Basketball is a game one might easily think of where one player can dominate a game and almost single-handedly lead a team to victory. With only five guys on the floor, it’s possible for the sheer force-of-will of one overpowering player to be the difference.
It’s not quite as easy in football, where even the top players are just one person out of 11, and with the way bodies fly around on the field it often seems like one out of 19 or 20.
That’s just one of the reasons the performance of Clearfield’s Brady Collins against Tyrone last night in the season-opener was so special. He may have been just one player out of 11, but there were long stretches, especially in the second half when the Bisons wore down Tyrone’s smaller defensive line, when he was the whole show.
His numbers when the Bisons’ 46-20 come-from-behind victory over Tyrone at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field were gaudy to say the least: 21 carries for 234 yards for an average of 11.1 yards per carry; 1 reception for a 68-yard touchdown; a pick-6; a sack.
While there were 21 other players on the field with him, for most of the game all eyes were squarely on Collins.
“He’s a great athlete, he has a great attitude, and he’s a competitor,” Clearfield coach Myles Caragein said of Collins. “He wants to win, and the team rallies around him. He’s a great leader. When Brady gets going, it picks the team up. He did a great job tonight.”
Clearfield senior Brady Collins gashed the Golden Eagles defense for 234 yards and 4 rushing touchdowns.
In the second half, when his team was behind by a score and facing at least one bad situation, Collins, who last year registered 46 victories on the mat and earned a bronze medal at 152 pounds in Hershey, was at his best, generating 205 yards in total offense and 5 touchdowns.
“(Collins) is an All-State caliber player,” said Tyrone coach John Franco, whose team fell to Clearfield for the second straight season after leading in the second half. “He played a fantastic game on both sides of the ball. He’s a first-team All-State player in my book. There’s no doubt about it.”
But despite Collins’ dominant performance, it was a game where the Golden Eagles could look to several key exchanges and shake their heads knowing the tide could have turned the other way had things gone differently.
That’s not easy to say following a 26-point loss that was rather resounding after Collins’ final touchdown of the night – an 80-yard run in the fourth quarter where he broke tackles and willed his way to the endzone. But in this case, there’s more than a kernel of truth there.
The Golden Eagles led 14-13 at halftime and quickly made it 20-13 after Klayton Moore stepped in front of a pass from Xavier Curry and returned it 20 yards for the score.
The Bisons couldn’t move the ball when they got it back, and on fourth-and-1 from their own 37 Austin Lucas broke into the backfield and dropped Carter Freeland for a 7-yard loss. Tyrone took over with a prime opportunity to go up by two scores, but they mustered only two yards in four plays and handed the ball back to Clearfield.
That was when Collins began heating up, and the game changed on a dime.
It began with a simple swing pass out of the backfield into the flat. Collins took the pass, eluded a tackler, and outraced everyone down the sideline for a 68-yard score that brought the Bisons within a point after Eli Woomer blocked the PAT attempt.
Just two plays later, Collins scored again, picking off Tyrone quarterback Ashton Walk at the 39 and returning it all the way for the go-ahead score. It was 25-20, and Clearfield would not trail again.
“It was a huge series,” Caragain said of his team’s stop in the third quarter. “We would have been down two scores. That’s a punch in the gut, but our kids just kept fighting. It’s a bend-don’t-break mentality.”
After the Eagles went four-and-out on their ensuing series, it took the Bisons just four plays to cover 40 yards, with Collins capping the advance with a 2-yard run. Connor Morgan’s kick made it 32-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
There, Collins would score two more times – once on a 10-yard run that ended a 7-play drive that began after the Bisons were backed to their own 9 following an illegal substitution penalty – and finally on his 80-yard scamper with just under eight minutes to play.
Tyrone’s inability to capitalize on their big defensive stand in the third quarter was just one area where the game could have shifted in their favor. The other came near the end of the first half, when a 94-yard touchdown pass from Walk to Woomer was nullified by an illegal shift penalty that left Franco scratching his head.
The side judge ruled that Moore had moved towards the line of scrimmage while he was in motion, but it was a close call, one that Franco thought impacted the game.
“The turning point was losing that touchdown, and not scoring when we got the ball back in the red zone,” said Franco. “Having that touchdown taken away in the second quarter was a killer.”
The Eagles had overcome a slow start that included losing two fumbles to forge their halftime lead. Neither team scored in the first quarter, but Curry opened the second by directing a perfect run-pass-option play that ended with him scoring from the 10 to put the Bisons ahead 6-0.
Tyrone regrouped quickly and went ahead less than a minute later when Walk zipped a pass to Trent Adams on a slant for an 80-yard touchdown. Dante Novak kicked the first of two PATs to give the Eagles a 7-6 lead.
The Bisons went 70 yards on 9 plays on their ensuing drive, with Collins capping the march with a 12-yard run. Morgan’s kick made it 13-7.
But Tyrone’s speedy offense answered back when Seth Hoover, atoning for two earlier fumbles, broke free for a 57-yard touchdown on a sweep on the Eagles first play from scrimmage following the kick to set the halftime score.
Walk finished the game completing 11 of 23 passes for 204 yards, but he was intercepted twice in the second half, when he completed just 6 of 14 passes.
“They’re a great team and have a lot of great athletes,” said Caragein. “We had a game plan to stop the run and bring some pressure on (Walk). They hit us with some big plays. We made some adjustments, and the kids kept fighting. They’re coachable. They just kept working.”
NOTES: Adams finished with 3 receptions for 92 yards … Gage Miller had Tyrone’s other interception to thwart a second quarter drive … Curry completed 4 of 9 passes for 117 yards in his first varsity start. He also picked off Walk in the fourth quarter … Tyrone travels to Greater Johnstown next Friday while the Bisons host Forest Hills.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Clearfield 0 13 6 0 — 20
Tyrone 0 14 19 14 — 46
Second Quarter
C – Curry run (PAT failed) 11:53
T – Adams 80 pass from Miller (Novak kick) 10:57
C – Collins 12 run (Morgan kick) 6:34
T – Hoover 57 run (Novak kick) 6:17
Third Quarter
T – Moore 20 interception return (PAT blocked) 11:05
C – Collins 68 pass from Curry (PAT blocked) 6:57
C – Collins 39 interception return (PAT run failed) 6:36
C – Collins 2 run (Morgan kick) 3:39
Fourth Quarter
C – Collins 10 run (Curry run) 10:55
C – Collins 80 run (PAT failed) 7:39
TEAM STATISTICS C T
First downs 19 7
Total yards 461 264
Rushes-yards 48-344 15-60
Yards passing 117 204
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 4-9-2 11-23-2
Punts-avg. 3-23.3 4-38
Fumbles-lost 2-2 3-0
Penalties-yards 5-34 10-54
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Clearfield Collins 21-234, Freeland 10-54, Curry 7-18, Ryan 3-21, Chamberlain 2-5, Fletcher 2-0, Elbe 1-3, Glunt 1-4, Broad 1-5. Tyrone Hoover 7-69, Miller 2-(-3), Whitby 1-(-2), A. Emigh 1-(-2), Suhoney 3-(-4), Zupon 1-2,
PASSING—Clearfield Curry 4-9-117, 1 TD, 2 Int. Tyrone Miller 11-23-204, 1 TD, 2 Int., Zupon 0-1-0.
RECEIVING—Clearfield Freeland 2-40, Collins 1-68, Glunt 1-9. Tyrone Adams 3-92, Woomer 2-46, G. Miller 1-41, Hoover 1-(-4), M. Emigh 1-(-1); A. Emigh 2-12, Weston 1-18.
ORANGE AND BLACK 