Devils pounce on Golden Eagle miscues

Mistakes are going to happen. They’re a part of every football game.

Sometimes they matter more than others, but when it comes to the Backyard Brawl, the top schoolboy football rivalry in Central Pennsylvania, they always seem to mean more than in your run of the mill regular season contest.

That was never truer than last night, when Bellwood-Antis picked off Tyrone quarterback Ashton Walk four times at Memorial Stadium, flipping two of them into touchdowns in a 28-21 victory that snapped the Blue Devils’ two-game losing streak in the series, which dates back to 1934.

Colin Gibbons had two of them, Bradyn Partner had another, and Curtis Shedlock may have had the slickest of them all, coming over to help in coverage in the third quarter to snag this pass that was headed for an open Dante Novak, who had worked behind the initial coverage.

At one point, from the end of the first half into the third quarter, three straight Tyrone drives ended in interceptions, and a 14-8 halftime lead for the Golden Eagles quickly changed into a 22-14 deficit.

For Tyrone, which was already shorthanded several key starters due to injury and disciplinary reasons, the turnovers made a slim margin for error even tighter, backing the Eagles into a corner from which they could not escape.

“We made some mistakes in the game, some turnovers, that cost us,” said Tyrone coach John Franco. “Whenever we’re playing like we’re playing, you don’t have any room for error. We can’t afford to have an interception, or fumble, or jump off sides. And we came back from it. We were maybe one play away from repeating last week.”

A week ago, Tyrone rallied against Bald Eagle Area to tie the game in the final seconds of regulation before winning in overtime, and that scenario was on the table again against B-A. Down to its last possession with 3:18 to play, Tyrone drove from its own 15 to the Blue Devils’ 9, but after converting a first down with just seconds remaining the Golden Eagles were unable to get off one final play after the ball was set.

On the one hand, Franco thought the clock started too early, before the chains had been set. But at the same time, he said, the Eagles had put themselves in a situation where one call created a do-or-die predicament.

“It’s our fault,” he said. “We put ourselves in a bad position. We can’t put ourselves in that kind of a situation and expect a miracle two weeks in a row.”

The Devils, on the other hand, rarely found themselves in such situations because they executed their game plan almost flawlessly. With Tyrone overloading to stop the run, quarterback Holden Schreier had his best game of the season, completing 9 of 20 passes for 170 yards, including a 66-yard touchdown to Ethan Shawley at the start of the fourth quarter that ultimately proved to be the game-winner.

“It’s a gutsy call,” B-A coach Nick Lovrich said, praising offensive coordinator Chris Walker. “We had been running, and we thought we had them sucked in. Holden made a great pass under pressure. Ethan made a great catch and just took off.”

By then it was 28-14 with just under 12 minutes to play, but Walk began heating up on Tyrone’s ensuing series, and he found a connection with senior Gayge Miller, who had a career night. Walk completed four straight passes, including a 37-yarder to Mason Emigh and a 41-yarder to Miller on third-and-21 to get the ball to B-A’s 6. Two plays later he hit Miller for a 3-yard score to make it 28-21 after Novak kicked the third of 3 PATs.

That set up the dramatic ending, but the fourth quarter was one of the few times Walk was able to string together completions down the field at a rate that produced points. For that, Lovrich credited his secondary.

“Last year they kind of took their lumps,” B-A coach Nick Lovrich said of his secondary. “They were driven to make sure that wasn’t going to happen again. I was very impressed with what they did tonight. They played with confidence, and they were the ball hawks we always thought they could be.”

Last year they kind of took their lumps. They were driven to make sure that wasn’t going to happen again. I was very impressed with what they did tonight. They played with confidence, and they were the ball hawks we always thought they could be.

B-A coach Nick Lovrich on the Blue Devils’ secondary

Already playing without leading receiver Eli Woomer, Tyrone found itself without their top playmaker in Trent Adams after the first series. Adams appeared to reaggravate a shoulder injury that cost him two games before returning last Friday.

In his absence, Tyrone went to Seth Hoover, and the senior responded with the best game of his career, running for 107 yards on 17 carries. On the Eagles second possession, he carried for 69 yards, pushing Tyrone from the shadows on their endzone at the 2, where the series started, to the game’s first score – a 9-yard run with :03 left in the first quarter that gave Tyrone a 7-0 lead.

B-A took advantage of a roughing the kicker call after it was forced to punt to regain its footing and notch the go-ahead score 6 minutes later. After resetting at the 35, the Devils went 65 yards in 10 plays, with Partner covering the final 2 for the touchdown. Schreier than passed to Cayden Pellegrine for the two-point PAT to make it 8-7 with 6:12 left in the half.

Tyrone came right back, and on the second play of their next drive Miller took a pass from Walk and went 36 yards to B-A’s 19. On the next snap, Walk hit Novak for a touchdown to give the Eagles a 14-8 advantage at halftime.

But Walk threw interceptions on two of his first four passes of the second half, and each time B-A came away with points. Shedlock got the first, setting up a 73-yard drive that ended with two big runs by Partner, the first for 20 to get inside the 30 and the second a 29-yard sprint to the endzone that tied the game at 14-14.

Gibbons had the next pick, handing his team that ball at its own 42. From there, the Devils ran seven straight times, and Gibbons got the go-ahead touchdown on a 7-yard blast up the middle. Schreier then passed to Partner for the conversion and it was 22-14 with 1:25 left in the third.

Then came the backbreaker. After Tyrone punted on the first play of the fourth quarter, Schreier went up top to a streaking Shawley, who caught the ball in stride near the 30 and raced the rest of the way for a 66-yard touchdown that made it 28-14.

“We knew they could run the ball,” Franco said. “We knew we had our work cut out for stopping the running game. We were in a cover zero, and we got beat one-on-one. That’s a chance you have to take because you have to put everybody in on the run. It really turned out to be the deciding factor.”

Despite the turnovers, Walk had one of the top passing performances in school history and broke Tyrone’s record for career passing yards, a mark set by Steve Franco in 2011. Coming in, Walk needed 154 to tie the mark, and he completed 23 of 32 passes for 280 yards.

Miller was his primary target, and he came through with 10 catches for 140 yards.

Partner had a game, as well, running 19 times for 112 yards as part of 212 rushing yards the Devils churned out with their powerful offensive line.

The LHAC win upped B-A’s record to 4-1, while Tyrone fell to 2-3, failing to capitalize on the momentum it had gained with the win last week against BEA.

NOTES: Pellegrine finished with 44 yards rushing and 73 receiving yards … Tyrone was penalized 10 times for 94 yards … B-A hosts Philipsburg-Osceola next week in its Homecoming game … Tyrone will play its Homecoming game next week against Bishop Guilfoyle.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tyrone                            7 7 0 7 – 21  

Bellwood-Antis            0 8 14 6 – 28   

First Quarter

T – Hoover 9 run (Novak kick) :03

Second Quarter

B – Partner 2 run (Schreier to Pellegrine) 6:12

T – Novak 19 pass from Walk (Novak kick)

Third Quarter

B – Partner 29 run (PAT run failed) 6:43

B – Gibbons 7 run (Partner to Schreier) 1:25

Fourth Quarter

B – Shawley 66 pass from Schreier (PAT run failed) 11:38

T – Miller 3 pass from Walk (Novak kick)

TEAM STATISTICS                    B                         T

First downs                                 20                        16

Total yards                                  382                     396

Rushes-yards                             41-212              20-117

Yards passing                              170                     280

Passing (comp.-att.-int.)        9-20-0               23-32-4

Punts-avg.                                     2-34.5                1-39    

Fumbles-lost                               2-1                      1-0

Penalties-yards                         5-44                   10-94

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Tyrone – Hoover 17-107; Walk 2-0; Emigh 1-9. Bellwood-Antis – Partner 19-112; Gibbons 8-37; Schreier 4-19; Kyle 2-0; Pellegrine 8-44.

PASSING

Tyrone – Walk 23-32-270, 2 TDs, 4 Ints. Bellwood-Antis – Schreier 9-20-170, 1 TD, 0 Int.

RECEIVING

Tyrone – Miller 10-140; Adams 2-11; Novak 2-30; Moore 5-43; Hoover 2-15; M. Emigh 4-41. Bellwood-Antis – Shawley 2-78; Pellegrine 4-73; Gibbons 2-1; Kyle 1-18.