No. 2 Tyrone (9-1) vs. No. 3 Philipsburg-Osceola (9-1)
\nDistrict 6-AA Semifinals
\nGray Veterans Memorial Field, Tyrone 7 p.m.
\nWhat\u2019s at Stake: The winner advances to the District 5-6 AA championship game next week against the winner of the other semifinal between No. 5 Forest Hills and No. 4 Bishop McCort.
\nHow They Got Here: TYRONE \u2013 defeated Purchase Line 56-13 at Gray Veterans Memorial Field on Friday, November 5. Brice Mertiff scored a school record six touchdowns, while the Eagles\u2019 defensive unit forced five turnovers. PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA \u2013 defeated Chestnut Ridge 31-14 at Memorial Field in Philipsburg on Saturday, November 6. Jeff Winters threw for 122 yards and a touchdown, and ran for one other score.
\nLast Meeting: On October 1, Philipsburg-Osceola defeated Tyrone 7-6 at Memorial Field before an overflow crowd estimated at more than 7,000 people. Tyrone advanced as far as the Mountie 25 on seven possessions, but came away with points only once, with just over two minutes to play in the game. Brinton Mingle scored a touchdown on a three-yard run to pull the Eagles within a point, but P-O linebacker Ryan Mostyn broke through the line to block the extra point. Tyrone got the ball back for one more drive and moved to the Mountie 25, but Ben Gummo\u2019s 42-yard field goal attempt as time expired fell short.
\nSeries History: Tyrone began playing Philipsburg High School in 1923, and took on Osceola Mills beginning in 1927. The Eagles have a record of 31-23 against the consolidated Philipsburg-Osceola High School, in a series that dates back to 1955.
\nIncluding games against Philipsburg and Osceola Mills, Tyrone leads the series 67-25-5.
\nThis is the third time Tyrone and Philipsburg-Osceola have faced each other in the District playoffs, with each postseason pairing coming in the semifinals. The Golden Eagles defeated the Mounties 14-7 at Hollidaysburg\u2019s Golden Tiger Stadium in 1986 when both teams played in Class AAA, and won last season 58-14 at Gray Veterans Memorial Field.
\nDistrict 6 Playoff History: Making its 12th appearance in the semifinal round of the District 6 playoffs, Tyrone enters the game with a 29-11 overall mark (.725) under the current District playoff format. The Eagles are 8-3 in semifinal games, with their last loss coming to Forest Hills, 20-13 in 2002. Overall, the Eagles, who are making their tenth consecutive playoff appearance, have won seven District titles, with six coming in the John Franco era.
\nPhilipsburg-Osceola is making its third post-season appearance with its second straight berth in the District semifinals. The Mounties won their second overall postseason game last week. P-O has never won a semifinal game.
\nTYRONE: has outscored its opponents 206-44 since losing to P-O in October \u2026 is limiting opponents to 76 rushing yards per game \u2026 is plus-15 in the turnover ratio \u2026 quarterback Leonard Wilson has not thrown an interception since being picked off twice against the Mounties \u2026 has four players with over 100 yards receiving \u2026 has not allowed a second-quarter touchdown this season \u2026 has not lost a playoff game at home since losing to United 20-0 in the 1998 semifinals.
\nHidden Stat: Tyrone outrushed P-O 171-69 in earlier meeting.
\nPlayers to Watch: Ben Gummo, WR-LB-K, 19 receptions, 322 yards, 3 touchdowns, 42 extra points, 4.5 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, 2 takeaways \u2026 Terry Tate, OL-DL, 3.5 sacks, 16 tackles for loss \u2026 Brice Mertiff, RB, 179 carries, 1612 yards, 22 touchdowns, 8 receptions, 143 yards, 4 touchdowns \u2026 Leonard Wilson, QB, 55-118-818, 7 touchdowns, 2 interceptions \u2026 Brinton Mingle FB-LB, 583 yards, 18 touchdowns.
\nCoach John Franco: \u201cWe\u2019ve made more progress in the last five weeks than we did in the five weeks leading up to that game. That game shook us and made us realize that we\u2019re just like everybody else. We had to regroup and prove ourselves again.\u201d
\nPHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA: allowed 20 or more points three times this season \u2026 has not allowed a 100-yard rusher since Bellwood-Antis\u2019 Josh Kleinfelter in Week 7 \u2026 led the Mountain Athletic Conference in passing yardage \u2026 receiver Lou Lafuria became the school\u2019s all-time leading receiver in the win over Chestnut Ridge \u2026 quarterback Jeff Winters has thrown for over 100 yards seven times \u2026 have recorded 18 quarterback sacks.
\nHidden Stat: While rushing for more than 200 yards per game, the Mounties have had only one 100-yard rusher this season (Bjorn Scoggins, 7-115, Week 2).
\nPlayers to Watch: Lou Lafuria, WR-DB-K, 25 receptions, 692 yards, 8 touchdowns, 3 rushing touchdowns, 6 interceptions \u2026 Jeff Winters, QB, 59-118-1191, 10 touchdowns, 6 interceptions \u2026 Ryan Mostyn, RB-LB, 112 carries, 534 yards, 6 touchdowns, 4 blocked kicks \u2026 Kurt Ammerman, OL-DL, 5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries, 10 tackles for loss \u2026 Ron Pollock, DL, 42 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 5 sacks.
\nCoach Jeff Vroman: \u201cWe have playmakers, but I expect it to be a team effort. There\u2019s going to be an unsung hero somewhere in the game that makes a big play. It will probably be someone people don\u2019t expect who doesn\u2019t get a lot of ink.\u201d
\nGAME NOTES
\nThe game matches the top two offensive teams in the Mountain Athletic Conference Nittany Division. Tyrone is tops in rushing (2,690) and total offense (3,508), while P-O is first in passing (1,198) and second in total offense (3,211). The teams are also 1 and 2 in scoring offense, with the Eagles (35.4) leading the Mounties (26.5) by nine points per game.
\nTyrone also leads the Nittany Division in total defense, rushing yards allowed and scoring defense.
\nAlong with his school record six touchdowns against Purchase Line, Mertiff became the third rusher in Tyrone history to run for over 4,000 yards in his career, joining Marcus Owens (4,314) and Jesse Jones (6,902). Mertiff now had 4,037.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No. 2 Tyrone (9-1) vs. No. 3 Philipsburg-Osceola (9-1) District 6-AA Semifinals Gray Veterans Memorial Field, Tyrone 7 p.m. What\u2019s at Stake: The winner advances to the District 5-6 AA championship game next week against the winner of the other semifinal between No. 5 Forest Hills and No. 4 Bishop McCort. How They Got Here: […]<\/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-43898","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\/43898","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=43898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}