Passing game clicks in blowout of Central Cambria

A hot Ashton Walk passing in rhythm was about the last thing Central Cambria’s secondary needed to see when it came the Gray-Veterans Memorial Field last night for a Laurel Highlands inter-divisional game against Tyrone.

The Red Devils had just been diced the week before against Forest Hills in a 42-6 loss where two Ranger quarterbacks combined to go 12-for-12. The DBs were struggling and the remedy was probably anything but facing the hottest passing offense in the Laurel Highlands.

The best they could have hoped for was that Walk was a bit or that the Eagles would try a tact different than the one employed by Forest Hills.

The Devils got neither, and while Walk wasn’t perfect, he was pretty close.

Tyrone’s four-year starting senior completed 17 of 18 passes for 314 yards and 5 touchdowns to lead the way in a 55-19 blowout of winless Central Cambria that got the Golden Eagles back to .500 at 4-4 and gave them consecutive victories for the first time this season.

“When Ashton gets a few completions early on, he gets into a rhythm, and then our whole offense gets into a rhythm, and we’re hard to stop,” said Tyrone coach John Franco.

It was Walk’s fourth 300-yard game in his career and second of the season, and it allowed him to eclipse a pair of milestones that no Tyrone quarterback had ever reached in more than 100 years of the high school game being played in the borough. He went over the 2,000-yard mark for the second straight season, an achievement reached once by just two other players, and became the first Tyrone passer to get to 7,000 yards for a career.

Walk also ran for a touchdown in the third quarter to get the mercy rule clock running in Tyrone’s highest scoring game since putting up 51 against Huntingdon in 2020.

“It’s a huge accomplishment, and I give all glory to God for that,” Walk said afterwards. “I can’t do that without all of my teammates from the past four years. Our main goal this year is to bring a District title home, so the stats will take care of themselves as long as we can win games.”

Walk’s pinpoint accuracy pushed his completion percentage this season to 62.9% and inflated the rate at which quarterbacks were completing passes against the Devils’ secondary before the game, which was a plump 68.8%.

Senior Trent Adams was just one beneficiary of Walk’s record-setting night. He recorded his fourth 100-yard receiving game of the season with 8 receptions for 165 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Eli Woomer had 4 catches for 93 yards, and Ashton Emigh caught 3 passes for 42 yards and another touchdown.

“This is three games now where we’ve had everybody, and it’s just like at the beginning of the year, you get better and better,” said Franco, whose team is averaging over 41 points in its last three outing. “That’s what we’re doing. We’re getting better and better, and hopefully we can keep improving that.”

But as much as the game ended in a lopsided win, it didn’t start that way as both teams threw haymakers in wild first quarter without delivering a knockout blow.

Tyrone scored first less than three minutes into the game when Walk threw to Adams for a 19-yard touchdown two plays after hooking up with him on a 35-yard gain.

Adams also kicked the first of 7 PATs in his first time kicking this season.

With Central Cambria quarterback Hunter Pittsinger out after sustaining an injury last week, the Devils started leading rusher Grady Snyder at quarterback and through the first quarter he was very effective. On the first play of the Devils’ next series, he kept the ball on an option up the middle and raced 62 yards for a score that tied the game after Liam O’Brien booted the PAT.

The Golden Eagles answered with their second touchdown on a sweep to Seth Hoover that covered 77 yards. Hoover was able to get the edge thanks to a double team on the defensive end and then benefitted from the downfield blocking of Gayge Miller on the longest run of his career.

He finished with 119 yards on 12 carries.

It looked like Tyrone might put the game away early after Mason Emigh picked off Snyder on his second passing attempt after Central Cambria got the ball back. Thanks to a 37-yard completion to Woomer, the Eagles made it to the Devils’ 1 when Walk tossed to Ashton Emigh out of the backfield for a score that made it 21-7 with 3:16 left in the first quarter.

But Central Cambria bounced back behind the running of Snyder. After getting his team to Tyrone’s 34 with a 15-yard run, he broke loose up the middle again for a 33-yard score that cut the lead to 21-13.

Franco said his staff expected Snyder to take snaps at quarterback, but didn’t foresee his penchant for running the option.

“We didn’t expect (Snyder) under center as much, and we didn’t expect him to run veer and veer option,” said Franco. “He’s good. We thought he was their best player on the field last year.”

When the Eagles got the ball back, they drove 67 yards in 5 plays to restore a two-score lead less than two minutes into the second quarter. The dagger came on a 52-yard pass to Adams running a slant, pushing the score to 28-13.

Adams would get one more before halftime, snagging a 9-yard touchdown pass from Walk on a fade with 1:35 left in the second quarter to make it 35-13.

“A lot of it was my offensive line gave me time all night,” Walk said. “My receivers were making plays catching the ball, and that gave us the momentum the whole way.”

After scoring on five of their six first-half possessions, the Eagles stayed hot out of the locker room with a four-play drive to go up 42-13. Woomer started it off with a 22-yard catch, Hoover ran for 17, and Adams capped a series that took less than two minutes with a 23-yard touchdown reception.

Central Cambria coach Don Fyfe, whose team lost two players in last night’s game alone, said part of the problem was a green defense that is learning varsity football on the fly.

“We have inexperienced kids on the back half, and our linebackers tonight weren’t getting the drop that they needed to get in game situations,” said Fyfe. “Tyrone does a great job with play-action. My young kids are aggressive and they came up to stop the run, and we let too much space behind the linebackers. And that’s what killed us.”

Tyrone’s starters got one more score on Walk’s 1-yard run that ended a 54-yard drive with three minutes left in the third quarter.

Sophomore Caleb Whitby put the Eagles over 50 when he scored in the fourth quarter on a 15-yard run.

The victory allowed Tyrone to keep pace with Forest Hills in the District 6 3A playoff race. The Rangers topped Huntingdon last night 48-33, keeping the teams deadlocked in third place.

It also gave Tyrone’s seniors a win in their final game at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field.

“All of us have played here since pee-wee,” Walk said. “It’s definitely sad, but to be able to go out like that and put up 55 in front of our home town, it’s a big win on Senior Night.”

NOTES: The last two games at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field have seen the teams combine for 161 points … Snyder finished with 19 carries for 147 yards but was limited to just 4 in the second half … of the Devils’ 235 total yards, 183 came in the first half … the Eagles stopped 9 plays behind the line of scrimmage.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tyrone                            21 14 13 7 – 55   

Central Cambria          13 0 0 6 – 19

First Quarter

T – Adams 19 pass from Walk (Adams kick) 9:44

C – Snyder 62 run (O’Brien kick) 9:26

T – Hoover 77 run (Adams kick) 8:21

T – A. Emigh 1 pass from Walk (Adams kick) 3:16

C – Snyder 33 run (PAT blocked) 11.3

Second Quarter

T – Adams 52 pass from Walk (Adams kick) 10:07

T – Adams 9 pass from Walk (Adams kick) 1:35

Third Quarter

T – Adams 23 pass from Walk (Adams kick) 10:22

T – Walk 1 run (PAT pass failed) 3:05

Fourth Quarter

T – Whitby 15 run (Adams kick) 7:42

C – Ray 5 run (PAT run failed) 4:16

TEAM STATISTICS                    CC                       T

First downs                                 11                        20

Total yards                                  235                     497

Rushes-yards                             41-205              28-183

Yards passing                              30                        314

Passing (comp.-att.-int.)        2-5-1                  17-18-0

Punts-avg.                                     3-25.3                0-0

Fumbles-lost                               2-0                      1-0

Penalties-yards                         1-5                      3-15

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

Tyrone – Hoover 12-119; Emigh 1-0; Walk 4-29; Whitby 6-36; Robinson 2-4; Zupon 1-(-2); Lucas 1-7; Team 1-(-10). Central Cambria – Snyder 19-147; R. Chappell 7-21;  A. Chappell 9-31; Estep 1-3; Ray 6-7; Stevens 1-(-4).

PASSING

Tyrone – Walk 17-18-314, 5 TDs, 0 Int. Central Cambria – Snyder 0-3-0, 0 TDs, 1 Int.; Contorchik 2-2-30, 0 TDs, 0 Int.

RECEIVING

Tyrone – Adams 8-165; Woomer 4-93; A. Emigh 3-42; Hoover 2-14. Central Cambria – 1-6; Galli 1-24.