A game that meant nothing couldn\u2019t have done more for the Tyrone Golden Eagles.
\nAfter two floundering victories against mid-tier opponents, the Eagles unloaded on Johnstown in a season finale that both Tyrone coach John Franco and Trojan coach Bob Arcurio would have rather not played.
\nBut with an undefeated regular season on the line, the Golden Eagles returned to their midseason form to deliver Johnstown a 35-7 defeat at Gray Veterans Memorial Field on Senior Night.
\nFor Franco, whose team will host Chestnut Ridge next week as the No. 1 seed in the first round of the Class AA playoffs, such a performance came at just the right time.
\n\u201cAnytime you play a quality opponent, I think it is (a good tune up for the playoffs),\u201d said Franco. \u201cThat\u2019s why we wanted to get this game. Both teams were using this to get ready for the competition of the playoffs. We needed that. We needed to beat a quality opponent.\u201d
\nWhen the season began, both coaches thought the game would be a way to secure better postseason positioning, but two weeks ago they were informed that it would not count for points in the District 6 playoff races.
\nThat still left a lot on the line for Tyrone, which extended its regular season winning streak to 23 straight games. The Eagles (10-0) also nailed down the program\u2019s 10th unbeaten regular season.
\nIt was the first time an Eagle team completed back-to-back unbeaten regular seasons since 1996-1997, and the third time the feat was accomplished in school history.
\nTyrone did it with a mix of ball control and big plays. Three of the Eagles\u2019 touchdowns came on plays of 24 yards or longer, and they controlled the ground game with a 216-57 edge in rushing.
\n\u201cWe came together as an offensive line and said we have to block better than we did last week,\u201d said Eagle senior lineman Tyler Hoover, referring to Tyrone\u2019s 21-14 nail-biter against Penns Valley. \u201cWe knew if we could get four or five yards at a clip we could control it.\u201d
\n\u201cI think we moved the ball offensively, but they had three big plays against us in that first half that killed us,\u201d Arcurio said.
\nQuarterback Tyler Golden and receiver Justin Schopp were the architects of most of Tyrone\u2019s big plays, connecting in the first half for touchdowns of 56 and 24 yards, while hooking up once more for a 35-yard completion to set up another score.
\n\u201dThe passing game was clicking tonight pretty well,\u201d Franco said. \u201cGoldy did a nice job making his reads, but the one thing that goes unnoticed is the great job our offensive line did. They were blitzing up front and we were picking up just about everything.\u201d
\nGolden finished the game 6-for-9 for 154 yards and two touchdowns, with Schopp hauling in four of his passes for 121 yards.
\nSenior Tyler Gillmen posted his fourth 100-yard game of the season, carrying 15 times for 105 yards and a pair of scores.
\nThe Eagles\u2019 defense, meanwhile, was able to bend without breaking against a speedy Johnstown offense that was averaging over 25 points per game. Tyrone made 10 stops behind the line of scrimmage, sacking Trojan quarterback Brandon Hody three times.
\nHody completed 11 of 19 passes for 132 yards and a touchdown, but he also threw a pair of interceptions, one of which Tyrone converted into the game\u2019s first touchdown.
\nOn its first series, Johnstown used eight plays to move from its own 35 to the Tyrone 40 when, on third-and-7, Hody had a pass deflect off the fingers of Antwuan Reed into the hands of Schopp, who was on his back at the Tyrone 21.
\nIt took Tyrone three plays to go up 7-0. On second-and-10, Johnny Franco rambled for 23 yards to the 44, and on the next play Golden rolled left off play-action and found Schopp wide open behind the defense for a 56-yard touchdown. Johnny Shaffer kicked the first of five extra points.
\nOn the Trojans\u2019 ensuing possession, Quadir Christian ran for five yards off left tackle and was met by linebacker James Updike, who stripped the ball from Christian as he fell to the ground. That gave the Eagles the ball at the Johnstown 49, and five plays later Golden and Schopp hooked up again, this time on a 24-yard touchdown strike down the right sideline to make it 14-0 with 1:41 left in the first quarter.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t win games like that,\u201d Arcurio said of his team\u2019s five turnovers. \u201cWhen you do that, nobody wins.\u201d
\nThe Trojans (7-3) advanced the ball as far as the Tyrone 11 on their first series of the second quarter after a blocked punt allowed them to start at their own 47. Hody had two big completions on the drive \u2013 one for 23 yards to Demetrius Young and one for 15 to Adonis Jackson \u2013 and Reed ran for 10 to the Eagles\u2019 14. But on fourth-and-7 from the 11, Jordan Good planted Hody as he released the ball into the endzone and the pass fell incomplete.
\nThat began an 89-yard, 7-play drive that put Tyrone ahead 21-0. Gillmen started it with runs of 10 and 17 yards, but the big play was a 35-yard completion from Golden to Schopp that put the ball on the Johnstown 14. On the next play, Franco blasted up the middle for a 14-yard touchdown at the 2:29 mark.
\nJohnstown answered, going 71 yards in 9 plays to score with 6.2 seconds left in the half. Hody was 6-for-8 on the drive, including a 25-yard completion to Pete Bayback that put the ball on the Tyrone 35. Five plays later, Hody found Jackson in the back of the endzone for a 5-yard touchdown pass to draw the Trojans within 21-7 at halftime.
\nAfter Johnstown failed to convert on fourth-and-7 from the Tyrone 35 to start the second half, the Golden Eagles moved 65 yards in nine plays to go ahead 28-7. Gilmen was the workhorse on the drive, carrying the ball five times for 34 yards, including the last seven at the 6:11 mark.
\nTyrone\u2019s next possession began at the Johnstown 38 after a 27 yard punt from the Trojan 11. On first down from the 25, Gillmen burst up the middle, broke one tackle and raced to the endzone for his second score to set the final.
\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t play two of our best kids tonight, and that hurt us,\u201d Arcurio said. \u201cNow, we have to see what these kids are made of. If they\u2019re going to rebound, how bad do they want it?\u201d
\nThe game allowed Tyrone\u2019s senior class to complete its varsity career 25-1 in the regular season without ever losing a regular season game at home.
\n\u201cYou always want to go out on top on senior night,\u201d Hoover said. \u201cNow we\u2019re looking forward to playing Chestnut Ridge. We didn\u2019t look good against them in our scrimmage (following the first week of practice in August) and we want to show we can play well against them in a game that means something.\u201d
\nGRID TIDBITS: Franco\u2019s touchdown gave him 20 on the season \u2026 Golden eclipsed the 1,000-yard passing mark, making him the sixth quarterback under Franco to reach the milestone. Since 1995, Eagle quarterbacks have reached 1,000 yards in a season 10 times \u2026 Young finished with four receptions for 64 yards \u2026 Jason Reese posted his eighth sack of the season, while Hoover\u2019s two tied him for the team lead with Reese \u2026 Johnstown\u2019s Vaun Miller had a sack for a 7-yard loss in the second quarter \u2026 the Trojans face Hollidaysburg next week.
\n Tyrone 35 Johnstown 7
\nTyrone 14 7 14 0 \u2013 35
\nJohnstown 0 7 0 0 \u2013 7
\nScoring Summary
\nFirst Quarter
\nT \u2013 Schopp 56 pass from Golden (Shaffer kick) 5:18
\nT \u2013 Schopp 24 pass from Golden (Shaffer kick) 1:41
\nSecond Quarter
\nT \u2013 Franco 14 run (Shaffer kick) 2:29
\nJ \u2013 Jackson 5 pass from Hody (Landis Kick) :6.2
\nThird Quarter
\nT \u2013 Gillmen 7 run (Shaffer kick) 6:11
\nT \u2013 Gillmen 25 run (Shaffer kick) 2:53
\nTeam \t T J
\nFirst Downs 17 13
\nYards Rushing 216 57
\nPass Att.-Comp. 6-9 14-24
\nYards Passing 154 139
\nTotal Offense 370 196
\nFumble-Rec. 1-1 2-2
\nInterceptions 0 3
\nPen.\/Yards 6-40 4-20
\nPunts\/Avg. 2-18.5 2-27
\nIndividual
\nRushing
\nTyrone \u2013 Gillmen 15-105; Franco 6-59; Barlett 5-23; Bradley 4-16; Golden 5-5; Williams 2-5; Ingle 3-4; Shaffer 1-(-1).
\nJohnstown \u2013 Reed 10-45; Kmett 6-10; Barnes 6-9; Curcjia 1-4; Christian 2-2; Stephens-Howling 2-0; Hody 4-(-13).
\nPassing
\nTyrone \u2013 Golden 6-9-154, 2 TD, 0 Int.
\nJohnstown \u2013 Hody 11-19-132, 1 TD, 2 Int.; Lehman 3-5-7, 0 TD, 1 Int.
\nReceiving
\nTyrone \u2013 Schopp 4-121; Franco 2-33.
\nJohnstown \u2013 Young 4-64; Bayback 2-40; A. Jackson 2-20; Christian 1-15; Huddleston; Reed 1-7; Wyatt 1-1; Duranko 2-1; M. Jackson 1-(-1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A game that meant nothing couldn\u2019t have done more for the Tyrone Golden Eagles. After two floundering victories against mid-tier opponents, the Eagles unloaded on Johnstown in a season finale that both Tyrone coach John Franco and Trojan coach Bob Arcurio would have rather not played. But with an undefeated regular season on the line, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}