C faced a fourth down with 30 seconds left on the clock, but a good pass on a drag route gave them a first down and new life. The Falcon Knights rushed to the line and spiked the ball, stopping the clock.
On the very next play, with just 22 seconds left in the half, quarterback Bailey Crissman launched a deep ball to a wide-open Ryan Cooper streaking down the sideline for a 28-yard touchdown strike to leave the half tied at 6-6.
In the second half, the Falcon Knights found momentum. A kickoff out of bounds (CC’s second of the game) had U/A-C start at their own 40-yard line. The Falcon Knights drove the length of the field, mixing the pass and the run effectively.
On third and short, Dawson Camper took the handoff, ran up the right side, made a man miss, ran over a linebacker, sprinted to the five-yard line, stiff-armed a Red Raider and walked into the endzone to give the Falcon Knights a 12-6 lead.
The Red Raiders and Falcon Knights traded possessions before an U/A-C drive went all the way to the three-yard line. Crissman tried a quarterback sneak into the endzone, but fumbled, allowing CC to recover for a touchback.
The Red Raiders couldn’t get past midfield though and had to punt it back to U/A-C. On third and 16, Crissman rolled right and unfurled a bomb to Skyler Roxbury who was by himself streaking down the sideline.
Roxbury had dropped three passes till that point and made up for it by hauling in the ball and taking it in for a touchdown to put the game away. Camper would score on the two-point conversion for good measure.
“We played a good program,” CC coach Ryan Neyman said after the game. “They’ve had our number the last couple years. I think it’s been over 100 to nothing. We held them to only 20 points. We had two big plays that we slipped on, if you take those away it’s six all but you have that in the game of football.”
The game was chippy throughout. Not in terms of flags or cheap shots, but both teams tackled hard and hit well. The running backs for both sides made big plays, but they had to earn it every time.
“We played hard on defense, we ran the ball very well on offense,” Neyman said. “I’m proud of the way our program is going… We’re making those steps… These kids never gave up, if they would’ve given up it could’ve been 48-6. But they didn’t give up. They got beat up and they played the game and they were a class act doing it.”
The team’s youth definitely stood out. Two big plays led to scores for the Falcon Knights. There were several promising CC drives that stalled out in or near the red zone. Clean that up and not only is it a very different ball game, but the Red Raiders look like a real playoff threat.
“We’re young,” said Neyman. “We got a young quarterback, we got young running backs, we got some experienced core guys, but they never had that experience of playing in big games. These are these big games that they’re getting a taste of, which is great for the underclassmen to continue to build (upon).”
In Week 3, CC was short-handed when it lost to Otto-Eldred. Last week, the Red Raiders lost 28-0 to Smethport. All three games count as losses, but the growth shown as the season has progressed is a definite win for the Red Raiders.
CC plays Port Allegany next Friday as both squads fight to stay in the playoff race.
