In the wake of his team\u2019s 46-point loss last night to Tyrone in the first round of the District 5-6 AA playoffs, Purchase Line coach Dave Small stood on the 40 yard line at Gray Veterans Memorial Field looking for answers as he spoke to the media.
\nWhat\u2019s surprising is the one that eluded him.
\n\u201cThe Number 30 boy for Tyrone – what\u2019s his last name?\u201d Small questioned the group of reporters.
\n\u201cMertiff,\u201d came the reply.
\n\u201cI heard it so many times, I should know it,\u201d Small quipped.
\nRelatively speaking, Small didn\u2019t hear Mertiff\u2019s name more than most coaches this season. The 5-10 senior toted the pigskin 19 times, about one above his per game average, but it was what he did when he got his mitts on the ball that troubled Small.
\nMertiff rushed for a career-high 234 yards, caught one pass for 44 yards and scored a school record six touchdowns as the Golden Eagles dropped Purchase Line 59-13 to advance to the District semifinals next Saturday.
\n\u201cOur line blocked awesome tonight and coach gave me a chance to score some touchdowns,\u201d said Mertiff, who last week tied the school record with five scores against Penns Valley. \u201cI\u2019m surprised to get six touchdowns, but with the way (the line) is blocking, it makes it a lot easier.\u201d
\nThe previous record was first established by Wilbur \u201cWib\u201d Ammerman in 1924, and tied over the years by Marcus Owens, Jesse Jones, Mark Wyland and Dennis Rozick. Mertiff whittled that list down to one with his performance against the Red Dragons, but tried to keep it in perspective afterwards.
\n\u201cBeing included with great running backs like that, it feels good,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to be at least somewhere around in the mix.\u201d
\n\u201cBrice is an amazing running back,\u201d said Tyrone coach John Franco. \u201cHe\u2019s a heck of a player. He can take his place right up alongside Jesse Jones and Marcus Owens and Mark Wyland, and some of the great backs that we\u2019ve had here. I kind of felt he was going to have a big game because he practiced really well this week.\u201d
\nWhile Mertiff\u2019s numbers stand out, there were others that demanded attention following the Eagles\u2019 most lopsided victory since defeating Philipsburg-Osceola 58-14 last season in the District semifinals. Classmate Ben Gummo tied the school record of eight extra-points in a single game set by his brother Scott in 1999. Tight end Tad Chamberlain grabbed two passes for a career-high 53 yards and quarterback Leonard Wilson went without an interception for the ninth time in 10 games.
\n Still, when the players finished shaking hands after the final horn sounded, Franco was as intense as ever when addressing his team before leaving the field.
\n\u201cWhat I was telling them is that we can\u2019t just relax now because we got a big win,\u201d Franco said. \u201cWe know next week is going to be a much tougher game and whoever we play is going to be a great football team.\u201d
\nThe Eagles could easily find themselves rematched with P-O, which dealt Tyrone its only loss of the season on October 1 with a 7-6 win at Memorial Field. The 3-seeded Mounties face Chestnut Ridge tonight at home.
\nThat\u2019s a game that Tyrone will watch with keen interest, but first they\u2019ll enjoy their best offensive output of the season. The Eagles scored on seven of their nine possessions – one other touchdown came when Shane Christine recovered a fumbled punt in the endzone – at one point cashing in on five consecutive drives.
\n\u201cThings just went right for us tonight.\u201d Franco said. \u201cEverything went right. I\u2019m surprised that we had that much offense on this team because they played great defense all year.\u201d
\nThe Eagles started the game on the heels of a Mertiff interception with a four minute drive that went 55 yards in nine plays. Mertiff carried four times for 32 yards and Brinton Mingle covered the last three to put Tyrone ahead 7-0 with 6:10 to play in the first quarter.
\nDragon quarterback Doug Lenz looked as shaky on his second throw of the game as he did on his first, this time throwing an interception to Mingle on Purchase Line\u2019s first play after the score. Mingle returned it 25 yards to the PL-10, and one play later Mertiff scored on a 10-yard run for a 14-0 lead.
\nBut the Dragons responded with their best series of the game, moving 58 yards in nine plays for a touchdown that put them back into the contest for a moment. The key play of the drive came when Lenz hit Chris Gee for a 23-yard gain on third-and-five from the PL-47. Six plays later, Robert Hopkins ran in from the four, making it 14-6.
\n\u201cI\u2019m thinking at that time that if we can get a stop, it could be a different complexion to the game,\u201d said Small.
\nThe euphoria didn\u2019t last long. A poor kick gave Tyrone the ball at the Dragon 49 with 32 seconds left in the first quarter, and on the Eagles first play Mertiff broke loose down the left sideline and scored with 14 seconds left.
\nMertiff then brought the house down on Tyrone\u2019s first series of the second quarter. From the T-49, an option pitch from Wilson to Mertiff was just wide and landed on the turf seven yards behind the line of scrimmage. Mertiff picked it up, avoided one oncoming tackler, got a terrific block from Wilson and broke containment on the opposite side of the field. He broke back to the middle against the grain again and picked up 26 yards before finally being tripped up at the PL-25.
\nTwo plays later, on third-and-29 after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the ball back to the PL-44, he hauled in a Wilson pass over the middle, cut outside, and eased into the endzone for a score that put Tyrone up 28-6 with 10:19 left in the half.
\n\u201cOur defense finally held them to some negative yardage, and for them to break a play like that just breaks your back,\u201d said Small.
\nThe Eagles scored one more time before the break, this time on an eight-play, 90-yard drive highlighted by a 44-yard catch and run by Chamberlain, who just missed his first varsity touchdown when he was brought down at the one. Mertiff scored on the next play to lift Tyrone to a 35-6 halftime advantage.
\nMertiff would score twice more on Tyrone first two drives of the second half, once on a 35 yard run capping a 61-yard drive and once on a four-yard run to top off a 43-yard drive.
\nThe Dragons made it 49-13 in the fourth quarter when Hopkins scored his second touchdown on a one-yard run, capping a 68-yard drive, but the Eagles got the score back when Christine recovered a fumbled punt in the Purchase Line endzone with 1:51 to play.
\nGRID TIDBITS: James Updike recovered a fumble for Tyrone … Tyrone stopped Purchase Line five times behind the line of scrimmage, led by Terry Tate\u2019s two tackles for loss … Purchase Line was surrendering just over nine points per game coming in and hadn\u2019t allowed a team to score more than 28 in a single game … Tyrone has now forced 21 turnovers this season, while losing the ball only six times …. Franco credited the offensive line for Mertiff\u2019s record night, while Small singled out Tate for making Tyrone\u2019s plays off tackle work as effectively as they did … the Eagles are now 8-0 under Franco in first round District playoff games at home….Mertiff has now rushed for 4,037 yards.
\nTyrone 56, Purchase Line 13
\nPurch. Line\t 6 0 0 7 – 13
\nTyrone \t21 14 14 7 – 56
\nScore by Quarters
\nFirst Quarter
\nT – Mingle 3 run (Gummo kick) 6:10
\nT – Mertiff 10 run (Gummo kick) 5:38
\nP – Hopkins 4 run (PAT failed) :35
\nT – Mertiff 49 run (Gummo kick) :14.4
\nSecond Quarter
\nT – Mertiff 44 pass from Wilson (Gummo kick) 10:19
\nT – Mertiff 1 run (Gummo kick) 2:33
\nThird Quarter
\nT – Mertiff 35 run (Gummo kick) 9:52
\nT – Mertiff 4 run (Gummo kick) 5:36
\nFourth Quarter
\nP – Hopkins 1 run (Hopkins kick) 4:09
\nT – Christine fumble recovery in endzone (Gummo kick) 1:51
\nTeam Statistics
\n\t\tT\t\tP
\nFirst Downs\t\t17\t\t14
\nYards Rushing\t\t33-288\t\t28-98
\nPass Att.-Comp.\t\t3-6\t\t11-20
\nPass Yards\t \t97\t\t127
\nTotal Yards\t\t385\t\t225
\nFumbles\/Lost\t\t0-0\t\t3-2
\nInterceptions by\t\t3\t\t\t0
\nPenalties\/Yards\t\t2-30\t\t4-25
\nPunts\/Avg.\t\t2-35.5\t\t4-33.3
\nIndividual Statistics
\nRushing
\nTYRONE – Mertiff 19-234; Christine 5-27; Mingle 4-15; Gillmen 2-10; Barlett 3-7; Wilson 2-(-5).
\nPURCHASE LINE – Long 9-45; Hopkins 15-22; Lenz 3-18; L. Small 1-13.
\nPassing
\nTYRONE – Wilson 3-6-97, 1 TD
\nPURCHASE LINE – Lenz 10-18-125, 2 Int.; S. Small 1-2-2, 1 Int.
\nReceiving
\nTYRONE – Chamberlain 2-53; Mertiff 1-44.
\nPURCHASE LINE – Engle 3-56; Hopkins 2-27; Rorobaugh 2-16; C. Gee 1-23; Goodin 1-9; D. Gee 1-2; Long 1-(-6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the wake of his team\u2019s 46-point loss last night to Tyrone in the first round of the District 5-6 AA playoffs, Purchase Line coach Dave Small stood on the 40 yard line at Gray Veterans Memorial Field looking for answers as he spoke to the media. What\u2019s surprising is the one that eluded him. […]<\/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-43941","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\/43941","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=43941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}