PORT ALLEGANY — Fans of low-scoring, defense-dominated football games got their money’s worth from Friday’s Redbank Valley-Port Allegany tilt, with two of District 9’s top teams trading blow for blow for two hours before a single point appeared on the scoreboard.
The visiting Bulldogs struck first, stunning the Gator Field crowd into silence with a lightning-bolt 90-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Braylon Wagner to Tate Minich at the 7:24 mark of the fourth quarter.
Trailing for the first time since early September didn’t faze a veteran Port squad, though. Chewing up yardage as the clock ticked toward zero, the Gator ground game pounded out a scoring drive of its own — and added the critical two-point conversion — to eke out an 8-7 victory over the previously unbeaten Bulldogs.
“You know what I’m most proud of, to be honest with you, and it’s been our team M.O. all year, is to just stay calm, stay in the moment,” Port coach Justin Bienkowski said. “With seven and a half minutes left, they just kill us with that bomb. We had every opportunity to say, ‘You know what, it was a nice try. We’re out, we’ll worry about next week.’
“But these kids stayed the course. Calm in the huddle, calm on the sidelines, sticking together, sticking to the plan. It’s what families do when times get tough: You put your arm around each other and you figure out a way.”
With the top seed in the Class A playoffs potentially at stake, quarterback Drew Evens and running back Blaine Moses alternated carries to get the Gators inside the RV 10, where slotback Peyton Stiles capped off the drive with a 6-yard burst to bring the home team within a point with 3:02 remaining.
Calling timeout to set up one of the most important plays of their season, the Port coaches had a decision to make, one that ended up with Evens calling his own number for the successful conversion.
“Coach (Seth) Lowery and Coach (Cliff) Fillhart had a play called that wasn’t what we did,” Bienkowski said. “You hear the linemen say, and Blaine, some of the guys said, ‘Let’s just run the ball. Come behind us.’
“So I said, ‘These kids have earned it.’ We put it on them, and they came through. They called the play, they executed the play. It’s 100 percent a credit to the kids.”
Despite making the long trip north without several players who missed the game for undetermined reasons, the two-time defending D-9 Class A champs and 2021 PIAA finalists still had one more shot to win until Evens jumped a Bulldog pass route to make the interception with under two minutes left.
“I saw the guy hook up and he was open, so I flew up on him and just timed it well,” he said.
The Port quarterback rushed for a game-best 92 yards on 19 carries, none more important than his final attempt: a six-yard keeper on third-and-short to pick up the first down the Gators needed to run out the clock.
“When I got up and saw the sticks, I was just excited. I knew we could go down on a knee then, and it was over,” he said. “Fans out on the field, the place is going crazy. It’s amazing.”
Said Bienkowski, “We talked about running a dummy call and trying to get them to jump. We talked about a play-action pass. But at the end of the day, we’re just going to pound that ball because that’s what we do with the guys we have. That’s what they want to do, they earned that right, and they made that call.”
The first three quarters were a scoreless slugfest, with both defenses coming up big time after time to keep the game knotted at zero.
Minich pounced on a fumble to stop Port’s deepest penetration of the first half at the Bulldog 32, while the Bulldogs came up empty on two trips inside the Port 20 as a sack by defensive lineman Miska Young stalled one drive and a fourth-and-goal tackle by Stiles thwarted another RV scoring attempt just before the break.
The Gators dominated the time of possession in the second half, driving deep into RV territory twice before turning the ball over on downs, only to find themselves trailing after Minich outleaped two Port defenders to pull in Wagner’s pass at midfield, then sprinted into the end zone for his seventh touchdown catch of the season.
“We didn’t know that we were going to be facing any adversity until Thursday night. We prepped all week with about 10 guys that aren’t here. So for us to come into this game and battle, for Braylon to get his first-ever varsity start in this situation, it’s a big stage, it’s a big moment,” Bulldog coach Blane Gold said of his freshman quarterback. “I’m proud of his effort, I’m proud of the effort of our guys. We didn’t execute at times, but extremely proud of the effort.”
The loss snapped Redbank’s 17-game winning streak against District 9 teams, dating back to a 22-20 setback against Keystone in the 2021 season opener, and potentially gives Port an edge in the Class A seeding.
The Gators (7-1, 6-0 Region 2) travel to Keystone (5-3, 3-3) next week, while Redbank Valley (7-1, 5-1) hosts Brockway (5-3, 4-2).
“They are old-school Wing-T misdirection,” Bienkowski said of the Panthers, who handled Kane by a 45-13 score on Friday night.
“We’ll get in the film room and we’ll get to that, but we’re sure going to enjoy this one until Monday.”
