Panthers score in final minute to knock out Tyrone

Third downs and two-touchdown leads have not been kind to the Tyrone Golden Eagles this season. Not when it comes to facing the best of the best.

You can trace it back to Tyrone’s first game in August when the Eagles led Clearfield 21-6 on the road before collapsing in the fourth quarter of a 29-21 loss.

Go forward 9 weeks to the Eagles’ Week 10 game against Forest Hills, where Tyrone led 14-0 only to lose 31-29.

Both of those teams made plays late in downs to extend drives and ultimately find a way against a defense that was always good enough to put the Eagles in a position to win but showed cracks when the margin for error tightened.

The Eagles’ District 6 3A semifinal last night against Penn Cambria was no different. For three quarters, Tyrone held the Panthers’ explosive offense as well as anyone outside of Bald Eagle Area.

But with the game on the line, Tyrone couldn’t protect a two-score lead. Penn Cambria punched in a touchdown on a 3-yard run by Gavin Harrold with 32 seconds left at Penn Cambria Stadium in Cresson to win 32-28 and advance to the 3A championship game next week against Central at mansion Park.

The Panthers trailed 21-6 in the first half and 28-19 at the start of the fourth quarter.

“We had a first-to-fight, last-to-leave mentality in the second half,” said Penn Cambria coach Nick Felus, whose team improved to 9-2. “They’re so tough. They come to practice everyday and work their tails off. When you play for four quarters, you see what happens at the end. We finished the game when we needed to finish the game.”

When you play for four quarters, you see what happens at the end. We finished the game when we needed to finish the game.
Nick Felus

No one embodied that spirit quite like senior Carter McDermott, who took over in the final frame and made play after play to keep the Panthers’ hopes alive. None was bigger than the touchdown he scored off a blocked punt with 8:48 to play that pulled Penn Cambria within 3, 28-25.

Tyrone had just held off two Panther advances with interceptions from Luke Walk and Eli Woomer, the second of which ended a drive that went as far as Tyrone’s 25. But after taking over at the 13 the Eagles went nowhere, and Rocky Romani was forced to punt from near the goal line.

The Panthers took a timeout to set up a block, and they brought the house right up the middle. Derek Hite stuffed the kick before it ever left Romani’s toe, and McDermott scooped up the loose ball for a short score.

McDermott scores off Hite’s punt block.

“We talked it over as a staff and said let’s go for it,” said Felus. “(McDermitt) is a gamer. He’s got the speed. He’s got a gait. He made big play after big play.”

McDermott was far from finished. Tyrone moved the ball to the Panthers’ 35 on the following series and had a chance to convert a short third-and-5 until quarterback Ashton Walk was sacked for a 14-yard loss to the 49. Romani got his next punt off, sending it to McDermott at the 14.

McDermott sets up the game-winning score with a long return.

That 34-yard return to the 48 set in motion the game-winning drive, which featured one more play from McDermott, who went into full extension to pull in a 26-yard pass from Brady Jones to get the ball to the 16.

McDermott’s catch gains 26 yards.

It’s not like the coverage wasn’t there. In fact, Brady Ronan couldn’t have played the route much better. But as was the case most of the second half, when the Panthers needed a big play, McDermott delivered.

Four plays later, after an interference call took Penn Cambria half the distance to the goal, Harrold crashed in on a wildcat formation snap with just over half a minute left.

Harrold scores the game winner.

That was how quickly Tyrone went from making its second finals appearance since 2020 to preparing for the winter sports season.

For Coach John Franco, whose team ended the campaign 6-5, it was a demoralizing way to end the season.

“I thought our kids gave everything tonight. I thought they played their hearts out,” Franco said. “I tip my cap to Penn Cambria. They played a heck of a game. It was a great high school football game. It was a shame someone had to lose. We’re disheartened from it.”

The Panthers were at their best when they were facing third-down situations. In those instances, the Panthers converted 5 of 12 opportunities, including three touchdowns.

“We got the ball to our playmakers,” Felus said. “We found some matchups we liked. Carter McDermott, Gavin Harrold down the stretch. You get those two guys the ball, big things can happen.”

McDermott finished the game with 87 receiving yards on four catches while Harrold, only a sophomore, had 85 yards rushing and 52 more as a receiver. The duo combined for four of the Panthers’ five touchdowns.

However, throughout the first half, those players were held in check for the most part by the Eagles’ defense, which was focused on limiting Penn Cambria’s strong inside running game. The Panthers’ had only 65 yards on the ground at the break, and their longest run was 14 yards.

At the same time, Tyrone’s offense continued to churn out yards and scores as it had for the previous six weeks. The Eagles got on the board first with an 81-yard drive that lasted 10 plays. Walk moved the chains three times with passes to Ronan and Seth Hoover out of the backfield before dropping a perfectly placed ball from 15 yards out to Dravyn Crowell, who had beaten Marcus Lilly, the Panthers’ best cover corner with 6 picks.

Crowell pulls in a 15-yard score.

That made it 7-0, but the Panthers stopped Tyrone on its next two series before punching one in early in the second quarter. The score came on third-and-4 from the 24 when Jones nearly lost the snap before picking up the ball and throwing to Chase Plazek.

Plazek gets the Panthers’ first touchdown.

As was the case later on McDermott’s fourth-quarter catch, the coverage wasn’t there. But Penn Cambria’s receivers made a habit of coming through with plays under duress.

Woomer would block the extra-point attempt to keep Tyrone in front, and the Eagles bounced back with a 66-yard drive to take a 14-6 lead. Woomer had a heavy hand in the march with a pair of 17-yard receptions, the second of which got the ball to Penn Cambria’s 8 to set up Ronan for this score.

Ronan scores from 8 yards out.

Penn Cambria looked poised to respond with an equalizer, advancing to Tyrone’s 38, but on first down Hoover picked off Jones at the 15 and was off to the races.

Hoover returns a pick 75 yards.

Hoover was finally knocked out of bounds at the 10, giving him a 75-yard return. Three plays later, Walk connected with Andrew Weaver for a 9-yard touchdown that made it 21-6.

Weaver snags his 8th touchdown reception.

The Panthers pulled within 21-13 before the end of the first half, using an 8-play drive to go 57 yards, scoring with 1:30 left when Jones threw to McDermott for a 9-yard touchdown on third-and-4.

“We pretty much moved the ball the whole game,” Franco said. “It got to the point of somebody make a play here or make a play there, and we didn’t get that. These games come down to who’s going to make the play and who isn’t, and we didn’t. We needed to make one more play or stop them one time, and we didn’t do that.”

Neither team could finish a drive in the third quarter until the Eagles had Penn Cambria facing a long down and distance – third-and-17 – with time winding down in the frame. The Panthers went to Harrold, who broke tackles and turned on his speed on this 57-yard run that got Penn Cambria within 2 at 21-19.

Harrold breaks free for a 57-yard touchdown.

Like last week, when Xander Richardson stepped through tackles near the line of scrimmage for a long touchdown that turned around Tyrone’s game against Forest Hills, the Eagles’ defense had its chances to stop Harrold at the point of attack. Unlike last week, Tyrone had an immediate answer.

Tyrone went to Ronan on the next play following the kickoff, and the senior got loose on a run that almost put the game out of reach.

Ronann breaks free for 87 yards.

That was the longest run of Ronan’s career, and after the fourth of Romani’s PATs, Tyrone led 28-19 with 37 seconds left in the third quarter. All that was needed was one stop, one sustained drive, and a couple of first downs to put the Panthers in serious scramble mode.

They almost got it when Walk intercepted a wobbly pass of the hand of Jones at the 37 a minute into the fourth quarter. But Ronan fumbled on the next play.

Woomer’s interception came next, and by then Tyrone was playing deep in its own territory, making Felus’ gamble on the punt block a doable proposition.

“For the past three weeks, we have been working on blocking overload punts,” Franco said. “It’s hard to simulate in practice. They made a great play from it.”

Ronan finished with 148 yards on 23 carries, putting him over 1,000 yards for the season. He’s Tyrone’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Gary Weaver in 2015.

Walk ended with 148 yards through the air, completing 14 of 29 passes.