Up and comers will sometimes get chances against teams like the Tyrone Golden Eagles.
And when they get them, they’d better be prepared to take advantage.
That’s something Bald Eagle Area never did last night against the Golden Eagles when, playing in front of a homecoming crowd, BEA twice moved the ball on drives of eight plays or more inside or near Tyrone’s red zone and came away with nothing.
By the time Tyrone’s defense sealed up its leaks, the Golden Eagles were ahead 7-0, and Bald Eagles’ chances of moving the ball with the same consistency it did in the first quarter were over.
Tyrone went on to win 28-0 for its third consecutive victoryimproving to 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the Big 8 Conference.
“We did a good job early and we had two nice drives,” said BEA coach Curt Heverly. “It could have been 14-14 at halftime.”
Instead, it was 14-0 in favor of Tyrone, who showed an ability to make big plays and finish the job where Bald Eagle could not. From then on, any hopes BEA had of getting back into the game with the kind of diverse offensive attack it displayed in the first quarter had slipped away.
Tyrone limited BEA to just 27 yards in the second half and held the Eagles to zero or negative gains on nine of their 18 plays from scrimmage in one of its most dominant defensive performances of the season.
“They made a couple big plays on us (early),” said Franco. “But at crunch time our defense came through and they have been playing pretty well lately.”
The Golden Eagles forced three BEA – two by Camdin Crouse and one on a halfback pass from Montey Rockey – and allowed just 47 yards rushing. Senior defensive end Max Soellner added two sacks, upping his team-leading total to nine on the season.
Brice Mertiff again led Tyrone’s ground game with his fifth straight 100-yard performance. He collected 131 yards on 15 carries, including a 41-yard dash in the second quarter that set up one Golden Eagle touchdown.
Sophomore Leonard Wilson, in his third start at quarterback, completed four of 10 passes for 86 yards and one touchdown, and senior receiver Tommy Crowl turned in his biggest game of the season, grabbing three passes for 67 yards and one score.
However, the Golden Eagle pass defense was again suspect, as Crouse completed nine of 18 passes for 154 yards. He had 122 yards in the first half alone, when for parts of the first and second quarters BEA was able to find soft spots in the middle of Tyrone’s zone.
“Each week that we win a game, that’s big because I know we’re going to be good,” said Franco. “But we’ve got to keep growing and developing. We’re not a great team by any stretch of the imagination. We’re OK, and we’re getting better.”
Bald Eagle took the opening kick and from its own 26-yard line to the Tyrone 23 in just five plays. Soellner sacked Crouse for a six-yard loss on second down, Crouse threw incomplete on third, and on fourth-and-14 he connected with Chris Heverly for eight yards, turning the ball over to Tyrone on downs.
From there, it took Tyrone six plays to drive 79 yards for the game’s first score. The key play came on second-and-six from the Tyrone 37-yard line when Wilson floated a pass off play-action to Crowl, who made a spectacular catch through the defender’s hands for a 52-yard gain to the BEA 11. On the next play, Mertiff broke free up the middle and cut back against the grain for an 11-yard score. The first of four Ben Gummo extra points gave Tyrone a 7-0 lead.
Undeterred, BEA drove 64 yards in seven plays on its ensuing possession, moving to the Tyrone six before the drive stalled. David Fisher’s 23-yard field goal attempt went wide right and the Eagles again came away empty-handed following a promising possession.
“At that time, I thought we needed the points,” Heverly said of his decision to kick on fourth-and-eight. “Even three points would have motivated us. I wanted us to come away feeling good about that drive.”
Following a Bald Eagle punt two series later, Mertiff juked his way to the outside and scampered down the sideline for a 41-yard gain to the BEA 11. Sophomore Brinton Mingle bulled his way into the endzone from there, lifting Tyrone to a 14-0 lead at halftime
With a two-touchdown lead, Tyrone took the second-half kickoff and drove 82 yards in eight plays – all of them rushes – for a score that took the life out of BEA. Mertiff carried five times on the drive for 50 yards, including a three-yard run for a touchdown that made it 21-0.
Mertiff broke off runs of 15 and 23 yards on the drive and covered the last three for his second touchdown of the game.
Late in the third quarter, safety Brandon Maceno intercepted Crouse at the Bald Eagle 32 and returned it to the 27. A 16-yard loss on a sack of Wilson pushed Tyrone back to the BEA 40 and eventually led to a Mertiff punt that backed Bald Eagle to its own 14. Unable to move the ball, BEA punted after four plays and Fisher’s 19-yarder gave the Golden Eagles a short field, starting at the BEA 26.
Three rushes by Gummo and Wilson moved the ball to the B-14 and on first down Wilson made an acrobatic leaping pass off one foot over the defense to Crowl in the endzone, giving Tyrone a 28-0 lead with 11:53 to play.
“They’re a dominant team in the second half,” said Heverly. “They don’t get tired.”
GRID TIDBITS: Jason Wilson and Richard Updike had interceptions for Tyrone. Wilson returned his 30 yards to the Bald Eagle 25, setting up an eventual 27-yard field goal attempt by Gummo that missed … Rocky, Bald Eagle’s leading rusher, was limited to 42 carries on 12 yards after 36 yards on his first five carries … Tyrone went without a turnover for the second time this season … William Smith nailed his first career sack, dropping Crouse for a 12-yard loss in the fourth quarter.
Tyrone 28, Bald Eagle Area 0
Score by quarter
Tyrone – 7 7 7 7 – 28
Bald Eagle Area – 0 0 0 0 – 0
Scoring
First Quarter
T – Mertiff 11 run, Gummo PAT. 6:13
Second Quarter
T – Mingle 11 run, Gummo PAT. 10:00
Third Quarter
T – Mertiff 3 run. Gummo PAT. 8:46
Fourth Quarter
T – Crowl 14 pass from Wilson. Gummo PAT. 11:53
Team Statistics
T BEA
First Downs 15 8
Rushes 41 28
Rush yards 233 47
Passing att. 4-10 8-19
Pass yards 86 154
Int. by 3 0
Fumbles/rec 0/0 0/0
Penalties 2-15 6-40
Punts 4-35.2 6-29.3
Total Yards 319 201
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Tyrone: Mertiff 15-131 2 TD, Mingle 7-45 1 TD, Gummo 6-31, Wilson 5-12, Christine 3-10, Bonsell 3-6, Maceno 1-(-1), Myers 1-(-1).
Bald Eagle Area: Rockey 12-42, Tierney 2-16, Thompson 2-6, Rishell 5-3, Surovec 1-2, Crouse 2-(-22).
Passing
Tyrone: Wilson 4-10 86 yards, 1 TD, 0 Int.
Bald Eagle Area: Crouse 9-18 154 yards 0 TD, 2 Int., Rockey 0-1 0 yards 0 TD, 1 Int.
Receiving
Tyrone: Crowl 2-67 1 TD, Mertiff 1-13, Gummo 1-6.
Bald Eagle Area: Rishell 2-67, Halterman 3-62, Heverly 2-25, Rockey 1-4.
