{"id":4909,"date":"2008-09-25T14:07:22","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T18:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/v3\/?p=4909"},"modified":"2008-09-25T14:07:22","modified_gmt":"2008-09-25T18:07:22","slug":"eagles-must-come-back-after-first-loss-in-36-games-to-battle-bald-eagle-area-at-gray-vets-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/?p=4909","title":{"rendered":"Eagles must come back after first loss in 36 games to battle Bald Eagle Area at Gray-Vets Memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dustin Weaver<\/td>\nDevin Miller<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Take any senior on the Tyrone football team, grill them on game-time strategies \u2013 picking up a blitz off the weak side, adjusting a route based on coverages \u2013 and chances are pretty good they\u2019ll have an educated answer for you.
\nThey have to. Coach John Franco drills the fundamentals of the game the way an English teacher waxes on subjects and predicates.
\nBut ask a senior, or a junior for that matter, how to prepare for a game coming off a loss and you might get a blank stare. No player in those classes has ever had to do it before.
\nThat made this week an interesting week at practice for Franco and the Eagles (3-1, 1-1 Nittany Division), who last Friday lost for the first time since October 1, 2004 when they dropped a 35-34 decision to Clearfield, snapping a school-record 35-game winning streak.
\n\u201cAny other time we\u2019ve lost in the last four years, it\u2019s been a playoff game, so there was no practice the next week,\u201d said Franco. \u201cWe just stick with the plan. We don\u2019t change. We continue doing things to try to get better. You try to learn, win or lose.\u201d
\nBut with the loss comes at least one extra concern for Franco that can\u2019t as easily be entered onto a practice schedule and drilled on the field.
\n\u201cWe have to get out there and overcome the loss,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how we\u2019ll respond. After we lost to Philipsburg in 2004, we played Bellefonte the next week and we struggled. And it was a game you would have thought would be much easier. I don\u2019t want to do the same thing this week.\u201d
\nTo prevent a similar letdown, Franco said he\u2019s talked with the seniors to make sure they maintain their focus against a Bald Eagle Area team that\u2019s capable of snapping a streak of its own \u2013 its 13-game losing skid against the Golden Eagles.
\nBEA enters the game 2-2 (2-1 MAFC Nittany Division) \u2013 already a big improvement over last season, when the Eagles went winless, save for a forfeit loss it handed back to Huntingdon for using an ineligible player.
\nBut after a 2-0 start, BEA has dropped its last two games and hasn\u2019t scored a touchdown in the last nine quarters.
\n\u201cThe running game has been our strength,\u201d first-year BEA coach Jack Tobias said. \u201cAJ Robinson has done a great job, and so has Jon Gingrich at fullback. And the line has done a really good job of opening holes.
\n\u201cOur defense has played pretty well. We\u2019re not as deep as a team like Central Mountain, so we tend to get worn down in the fourth quarter.\u201d
\nThat much has played out in Bald Eagle\u2019s four games. BEA opened the season allowing 225 yards and 8.5 points per game in wins over Class AA Philipsburg-Osceola and Penns Valley. Since then, the defense has surrendered 326 yards and 29.5 points per game in shutout losses to Class AAA St. Mary\u2019s and Class AAAA Central Mountain.
\nThat\u2019s a scenario much to the liking of Franco and the Golden Eagles, who pride themselves on outlasting a team in the fourth quarter with conditioning. But it won\u2019t be easy against BEA, which is built to wear on teams much like Tyrone. The Eagles have a large offensive line and two sturdy running backs that attack teams with power.
\nRobinson leads the ground game\u2014which is averaging over 180 yards per game\u2014with 373 yards on 56 carries, while Gingrich has totaled 153 yards on 17 carries.
\n\u201cTheir size will give us trouble,\u201d said Franco.
\nTyrone will counter Bald Eagle\u2019s formidable running game with balance. Of the 1,352 yards the Golden Eagles have accumulated this season, 835 have come on the ground and 518 in the air, making it near impossible to gang up on one area of their offense.
\nLarry Glace (53 carries, 410 yards) and Mark Mingle (79 carries, 379 yards) lead the ground game, while junior Levi Reihart has come into his own in his second season as the starting quarterback. He\u2019s completed 32 of 46 passes for 511 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception.
\nEric Desch (9 receptions, 182 yards) and John Shaffer (10 receptions, 152 yards) have been his top targets, with Ben Ingle (7 receptions, 79 yards) coming on strong the last two weeks.
\n\u201cObviously, they\u2019re the best in Double-A,\u201d said Tobias. \u201cThey\u2019re very balanced. They get off the ball well, and they intend on punching you in the mouth. They don\u2019t make mistakes and they\u2019re good at what they do.\u201d
\nBEA, on the other hand, has struggled to achieve balance offensively, with only 31 yards passing. Starting quarterback Derek Noll has completed only 6 of 36 passes and thrown two interceptions.
\n\u201cWe did some things better in the passing game last week,\u201d said Tobias. \u201cWe had a lot of dropped passes and some guys didn\u2019t make plays. Sometimes we completed passes and had holding penalties. Those kind of things hurt.\u201d
\nStill, Franco said he was surprised how often BEA has thrown deep this season. \u201cAll they have to do is complete one of those,\u201d he said.
\nBut despite talks of X\u2019s and O\u2019s, Franco said the game will hinge mostly on Tyrone\u2019s mental approach come tomorrow night.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for us to come off this loss and see how we respond,\u201d Franco said. \u201cWe know they can come in here and beat us. Can we come back after a loss? The seniors and juniors have never done it.\u201d
\nKICKING GAME
\nFranco said there was no concern with the Golden Eagles\u2019 kicking game after last week when Shaffer and Jared Templeton combined to miss three extra-points. He even took most of the responsibility for Shaffer\u2019s late miss of a 46-yard field goal that would have put Tyrone ahead by two with just over a minute to play.
\n\u201cThat was not Shaffer\u2019s miss. It was mine,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t expect a high school kid to make a long field goal in that situation. Any time a high school kid makes a long field goal, it\u2019s a bonus. I told him before he kicked it \u2013 if you miss it\u2019s my fault.
\n\u201cJohn is a great kicker, and he always has been. Playing both ways and then making that kick \u2026 it\u2019s a tough thing to do. He gave us a chance where other kickers might not have. At the time, I thought the kick was a good decision, but when I look back, I don\u2019t know.\u201d
\nINJURY UPDATE
\nTwo key players saw their playing time limited in the second half against Clearfield. Desch missed most of the second half with an ankle injury, while Glace was hobbled by cramps.
\nFranco said Glace was fine and would play against BEA. Desch, he said, has a slight ankle sprain and would be a game-time decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dustin Weaver Devin Miller Take any senior on the Tyrone football team, grill them on game-time strategies \u2013 picking up a blitz off the weak side, adjusting a route based on coverages \u2013 and chances are pretty good they\u2019ll have an educated answer for you. They have to. Coach John Franco drills the fundamentals of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4909","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=4909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}