NEW BETHLEHEM — It’s not often that a team with 260 yards on the ground and four rushing touchdowns finds itself in the loss column.

But that’s exactly what happened to the Coudersport Falcons against one of the more dynamic offenses in all of District 9 on Friday night.

Redbank Valley outscored Coudy 22-6 behind an offensive explosion in the second half to capture a crucial D-9 Small School crossover victory against the visiting Falcons.

Coudersport’s (5-3) defense was on the ropes against Redbank from almost the start of the game. The Bulldogs (5-3) scored on the game’s opening possession, and set the tone for a balanced attack that would net nearly 500 yards.

“We struggled with getting guys out on their leads and other (formational) stuff, as well,” Coudersport head coach Tom Storey said. “We were expecting a bit more on the pass side from them and then they did pass on us which hurt.”

Coudersport hung with the Bulldogs in the first half because they were able to answer each RV score with some quality offense of its own.

Starting running back Stephen Kelly continued his dominance over opposing defenses with 170  yards on just 20 carries. The senior back also scored all four of Coudy’s touchdowns — three of which came in the first half — and really was the entire Falcon offense.

“He’s a hard runner, something he has been for me the last two years,” Storey said. “He can break it when you need it but he’s got to be a workhorse for us because we are not deep in a lot of our positions. We are trying to get other guys to step up and take some of the carries.”

Kelly’s 125 first-half rushing yards, combined with two costly Redbank turnovers, helped the Falcons work a 21-21 tie at the intermission.

The second half started out exactly as the first ended: with Kelly finding the end zone. This 46-yard score put Coudy up 27-21, but not only would that be the last time the Falcons had the lead in the game, it also marked the final time they would score.

From there to the final horn, it was all Bulldogs.

Redbank running back Hunter Wiles matched Kelly blow-for-blow all game, registering 175 yards and three touchdowns of his own. Wiles had runs of 37 and 57 yards in the second half, and the Falcons simply had no answer for Redbank’s rushing attack.

For as well as the run game was for the Bulldogs, the x-factor in the game and in the second half was the play of their starting quarterback..

RV quarterback Keaton Kahle threw for 192 yards and two scores and also had long plays of 44 and 32 yards with his feet.

Two of Redbank’s scores in the second half were from the hands of Kahle, who was poised in the pocket all game despite a consistent Coudy pass rush.. In contrast, Falcon quarterback Hayden Keck had just 49 yards passing and threw two interceptions.

Storey said that a combination of bad health and a talented Redbank offense is what ultimately doomed the Falcons in the second half.

“We got banged up in this one at the beginning and that’s kind of where it started hurting at,” he said. “We are a little thin at our varsity side, we got banged up, and no excuses, we’ve got to get better at that kind of stuff.”

The results were 20 unanswered Redbank points, and a final scoreline that the Falcons hadn’t seen all season.

The 41 points allowed were a season-high for a defense that has held opponents to 10 points or fewer in five different games this year

“We have to come in and play a full game,” Storey said. “We grabbed (some energy) right at the beginning of the second half and then we kind of slacked off and that’s where it started hurting a little bit.”

Regardless of Friday’s result, the Falcons are still set up to play a D-9 Small School North deciding game next week against Smethport. The two teams hold identical 4-0 division records, and the season finale at Coudersport will determine the division winner.

In New Bethlehem on Friday, Storey was already beginning to preach to his players that they need to move on quickly and begin preparing the right way for what will be their biggest game of the season.

“I just told them in the huddle that this game is over with and we can’t do anything about it now,” he said.” Obviously we need to get healed up this week and just focus on that game. We have to put a whole game together and we need to work hard this week making sure we can do that.”

AT NEW BETHLEHEM

BY QUARTERS
Coudersport       6 15 6 0—27
Redbank Valley  14 7 14 6—41
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: C: 12, R: 16; Rushes/Yards Rushing: C: 31-260, R: 37-300; Yards Passing: C: 49, R 192; Comp-Att-Int: C: 5-12-2, R: 18-28-2; Penalties: C: 5-55, R: 7-68; Fumbles-Lost: C: 3-0, R: 2-1; Total Yards: C: 309, R: 492 Offensive Plays: C: 47, R: 65

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Passing: C: Hayden Keck 5-12-49-0-2 ; R: Keaton Kahle 18-28-192-2-1

Rushing: C: Stephen Kelly 20-170-4, Travis Gleason 1-46, Keck 10-44, Kolby VanWhy 1-3 ; R: Hunter Wiles 23-175-3, Kahle 8-62, Travis Crawford 4-56, Hunter Buzard 2-7

Receiving: C: Gleason 1-8, VanWhy 1-5, Daniel Frame 1-10, Thomas Wilson 1-18, Jacob Pitcher 1-8 ; R: Ethan Hetrick 8-107-1, Hunter Martz 7-46, Buzard 3-37

Scoring summary

First quarter

R: Kahle, 44-yard run (Kristofer Shaffer PAT good), 10:17

C: Kelly, five-yard run (Keck two-pt run failed), 5:19

R: Wiles, two yard-run (Shaffer PAT good), 0:38

Second quarter

C: Kelly, 18-yard run (Keck two-point run good), 6:58

R: Wiles, one-yard run (Shaffer PAT good), 3:28

C: Kelly, 10-yard run (Drew Page PAT good), 1:36

Third quarter

C: Kelly, 46-yard run (PAT blocked), 11:17

R: Hetrick, 20-yard pass from Kahle (Shaffer PAT good), 6:26

R: Wiles, 37-yard run (Shaffer PAT good), 2:25

Fourth quarter

R: Martz, eight-yard pass from Kahle (PAT blocked), 8:35