It’s a familiar scenario for both schools, and for all the right reasons.
Tyrone and Forest Hills will face off in the District 5-6 AA semifinals tomorrow at 7 p.m. at J. H. Miller Memorial Field in Sidman for the right to go to the District title game.
It will mark the fifth post-season meeting between the two small school powers in the last seven seasons, and each of the previous games have carried similar weight.
“It’s the kind of rivalry you like to develop because the only way we see each other is in the playoffs after outstanding regular seasons,” said Tyrone coach John Franco.
Tyrone leads the all-time series 3-1, with two wins coming in the District championship game. The Rangers’ only win came just over a year ago in Sidman in the District quarterfinals.
“There’s always something on the line whenever we play,” said Forest Hills coach Don Bailey. “It’s either you win or you go home. We would like to have won a couple more against them, but they’ve always been good games.”
In three wins, the Eagles have outscored the Rangers 85-18, but the nature of Tyrone’s loss last season was enough to erase any warm and fuzzy feelings left over from its previous dominance over Forest Hills.
Tyrone trailed the Rangers 30-16 late in the game before rallying to pull within a single point with just over a minute to play. But after being flagged for illegal procedure on the extra-point attempt, the Eagles were forced to place the ball at the 15 on the kick attempt, and Clayton Ellenberger’s try sliced left.
Now, after battling through an injury-riddled season that has made veterans out of inexperienced sophomores, the Eagles, at 7-3, find themselves playing the role of the underdog against the 10-0 Rangers, who are currently ranked ninth in Class AA by the Harrisburg Patriot News.
“We never really think about that,” said Franco. “We always expect to be in the playoffs and we expect to win in the playoffs. If we’re underdogs, that’s something for the prognosticators to worry about. We feel we’ve come a long way and we want to keep getting better. We want to win a District championship and Forest Hills is in the way of that.”
Tyrone advanced to the semifinals with a 27-0 win over Ligonier Valley last week at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field in a game where sophomore Brice Mertiff shredded the Mounties, who had won seven straight, for 192 yards and one touchdown on 21 carries.
The Rangers got this far much like they did last season. Forest Hills led eight-seeded Central Cambria 6-0 near the end of regulation last Friday before the Red Devils scored on a 43-yard pass play with 32 seconds left to tie it. But Cambria’s extra-point try failed and the Rangers won 12-6 in overtime.
“I don’t know if it was a wake-up call, but it was a game we could very easily have lost,” said Bailey. “We were fortunate to win.”
With that close call behind them, the Rangers turned their focus to Tyrone and keeping in check an Eagle offense averaging 26 points and nearly 300 yards per game behind quarterback Tyler Mertiff, who against Valley set a new single-season passing record with 1,457 yards this season.
Their defensive strategy is simple, according to Bailey: control the ball on offense to keep the Eagles’ playmakers off the field.
“Mertiff is one of the best quarterbacks we’ve seen,” said Bailey. “They’ll be able to score – they’ve got too many weapons not to. The key for us will be controlling the ball and the clock.”
For his part, Franco likes the matchups of his skill players on both sides of the ball against those of Forest Hills. What concerns him is the inside running game the Rangers have used effectively throughout the season. It’s led by Cody Gallaher, who has racked up two straight 100-yard games and runs with power between the tackles.
He’s even more concerned by the way the Rangers have combined it with quick-strike plays.
“They don’t nickel-and-dime you,” said Franco. “They score on big plays. Their strength concerns me and it will be a tough challenge to stop their inside running game. But they make so many big plays.”
That’s why the development of Tyrone’s run game over the last four weeks has been so important. Since Week 7 against Philipsburg-Osceola, the Eagles have run for 834 yards, led by Brice Mertiff, who has piled up 932 yards this season after spending the first six games as the Eagles’ No. 2 option.
“The bad weather we’ve experienced has actually been a benefit for us because it’s forced us to develop a running game,” said Franco. “We still have a lot of weapons we like to use and we can still score with the big play, but we’re comfortable either way.”
Numbers
Forest Hills is averaging 30.2 points per game and comes in with five wins over teams who this season qualified for the post-season, including Class A power Bishop Carroll. Tyrone, meanwhile, has just two regular-season wins over playoff-bound teams – Indian Valley and Punxsutawney.
Coaching Legends
It’s safe to say there won’t be two more successful coaches squaring off in the second round of the District 5-6 playoffs than Bailey and Franco. The two coaches have combined for 11 undefeated regular seasons and 10 District titles. The Rangers won a Class record four straight District championships under Bailey from 1991-94 and this season earned Bailey his eighth unbeaten regular season.
Special Teams Concerns
Although the Eagles have made just 6 of their last 12 extra-point kick attempts, Franco said he is happy with his team’s overall performance on special teams since the second week of the season, when Huntingdon turned two long kick returns into touchdowns in a 29-20 win.
“That’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to win four in a row,” he said. “Our kick coverage has been outstanding and our returns are getting better to the point where we’re starting at the 35 or 40 after every kick we receive. On punt returns, we’re catching the ball, which is a big key in sloppy, muddy conditions.
“The extra-points have just been a matter of poor field conditions, which are particularly tough on a soccer-style kicker (Ben Gummo).”
Injury Report
Tyrone received a bit of a scare Wednesday when starting offensive and defensive lineman Justin Clark left practice with what appeared to be an ankle sprain. However, Clark returned later on and finished the session with no ill-affects, according to Franco.
Tight end-linebacker Dan Grazier, who returned two weeks ago after missing four weeks with a broken bone in his left leg, has been “really hobbling,” since playing both ways in last weeks playoff win over Ligonier, according to Franco.
“He’s been in a lot of pain and we’re taking a wait-and-see approach,” said Franco. “There’s no risk of re-injuring the leg, but it’s giving him a lot of pain.”
In his place, sophomore Shane Christine has practiced this week with the first string defense.
