The perks of earning a No. 1 seed are usually pretty sweet.
\nA couple of home games. An inside track to the District championship game. Most likely an easier-than-normal first round game.
\nBut when you look at Tyrone\u2019s reward for earning the top seed in the District 5-6 AA playoffs, it looks like the Golden Eagles \u2013 winners of the last two championships \u2013 got the booby prize. That\u2019s because in a Double-A bracket that coach John Franco says is the toughest he\u2019s seen since he\u2019s been at Tyrone, the first team to come knocking tomorrow at Gray Veterans Memorial Field is No. 8 Penn Cambria, a 6-3 school out of the Laurel Highlands Conference that is much stronger than its record might indicate.
\n\u201cWe pushed so hard to get the No. 1 seed, and our reward for it was we were placed in one of the toughest brackets,\u201d said Franco, who is guiding Tyrone into the playoffs for the 11th straight season. \u201cPenn Cambria is very good defensively, and better than some of the teams we\u2019ve played.\u201d
\nComing off a 1-8 season, the Panthers began 2005 5-1 before losing in consecutive weeks to Forest Hills and Bishop Carroll, two teams with one loss between them. The Rangers are the second seed in AA, while Carroll is back in its perennial position as the top seed in A. Cambria\u2019s other loss came in Week 4, 28-12 to Bedford, the 4 seed in AA.
\nOne big reason for the turnaround has been the attitude instilled by coach Ernie Fetzer, who brought 35 years of coaching experience with him this season when he accepted the Penn Cambria job. Fetzer had already won over 125 games in his career, which included 20 seasons as a head coach \u2013 most notably at Westmont Hilltop \u2013 and he revamped the Panthers\u2019 program starting with expectations.
\n\u201cWhen you have high expectations of your kids, and when you demand a lot from them, you\u2019ll have success,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re always fortunate, too, when you have good enough talent, but you have to demand a lot from them. Our kids have responded pretty well.\u201d
\nWhether that will be enough against Tyrone, which wrapped up its ninth undefeated regular season last week, is another question, and Fetzer is guarding against his players adopting a happy-to-be-here attitude.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s something you fight everyday,\u201d he said. \u201cAs much as I may believe as a coach that we can battle with anyone, the tough job is to sell that to the kids. Tyrone has a great tradition, and they carry a mystique that we have to fight to get over.\u201d
\nBut while Fetzer is hoping the Panthers aren\u2019t content in simply making the postseason, the Eagles are ecstatic to be there. Since defeating Bellefonte 41-6 in Week 6 in a clash of unbeatens, Tyrone has played three teams with a combined 9-18 record and zero playoff aspirations. The Eagles won those games by an average of 40-6.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that there\u2019s a new excitement in the air,\u201d Franco said. \u201cThis is what we\u2019ve been aiming for, and we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d
\nFranco said the Eagles enter this year\u2019s playoffs feeling that they have something to prove. The team was expected to struggle through growing pains for part of the season after losing most of the offensive firepower from a team that went 12-2 and advanced to the PIAA Western Finals in 2004.
\nHowever, that hasn\u2019t been the case. Tyrone has dominated its opposition like it has at no other time since its state championship season in 1999, winning by an average 31 points per game. The depth of talent at all the skill positions is as good as its been this decade, and the defensive numbers have already surpassed that of last year\u2019s squad, which featured PFN Defensive Player of the Year Terry Tate.
\nNow, according to Franco, the Eagles would like to be accorded the respect given to some of the other great teams from Tyrone.
\n\u201cThis team has a bit of a chip on its shoulder,\u201d said Franco. \u201cThey want to prove they belong up there with some of those other teams.\u201d
\nOne sure way to do that would be to complete the program\u2019s second District championship three-peat, but before the Eagles can think about that they have to deal with Cambria, which has impressed Franco with its quickness on defense and its ability to run the ball inside on offense.
\nThe Panthers\u2019 running attack is led by fullback Matt Holsberger, who has gained 552 yards on 107 carries. He\u2019s complemented by running back Andrew Choros, another 500-yard rusher who also averages nearly 24 yards per attempt on kick returns.
\nHolsberger also leads the charge on defense from his inside linebacker position, along with Justin Long. The tandem is responsible for over 180 total tackles, including 13 behind the line of scrimmage.
\n\u201cThey get to the ball well, and their two inside linebackers are excellent,\u201d Franco said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be a challenge.\u201d
\nBut it\u2019s the kind of challenge Tyrone enjoys. The Eagles have seen all kinds of schemes this season to limit their powerful running attack, but the results have been squarely in favor of Tyrone. With teams stacking 8 and 9 players in the box, quarterback Leonard Wilson is having the best year of his three-year career, completing 69 of 105 passes for 1,121 yards and 13 touchdowns.
\nAnd despite the opposition\u2019s preoccupation with limiting Tyrone\u2019s running game, Brinton Mingle still finds himself on the cusp of a 1,000-yard season, needing only 67 yards to reach the plateau. Both Tyler Gillmen (55 carries, 458 yards) and Johnny Franco (45 carries, 361 yards) have also been effective in Tyrone\u2019s run game, making it difficult for teams to gang up on any one dimension of the Eagles\u2019 offense, or any one player.
\n\u201cWe have much better balance than we have had in some past years,\u201d Franco said. \u201cWe\u2019ve come along pretty well each week, but we\u2019re still developing. And you need to be able to have balance when you\u2019re in the playoffs.\u201d
\nFetzer understands how explosive the Eagles can be when they have all facets of their game working, and that\u2019s why he feels his best defense may be a ball-controlled offense to keep Tyrone\u2019s skill players off the field.
\n\u201cTo be honest, that\u2019s necessary against a team the caliber of Tyrone,\u201d said Fetzer. \u201cWe would like to keep our offense on the field, but that\u2019s easy to say. They have so much talent on defense that it makes it difficult.\u201d
\nFAMILIARITY BREEDS RESPECT
\nTomorrow\u2019s game will mark the fourth time in the last 10 years that Fetzer and Franco have gone head-to-head in the playoffs, and in that time both coaches have grown in respect for each other and their programs.
\n\u201cFranco and I go way back, and I can\u2019t say enough about the success Tyrone has had,\u201d Fetzer said. \u201cWe had some good teams at Westmont, and whenever we played Tyrone, there was always a lot of respect, and both teams played hard.\u201d
\n\u201cErnie Fetzer is one of the excellent high school coaches in our area,\u201d said Franco. \u201cHe always brings a fine program to the table.\u201d
\nFranco has won the three previous meetings with Fetzer, all of which came in District semifinal or final games when he coached Westmont Hilltop. His most recent win over Fezter came in 2000, when Tyrone defeated Westy 14-0 in Westmont in the a District semifinal game that featured Doug Roseberry \u2013 now a senior special teams player at Pitt \u2013 and Jim Kanuch \u2013 a senior receiver Penn State.
\nSCHEDULING ADVANTAGES
\nNeither Tyrone nor Penn Cambria had an easy road through the regular season, with each team facing a schedule filled with playoff contenders.
\nTyrone, in fact, faced three postseason qualifiers in the first three weeks of the season in Bellwood-Antis (A), Huntingdon (AAA) and Lewistown (AAA), not to mention the Week 6 showdown against Bellefonte, the No. 1 seed in AAA.
\n\u201c(The regular season) has given us good competition and taught us to rise to the occasion,\u201d said Franco. \u201cBut now it\u2019s a new season and those nine wins don\u2019t mean anything anymore. Everybody\u2019s even at 0-0.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Penn Cambria, along with its games against Bedford, Forest Hills and Bishop Carroll, faced AAA contender and defending champion Johnstown in Week 2.
\n\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty special to make it in Class A and AA in this area because it\u2019s so competitive,\u201d said Fetzer. \u201cI\u2019m proud that we earned our way in by winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The perks of earning a No. 1 seed are usually pretty sweet. A couple of home games. An inside track to the District championship game. Most likely an easier-than-normal first round game. But when you look at Tyrone\u2019s reward for earning the top seed in the District 5-6 AA playoffs, it looks like the Golden […]<\/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-42109","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\/42109","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=42109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}