Goal line stand lifts Eagles over Marauders

Tyrone’s Eli Woomer has been emerging as a dangerous weapon in the Golden Eagles’ offense, but on Friday against Bishop Guilfoyle the sophomore receiver didn’t catch a pass.

In fact, Woomer wasn’t targeted one time.

And yet he played a role in two of the most important plays of the game, tide turners that kept the Marauders off the scoreboard and helped Tyrone sneak away with what may be its biggest victory of the season, a 28-27 win at Mansion Park that was secured with a goal line stand on a two-point conversion attempt with just over a minute to play.

“That was Tyrone football at its finest on that play,” Coach John Franco said of the stop, which involved Woomer at the point of attack along with linebacker Austin Lucas, who himself made several defensive plays that thwarted promising BG drives.

The setup is this: after Tyrone had built a 28-14 lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Marauders scored twice in the final frame, with the second one coming with just 1:03 to play, cutting the Golden Eagles’ edge to a single point.

Initially, Guilfoyle lined up to kick an extra point and play for overtime, but before Michael Cacciotti could attempt the kick, BG coach Justin Wheeler called a timeout. After talking things over he sent his team back out to try for two and go for the win. Here’s what it looked like:

Tyrone stops BG’s conversion attempt.

There’s a lot going on there, but Lucas sniffed out Chase Kissell’s run attempt early and after he made the initial hit Woomer came in to deliver a blow that ensured the junior quarterback would not be powering through a tackle into the end zone.

At that point, the Marauders were out of time outs, so everyone knew precisely what the stop meant. That stop was the game, and Tyrone had secured its first signature victory of the season, against a quality opponent that had won three games and most recently lost in overtime on a field goal to undefeated Central.

Chase Kissell is stopped a yard short of the goal line by Austin Lucas and Eli Woomer. (Terry McCaulley photo)

In fact, BG’s 10-7 loss last week helped influence Wheeler when he was determining how to handle the PAT following the Marauders last touchdown. Conventional wisdom says you go for the tie at home and the win on the road, but there were other factors at stake for the coach who has won 4 state championships in his 13 years at Guilfoyle.

“We had a tough overtime game last week,” he said. “We’re down five starters tonight. Guys are hurt, and three guys have the flu who tried to play. So we had five or six new kids in. Guys were battling who we thought gave us a chance to win. We thought the longer it went the less chance we had. We tried to get it to our skill guys. We did the right things, and they did the right things, and we ended up about a half-yard short.”

Both Woomer and Lucas made two other plays defensively that not only thwarted BG scoring advances but set up scores for the Eagles.

The point is, as the season extends beyond the midpoint, the Golden Eagles are beginning to have more players emerge and make game-changing plays, players beyond the seniors who were expected to play big, and beyond Ashton Walk, who came into the campaign with a track record that spoke for itself.

Franco said he could see an excitement in his team when Guilfoyle took the timeout to plan for the conversion try, which demonstrates the confidence players are feeling now that younger players like Woomer and Lucas are settling in.

Franco talks about Tyrone’s defensive stand.

As well as the game ended, it didn’t start that way. Walk was 0-for-3 by the end of Tyrone’s second series with two interceptions, including this one by Trent Adams that went for 6 for the Marauders.

Adams gets the pick-6.

Walk, like a good three-year starter, was never rattled and ultimately threw for 145 yards, but even more important than Walk’s unflappable demeanor was the consistency of Brady Ronan. The 6-for-2 running back was working downhill all night, and he produced his best game, running for 187 yards and 3 touchdowns on 20 carries.

Ronan’s had 5 runs of 15 yards or more, including this 39-yard scamper that tied the game in the second quarter.

Ronan scores on a 39-yard run.

Guilfoyle answered back four minutes later when Kaden Wyandt scored from a yard out to cap a 56-yard drive, but the Marauders couldn’t contain the Eagles’ big-play skill guys when they got the ball back, and the combination of Ronan and Andrew Weaver had the score tied again at 14-14 in a little more than a minute.

First, Walk effortlessly flipped this 38-yard pass on the run to Weaver for a 38-yard gain to BG’s 16.

Walk to Weaver nets 38.

Then, Ronan zig-zagged through traffic to find the end zone.

Ronan gets his second touchdown.

Those were two of the 15 plays Tyrone produced that went for 10 yards or more, and against a defense like Guilfoyle’s, which limited Central to a single touchdown just a week ago, that’s a lot.

But two of the key plays came on BG’s next two complete offensive possessions, involving not Tyrone’s offense but its defense. On Guilfoyle’s ensuing possession following Ronan’s score, Chase Kissell hooked up with a wide open Jake Kissell down the sideline for a play that went 37 yards. It could have gone more or maybe been a touchdown had Owen Oakes not chased down the play from his linebacker position to trip up Kissell for a split second, time just enough for Woomer to come across and deliver a hit that separated the receiver from the ball.

Woomer causes a fumble.

Walk was there to pick up the loose ball, and Tyrone took over at its 12 with five minutes left in the half.

It took 11 plays for Tyrone to cover the distance. Along the way the Eagles would have to overcome two penalties, including an intentional grounding call tat forced them out of the red zone, but because they generated 5 plays on the march 10 yards or longer, they only faced one third down.

In the end, it was this pass from Walk to Weaver with 4 seconds until halftime that put the Eagles out front 21-14. They would never trail again.

Weaver scores to make it 21-14.

“That took a lot of concentration,” said Weaver, who recorded his second straight 100-yard game with 4 receptions for 110 yards.. “That was one of the big plays that boosted us for the rest of the game.”

Another big play came on BG’s first series of the second half. Facing third-and-23 following a holding penalty, Chase Kissell rolled out and threw over the middle, where he was picked off by Lucas. The play stopped a drive that had lasted 7 plays, and it set up Tyrone at its own 45. From there, the Eagles needed only 7 plays of their own to cash in, scoring on a 1-yard run by Ronan to go up two scores with 4:14 left in the third quarter.

The Marauders got the ball two more times, and they scored on each possession, starting with a 40-yard pass from Chase Kissell to Hamilton Gates to start the fourth quarter.

Tyrone then drove as far as the Marauders’ 31 on the series after the kick but was forced to punt after Walk was sacked at the 43. Rocky Romani got off a gem, booming a high spiral that Gates had to fair catch at the 10, forcing Guilfoyle to go 90 yards on 15 plays, eating up clock and narrowing Wheeler’s decision when his team ultimately scored.

NOTES: Tyrone finished with 322 yards in total offense. Franco said a lot of the credit was due to the offensive line, which included a healthy Cian Hockenberry for the first time this season. But Franco said the general good health of his team overall was a factor … Chase Kissell had a day for the Marauders, completing 16 of 24 passes for 254 yards and 2 touchdowns. Like Walk he is a junior, as is every other starting quarterback in the Laurel Highlands East 1 section … Walk went over the 4,000-yard passing mark for his career, becoming only the second passer in Tyrone history to reach that milestone. Stevie Franco is the all-time leader with 6,070 yards … Tyrone will return to Gray-Veterans Memorial Field next week to face Huntingdon … BG travels to Bellwood-Antis.