KNOX - For the past two weeks against Redbank Valley and Karns City, the A-C Valley football team got behind early and made the score close in the second half.

On Friday night, however, Keystone scored 21 points in the first half and held off the Falcons for a 21-0 victory.

"For the past three weeks, we didn't start playing until the second half," said A-C Valley coach Randy Lemmon. "Tonight we couldn't catch up."

Midway through the first quarter, Keystone returned an A-C Valley punt to the Falcon 36-yard line.

Three plays later, Keystone freshman quarterback Mike Switzer shook off the A-C Valley pass rush and threw a 38-yard scoring strike to Kyle McMunn.

"It was a straight drop-back and (Switzer) broke contain and our receiver made a heck of a play on it," said Keystone coach Jason Nellis.

That was Switzer's only completion of the contest in four attempts. He did not throw an interception.

Disaster struck the Falcons on their next punt when punter Trevor Miller was tackled at the Falcon 7-yard line.

The Panthers capitalized one play later when Sam Swartzfager rumbled up the middle for a 7-yard touchdown.

Swartzfager was the Keystone workhorse, carrying the ball 23 times for 106 yards.

With 6:58 left in the first half, Swartzfager made his presence felt on the defensive side of the ball.

The senior picked off a Brad Rembold pass and raced 60 yards for the score.

"We've been kind of weak against the pass this year. We've had a lot of people out of position," said Nellis. "We finally had guys in position when they made that pass."

Rembold completed 3-of-13 for 27 yards, but had two interceptions.

The Keystone defense limited the Falcons to 131 yards rushing, and only 43 in the first half.

"In the first half, we couldn't do anything. They just were playing better than us," said Lemmon. "There isn't any other explanation for it. How these guys only have won two games is beyond me."

Rocco Crapis ran for 61 yards on 15 carries for A-C Valley.

On the final drive of the game, Luis Goncalves ran for 73 yards, but the Panthers preserved the shutout when they tackled Goncalves at their own 3-yard line as time expired.

With the loss, A-C Valley is essentially eliminated from the District 9 playoffs.

"We got one left," said Lemmon. "We don't have anything to play for next week but a win."